Preschool Snack Bento

As it turns out, my youngest daughter that likes to graze all morning has been famished at school. She was trying to hit up the snack table twice in a morning, which is a no no. Her teacher requested I send an additional snack for her, in case she's hungry. Every morning, she seems to be hungry and comes home with an empty snack bento.

Please don't let this reflect on my breakfast selections, she eats breakfast. I promise!

granny smith apple sprinkled with lemon juice

sharp cheddar cheese

The Classic Returns, Breakfast for Lunch!

I have no qualms with breakfast for dinner or better yet, breakfast for lunch! It's fun to put a twist on a plain old peanut butter and jelly with a waffle. Simple as pop in the toaster and go!

Organic blueberry waffle w/peanut butter & jelly

organic pretzel rods

granny smith apple

kiwi 

Happy New Year, Meet My Favorite Bento Packing Inspiration!

The bento blogosphere is full of such amazing talent. For months now I've been wanting to share one of my favorite bento bloggers, but just haven't seized the moment, until NOW! Sheri is someone I found via Twitter and I instantly started following her blog. Her bento packing style is top on nutrition and amazingly beautiful. I will admit, I am in awe of her! Not only am I inspired by Sheri's bento skills, but she has a wonderful warm hearted spirit. Go check her out!

How to find Sheri:
Happy Little Bento (blog)
Flickr Photostream
Twitter 

Thank you Sheri for allowing me the use of your photo:
Original Photo link from Flickr

Where To Buy Bentos in Los Angeles [w/ Photos]

There's a great little section of Sawtelle Boulevard in West Los Angeles that is referred to as Little Osaka. While you may find yourself wandering around a number of shops in the area, including a great grocery store, I wanted to share the best spot for bento supplies I found.

Tokyo Japanese Outlet is like a dollar store, it's stuffed with all sorts of unique goodies like skin care products, stuffed animals, stationary goods, bento supplies, and many household items. You can see what some folks on YELP enjoy about this particular location. The bento boxes they carry are very plain, but super affordable (average $5 or less). I didn't pick up any bentos, but rather some accessories such as rice molds and small hand towels.

Tokyo Japanese Outlet

West Los Angeles, Sawtelle Center 

2109 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA

Tel: 310-914-5320

Hours of Operation:

Sun-Th 10:00-23:00

Fri & Sat 10:00-24:00

Sometimes Lunch Packing Isn't Awesome!

One of the biggest mistakes of being passionate about packing healthy and cute nutritious lunches Monday through Friday, is not having fresh ingredients on hand. I'm being honest when I say as someone who LOVES packing lunch, it can be dreadful with an empty pantry. This morning it was crunch time to get the girls out the door for school and we were out of bread (well except for 4 heels). I'm not usually thrown back with no bread in the house, I simply reach for a tortilla or pasta leftovers.

No tortillas in the house. No leftover pasta, only stuffed peppers. I just couldn't see packing stuffed pepper leftovers to my 8 year old. Not only did it have a food safety issue, I feared the social impact would've been greater.

I did what anyone does in a pinch, I cut off as much of the hard end of crust as I could and threw together gently crafted a sandwich with almond butter and jelly. I included some frozen edamame and an apple with a little sprinkle of Italian Volcano Lemon Juice (organic) to keep it from turning brown.

Sometimes it feels good to be real and share what I consider to be a pretty lame attempt at lunch. It helps me want to do better because I know I can. Today definitely would've been a hot lunch day for my girl if the options weren't a hot dog or cheesy broccoli baked potato, two things she snubbed!

Mom, I Need A Break From Carrots

I've always wanted to post a photo collage on Fridays of what my daughter's bento looks like when it arrives home everyday. At her school, they aren't allowed to dump leftovers in the compost from lunches that were brought from home. I'm not sure if this is a new rule or if it's even a rule, it's just what my daughter has mentioned. So I believe what comes home to be a true representation of how she ate that day.

The only problem I have with posting "how'd she do" today photos is that I actually have to follow through with taking them. I'm not so good with that. I see a lunch box return home and I just want to get it into the sink. I'm going to work on my follow through because I do find leftovers interesting.

I recently purchased a 10lb bag of EarthBound Organic Farms carrots from my wholesale club. I feel like we have carrots coming out of our ears, which also may be represented by the photo below.

While I love Laptop Lunches for their waste free component, sometimes something like a squeezable organic applesauce sneaks into a lunch. It's rare, but usually a indicative of what's lacking in my refrigerator or fruit bowl. 

I swear that hot dog is a penguin... Bento

Back in March I picked up two different hot dog shape makers. One turns a hotdog into a penguin, the other into a crab. Today I tried the penguin, can't you tell...

Organic chicken hotdog, bun, organic ketchup (joyful bear)

strawberry hearts

veggie booty

red pepper flowers

raspberries