beginner bento

Bento boxes for kids lunches are all the rage (at least in my little world, they are.) I’ve seen so many great photos on Pinterest and Instagram and blogs…..and I was inspired. (Seriously, just check out Keli’s blog and the crazy cute lunches she prepares for her girls. I want to be like her!)

Last week was the first time I didn’t give the baby lunch during the work day – and it happened twice. I came home, but he was napping. Rather than wake him, I ended up preparing his lunch and taking it over to the babysitter’s house. The first day was the worst. He woke up when I went over and he was so sad when he realized he wasn’t coming home with me. The second day it happened, he slept through me coming by.

Tomorrow I have a long day and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to come home for lunch, so I decided that it was time that I send lunch with the baby to daycare. (For anyone doing the math – we’ve been at this for 13 months – the parenthood thing, that is. And he’s been in daycare for 9 of those months.)

On Friday, I did a quick search on Amazon and came across this box set. It’s three boxes nested in one larger box. And the three containers are perfect for his lunches.

Are you ready for a couple of fancy cell phone photos? Here’s his lunch:

And the closed containers.


He has chicken, cheese and fruit (it’s a spinach, blueberry, pear mixture.) I broke everything up for him. I’ve tried giving him the cheese in one strip, but he doesn’t like to bite it off yet. We’re working on it. For now, I just break it up for him and he eats it right up. Also, if I do this much, the babysitter doesn’t have to worry about it (and I worry less, knowing that everything was cut up small enough.) She really only has to heat it all up, and feed him the fruit. Easy peasy.

I know that if I sent him without lunch, he would still be fed, but I’m pretty protective of what he eats. The food above? It’s all organic. I want to know what he’s being fed. And that’s another topic for another day.

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