A Week's Worth of Lunches

I've not felt very creative with the kids' lunches lately. I haven't really tried anything new or fun. No themed lunches (not that I do those very often, anyway). I've been very busy lately, and the general busy-ness won't end for at least another month, so it's a good thing the kids don't needfancy lunches. They've been bringing home empty lunch boxes more often than not lately, so I'd say they are pretty happy.

As a result of said busy-ness, the blog posts are a bit slower, too. I'm combining most of last week's lunches into one big post - I'll do a separate post about Valentine's Day - and then I'll try catching up with a few other posts in the next few days (oh, and a post about the winner of mygiveaway).

Mister J was home with a fever on Monday, so I only packed one lunch. Tuesday was his "24 fever-free hours before returning to school" day, so again I was one lunch short. However, I don't get back home for lunch on Tuesdays, so I packed mine as well that day.

Monday

Yogurt, shelled edamame, blueberry bar (so easy to make these!), ham and cheese pinwheels

Tuesday - Miss M

Yogurt, granola, half of a clementine, hummus, carrots, ham and cheese sandwich (1/2 sized)

Did you notice the small yellow container holds the granola that goes on the yogurt in the large container? And that the hummus in the orange container goes with the carrots? Cool, eh? I planned it like that.

Tuesday - Mom

Pumpkin-chocolate chip bar nestled in the top corner, salsa (also easy to make!), rest of the clementine, granola, yogurt, tortilla chips

This was the first lunch I packed for myself in the bento 2.0, and I enjoyed the flexibility of having so many small (and lidded) containers. I found the lids a little tough to get on, but I'm expecting that'll work itself out over time. I had plenty to eat (and even shared with Miss M since I eat after I pick her up from school), but should have packed more protein. I got hungry before dinner.

On to Wednesday... I'm sure I've mentioned before that Mister J has snack time each afternoon. We pack that in addition to his lunch. Sometimes it's all in the lunchbox, sometimes it's separate. Today, it was in the box. While my intention was that the cheese and crackers were his snack, who knows what he actually saved for snack time. It's never quite what I intended, but I guess all that matters is that he's eating healthy!

Wednesday -Mister J

Half sandwich (looks like soybutter, really don't remember), half clementine and strawberries, cheese and crackers, carrots with dip (probably roasted red pepper hummus)

Wednesday - Miss M

Half sandwich, strawberries (she loves to eat them whole), half clementine, carrots with dip.

Her lunch was perhaps a bit heavy on the fruit, but I'm using up what I've got!

Thursday - Mister J

Ham (turkey?) and cheese sandwich on an everything bagel thin, carrots and cucumbers with dip, applesauce, clementine. Again, his snack is in the box with his lunch. Did you notice that this isn't his normal lunch box? He's using my 2.0 to keep from squishing the sandwich (even though it's on a bagel thin!). He ended up with too much food - even though there's not much difference in size, I overpacked....

Thursday - Miss M

Half sandwich on a bagel thin, applesauce (that blends right in to the yellow container), shelled edamame, half clementine

I think the Wednesday and Thursday (and especially Wednesday) photos are good examples of how the portions are different for Miss M and Mister J. It's not much, but it makes the difference in empty boxes in the afternoon or leftovers that I end up tossing out (because they have gotten too warm).

Whew - four days! Did you hang in there? Wow - thanks! I love posting these - I hope you are still enjoying them!