After my baby goes down for the night, I make my daughter’s lunch for the next day. It used to be a chore, but now it’s turned into a fun activity between my daughter and I. Don’t get me wrong. It can be a pain sometimes especially after a long day and ESPECIALLY when I don’t have leftovers. You know, there are days I just want to kick up my feet right after work and turn on the tv and not move for a few hours. But because Lila enjoys this time, I end up having fun with it because it gives us some bonding time before she goes to bed.

When I don’t have leftovers, that’s when the creativity has to kick in. I need to take a few seconds and look in my fridge to see what I can feed my picky eater! We gather around my kitchen island, and it’s SO nice not to drag one of my kitchen chairs to the island because she can sit on one of our stools! I take out my small collection of cutters and molds, and we then proceed… 

Proteins are the easiest for me because that’s what she loves. Bacon, crab meat, hard-boiled egg, cheese, chicken, ham, turkey, sausage, etc. I can always count on her eating a ham and cheese sandwich, PB&J, BLT without the T, or turkey and cream cheese. I have a few sandwich cutters, but I just purchased these to make bite sized sandwiches…

 

All things for sale is a cute site I stumbled across when perusing Pinterest for bento ideas. Anything Bento related, you will find here! These sandwich cutters can double up as cutters for her cheese! I buy mild cheddar cheese slices and have her do the cut outs. She knows that when we do cheese shapes, she can eat the leftover trim. The little things that make her happy…

Look at those adorable egg molds! Who wouldn’t want to eat a hard-boiled egg in the shape of a rabbit? Eggs are my go to protein when I don’t have anything else because they are a winner in her book, so I had to add this to my cart.

Another lunch idea I do often is rice with seaweed with a protein. I had to purchase these Bento Nori Cutter Punchers. Smiley face seaweed on my rice – cuteness overload!!!! I pack this the morning of and include some crab meat, sausage, or spam bites with it.

On to Veggies. SIGH. My youngest chows down on broccoli. She’ll eat carrots for days. Kale chips…she’ll eat an adult size serving if I don’t stop her. Lila, on the other hand, needs her sauce with her veggies which is fine but that can either be a hit or miss too. She’s been on a carrot/ranch phase, so I’ve been sending her to school daily with carrots and a container too big to hold ranch sauce but I don’t have anything else to use. Had to add this to my cart as well -

Mini salad dressing/dipping sauce containers. Perfect! Aren’t their designs too cute? No more ketchup packets when packing up chicken nuggets!!! 

On to Fruit. Even bigger SIGH! My oldest is not a fruit person either. What gives? Don’t all kids like fruit? She would prefer to eat meats over fruit. Maybe she has a savory palette? I can count on apples and anything in the berry family (sometimes). I cut small bites and put them in cupcake silicone liners. Look at these silicone holders in fun shapes!

Decided to opt out of buying these since I have my stash of rainbow silicone cupcake liners that do the job. But if I didn’t, I would be all over these! They have a whole section of silicone food cups which is great to use because they are reusable and washable.  

And last but not least, food picks. I don’t think Lila is mature enough to understand that these food picks are for her to use in lieu of a fork. She’ll stick the whole thing in her mouth and think it’s funny. I stopped sending these in her bento box. Maybe when she gets older, she’ll appreciate these cute picks.

 

 

They have alphabet food picks, HK food picks, flower food picks, rocket ship ones…wouldn’t these be so cute to use for a birthday party?

And as for the remaining food groups which includes grains and dairy, she usually gets this throughout the day noshing on wheat bread, rice, milk for breakfast and dinner and a frozen yogurt for dessert. Anything frozen means it’s a treat for her!

Having her help is a big plus. I’m trying to get her to understand we need to eat foods from every food group. Whether she eats it or not is up to her. She knows how I feel when her lunch box comes home and her veggies and fruit are untouched!

Can’t wait to show you guys my new gadgets when they come in the mail!

-lil sis