I LOVE lunch! It is my favorite meal of the day. I even look forward to the ritual of making school lunches for my boys every morning. I know that this may put me in the minority but I truly find it fun and enjoyable. When I go grocery shopping with the boys, I ask for their input. We almost always pick some sort of melon, and they love choosing the type of crackers they'll have for the week (they're 3 .5 and 1.5 years old, so this is still a big deal). The part I like is figuring out how to make a yummy lunch fit into the five compartments of their awesome lunchboxes (we use Yumbox). I try to switch it up a little throughout the week. Here are a few examples of lunches I've packed recently.
LUNCHBOX IDEA #1. Cream cheese and jelly roll-up sandwich, shredded cheese, strawberries, red peppers, salami
LUNCHBOX IDEA #2. Cantaloupe, kiwi, colby jack (aka two-tone) cheese, oyster crackers, salami, and roasted pumpkin seeds
LUNCHBOX IDEA #3. Cream and cheese and honey roll-up sandwich, yellow watermelon, mini goldfish crackers, apple slices with cinnamon (to mask the brown!), cucumbers, and mini chocolate chips
LUNCHBOX IDEA #4. Kiwi, shredded cheese, cucumbers, oyster crackers, salami
LUNCHBOX IDEA #5. Honeydew, cucumbers, mini goldfish crackers, cream cheese + jelly sandwich, hard boiled egg, and mini chocolate chips
They both get really excited about their lunches and ask to look at them in the morning. Sometimes, if they don’t end up eating everything at school, the leftovers turn into an after-school snack!
As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of the bento-style lunchbox. I find it makes planning easy (think five tiny sections to fill up) while adding a creative twist to lunch-making. If you’re stuck on lunches for your kiddos, you might want to give it a try. Happy packing!