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!