Carbs, Anyone?

Well, all I can say is -- I promise to get more fresh produce tomorrow. Honest. The fact that everything in the kids' lunches is the same colour is pretty telling. Except for the grapes. At least they're somewhat nutritious.

Today the kids have Teddy Grahams, Ritz Bits, breadsticks, mini chocolate chip cookies, yougurt and grapes, with water to drink. Top it all off with a ham sandwich and the carbohydrate value of these lunches is pretty high. Oh well. It's all about how they eat over the week anyway, right?

Monday Morning

Why are Monday mornings always so hard? It's hard to get up, let alone get back into the routine after two days (or in our case, three days) of slacking off. The lunches today contain very little in the way of fruits or veggies. Shopping day is on Wednesday and it's very obvious when you take a look in our fridge. The man of the house has the day off, so no packed lunch for him. The kids have basically the same lunch today -- water to drink, grapes, yougurt, 4 mini chocolate chip cookies, Ritz bits, veggie chips, and Craisins. The top layer has ham tornados, which are more commonly known as tortilla & ham rolls, cheese triangles and Bacon Dipper crackers.

Perchance Were You ... Pressed For Time?

This morning was a little bit rushed. My alarm likely went off at the right time, but I probably shut it off in my sleep (instead of just hitting the snooze button), and I continued in my unconscious bliss for another 45 minutes. It's amazing what a difference of 45 minutes will make. However, lunches were made, breakfast was eaten, and kids were dressed all the same. My cup of coffee is cold though. And yet, I continue to drink it. Hmmm.

Both kids were well enough for school (yay!!), so I was very happy to be making three lunches today. Kid #1 got grapes, Craisins, chocolate-coated graham crackers, a mini yougurt, cantelope, a mini Hershey bar, and a mini croissant, cut in half to fit in. Fruit punch and his ham & cheese finished it off. Kid #2 got celery (the only fruit or vegetable he'll even think about eating), mini Ritz, chocolate graham crackers, mini Smarties, and a container of cheese and crackers. He's got water to drink (because he doesn't like any juice that's not purple) and a ham sandwich.

Hubby got a ham sandwich (slightly visible underneath on the left side), two mini croissants, chocolate graham crackers, two gherkins (which I made sure to put a lid on), a BabyBel, a mix of raw broccoli and celery, and of course, a container of ranch dressing.

We were calculating how much money we've been saving in Ziploc bags by packing lunches in this pseudo-Bento style, and it's amazing how it adds up. We figured we used about 5 bags per lunch per day. That's 75 a week! Just thinking of what we're keeping out of the landfill is very encouraging.

Lunch, Interrupted

Usually my lunch preparation time is an uninterrupted half hour right before I wake the kids up for breakfast. Today, not so uninterrupted. Two out of three decided to get up with the sun this morning. Room darkening shades might be a good idea ... As a result, today's lunches contain food that requires as little prep as possible. Which, now that I think about it, can't be all that bad.

Sick kid remains sick today, so only two lunches had to make it out the door. Although sick kid really wanted me to make a bento lunch for him in spite of the fact that he's not going to school today. I narrowly avoided that argument by promising to make him one later.

Healthy kid got all of his favourites today: Craisins, chocolate-coated graham crackers, two mini croissants, mini yougurt, cantelope chunks, peas in the pod, fruit punch, and a tiny box of Smarties. I tucked in a tiny spoon and fork for the yougurt and melon. And oh yes, we can't forget the ham & cheese sandwich (no substitutes please). The only prep in his box was chopping the cantelope and making his sandwich. Easy Peasy!

Hubby, surprisingly enough, didn't eat his celery sticks yesterday because there was no ranch to dip them in. Hmmm. So, I refrigerated them overnight and sent them today -- with the requisite container of ranch. I packed his sandwich on the bottom today (cut in half diagonally so that it would fit without squishing). On top is a BabyBel, mini croissant, chocolate graham crackers, and a container of cream cheese for the bagel. The bagel and a little spreader fit perfectly above the celery & dip. The little containers with blue lids fit perfectly in these boxes when I'm layering food. It's taken quite awhile to find ones that are the perfect size, but I found them at my local Dollarama (8 for $1!).

All in all, not bad lunches for being made while getting breakfast, breaking up fights and wiping noses at the same time!

Quick & Easy

Today's lunches were relatively easy. With one kid home sick, I only had to make two lunches. My husband's lunch was pretty simple: a can of soup (which fits in the box quite nicely), a sandwich and some celery sticks (visible below the sandwich).
Usually I throw in a small container of ranch dressing to use as dip, but this morning I discovered we're all out of ranch dressing -- in our house, this constitutes a small emergency. However, to avoid wide-spread panic, I kept our shortage to myself. I'll replenish our supply later today, and with any luck, no one will be the wiser. If hubby notices the conspicuous absence in his lunch, I'll fall back on the tried and true "Mommy Brain".

The healthy kid (as opposed to the one that had to stay home because of non-stop nasal discharge) got a bit of a treat today in the form of a Hallowe'en size Hershey bar (nut-safe, of course). He also got some melon chunks, grapes, mini Ritz crackers, carrot sticks, peas, and a yougurt drink. He also got some fruit punch and a ham & cheese sandwich (his favourite!).
Both kids always have a separate bottle of water that goes in the outside pocket of their backpack, for easy access. The Lock & Lock box fits perfectly in their lunch bags, which are actually different sizes. I bought new ice packs last night, and they seem to fit in there quite well too, without adding too much extra bulk. At less than $1 at Walmart, you can't go wrong!

First Things First ...

Most Bento packers will likely tell you that the container is everything. It determines what and how much you can pack. I've stumbled across these containers from Lock & Lock (after looking at many, many, many different ones) and they are absolutely perfect for what I need to pack. Everyone's needs are different of course, but I would suggest that if you have school-aged kids, take a look at this one.

My criteria was that the container had to fit in the lunch bags we had already bought for the kids, their reuseable juice boxes had to fit inside, and there had to be no need to use ziploc bags or any other disposable items. This box fits the bill perfectly. I made a horizontal divider for each box -- I just cut a transparent, flexible cutting board from the dollar store to fit in one section. This way I can layer items and fit more food in (and "more" is generally the main idea with my growing kids!).

Here's how I usually pack it: on one side, the reuseable juice box (from Rubbermaid), along with a yogurt drink, peas in the pod, carrot sticks & dip, or whatever else is sturdy enough not to get crushed by the juice box. On the other side, usually four silicone muffin baking cups line the bottom, each containing either cut fruit, cheese, crackers or cookies. I lay my homemade horizontal divider on top of that, and put in the sandwich or wrap. If there's room, I tuck in some rice cakes, a Baby Bel or breadsticks to keep everything in place. I find that giving the kids smaller amounts of a greater variety of food usually means they'll eat more over all, and they're also more likely to eat the healthy stuff along with the treats. The fringe benefit is that everything goes right back in the box when they're finished, which means no more missing containers!

Welcome!

Welcome to the first ever Everyday Bento blog! I'm new to bento-making, but already I've learned a ton through trial and error and through seeing what others do. This is where I'll document the learning process ...