Cafe Munchkin

My little girl is on her second week in Kindergarten.  Unlike in pre-school, however, we now have the option for a cafeteria lunch.  In her 2 years in pre-school, she was required to bring a healthy packed lunch from home.  And by healthy, the school meant no chips, cookies, lunchables and chocolate of any kind including milk.  I’d say I had fairly good practice in preparing my daughter’s school lunches, so much so that her teachers always tease me about making packed lunches for them, too. :)

Hubby and I included our 5-year old school girl in the decision making process involving her lunch.  We presented to her with the two options, a packed lunch from home or a cafeteria lunch.  She chose the former.  Still, I made sure there’s money in her school meal card for emergencies, i.e., in case I ignore the alarm one morning and fail to make her lunch. :)

I thought it would be nice to get back to doing bento-style lunches.  Being a newbie, my bentos aren’t as cute as those of the experts.  Here are the ones I managed to take photos of:

Shu-mai/Sio mai Bento

During the first few days of school, my daughter only wanted sushi, until she got tired of them and wanted dimsum for a change. :)  There’s always fruit in her lunch, sometimes in another food container.  And I always make it a point to “try” to include veggies in the hope that one day, she will actually eat them. :)

Spam Musubi Bento

We just love spam musubi! ;)

Shrimp Balls Bento

These shrimp balls are home-made.  The only way my daughter would eat rice is if they were in sushi form.  So I snuck in some rice in the shape of a flower, wrapped it in nori and sprinkled some furikake on top.

The day my daughter had this shrimp balls bento for lunch, I thought I’d make bento lunches for hubby and me, too!

One for Hubby….

One for me…

In case you’re looking for the rice, they’re underneath the shrimp balls. :) I like these containers very much.  And mind you, they are BPA and phthalates free! ;)

Garden Farfalle Bento

Who said bento lunches always have to be in a box-type container? ;)  My daughter loves farfalle, more popularly known as bow-tie pasta.  This food jar promised to keep food warm for upto 7 hours.  So I opted to use this instead of our usual food containers.

Packed lunches aren’t just for school kids.  I know quite a number of people who bring their own lunch to the office (none of whom are rv insurance agents!).   You might ask, why do I even bother making these lunches when a $2 cafeteria lunch seem more practical?  Because I want to and because I have fun in the process.  I also get an idea how much my daughter actually eats in school.  And most importantly, my daughter wants me to! ;)

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This entry was posted by munchkinmommy on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Packed Lunch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.