How it all Be(nto)gan... - More Than Your Average Mom

I love my kids, I enjoy cooking, but I hate, hate, HATE making my kids lunches! That is until I discovered the wonderful world of Bento!!

Now, I should preface this post by saying that I’ve been amazingly lucky in that my kids, for the majority of their daycaring lives have attended a daycare that provides meals, not just lunch either!! I’m talking breakfast, lunch and two snacks!! It was bliss I tell ya! My only responsibility in the mornings was to simply dress, and drop my kids off on time (which really was a feat in itself!).

Then… Life changed… I got a new job and the kids had to change daycare. Amongst other disappointments with this daycare (sadly there were many), they didn’t provide lunches. So I embarked on the late night curse-fests with my empty fridge trying to figure out what my kids could/would eat the next day. It seemed my efforts were often in vain because time and again I’d pick up my kids and they’d have their half eaten lunches in tow with a daycare explanation of how they didn’t like what I sent and need to send something different, or alternatively they’d have licked their glad lunch containers clean and I would get told by the ladies that I need to send more food… Talk about the most frustrating process in the world! Day one I send my entire pantry and nothing gets eaten, and day two I send a reasonable amount of food, and I am clearly neglecting my children by not feeding them adequately… Ugh…

After months of hating this process things changed again, for the good this time!! I got a new job and the kids were able to go to an amazing new daycare that wasn’t only close to home with amazing staff, but it provided lunches!! Horray!! Back to the glorious days of only having to dress and drop off my kids in the mornings!!

Then, once again it all changed. Just when we were getting into a nice routine we moved. Now don’t get me wrong, this move is an excellent one! I mean, how could a move to a better neighborhood, bigger house, and daycare/school at the end of the street not be a good one, right?!? … You guessed it… Back to no lunches… Not only are we going to no lunches. We’re also going to a peanut free daycare during a time where my kids are living on PB&J’s.

If you’ve made it this far then congrats… Here I intended for this to be a short little summary post, but alas, my babbling has gotten the best of me again!

So, after stumbling upon a variety of bento related blogs on pinterest, I decided “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”!! And since I am going to inevitably have to make lunches until my kids move out that I can at least have fun while doing it! Being the proud little peacock that I was of my first bento creation, I took to Facebook to show it off. Prompted by friends I’ve now started this blog in hopes to inspire others to discover the fun that can be had in making creative (some days more than others!) lunches for your kids.

So… Without further ado, my first ever bento lunch!

In this bento: Tahini and Jelly sammies cut with animal punch, faces are drawn on with edible pen. Letter Pretzels and raisins in the cups, heart and star shaped eggs shaped with egg molds, carrot and pickle slices on the animal picks. Sides are yogurt, rice crispies (for breakfast), and juice