My Secret Weapon: Bento Boxes

I have been fortunate this week to have some help, some motivation, some plastic-y goodness to make life a bit easier. What am I talking about? BENTO BOXES (Japanese lunch boxes)!!  I bought A, J, and I each a bento box to hold our lunches and snacks each day. A's is pink and cutesy, mine is red and classy, and J's is white and plain. And manly.

I found them for sale here.

I read about them recently in Feeding Baby Green, and my memory was jogged to one of those "ooh that's cool, I will file it away for later" places in my brain. I had read about them before--maybe even before I was pregnant, as a cool way to pack visually stimulating lunches for kids. You can pack healthy, "pretty", balanced meals that are in perfect proportions since bento boxes are not very big. J's actually is pretty large, but mine and A's are not.

As you start to read about bento boxes, you will surely see that people don't mess around with these.   They really go all out!

IMG found here.

I picked up this book from amazon, but have not delved into it yet. I needed to start slow and simple!

A's is two layers, plus a compartment for a spoon/fork/chopsticks. Mine is the same, and J's is one large box, that has a center divider.
Here is they are....
A-
Her actual one isn't listed anymore- it's a solid pink bag and says petite amie instead of lovely

Me- 

J-

All Things for Sale sent us this one as a thank you for our order (strawberry print)!!

I wasn't going to buy all those cute boxes without any accessories....so here are the other things I bought.

Extra straps- for J's box and for when we only use one box (A and my straps are bigger).

Ham and cheese cutters to make lunches for A that much cuter. So far I used them on an omelet I made for her!

Silicone food cups- cups & hearts- great for holding peas, blueberries, nuts, and sunflower seeds!

Grass food separators.

Next on my Bento shopping list- larger silicone cups and cups with lids for soup, yogurt, cottage cheese, applesauce and other liquid-y food.