Lunch/Snack Ideas

My 2.5 year-old toddlers are probably pretty typical in how much they fluctuate in food likes and dislikes. One week avocado is in, only to be soundly rejected the next when hummus is suddenly the favorite food with no prior warning. They also appreciate opportunities to exercise their power of choice, as in “I want this, not that.” Given this, I like to offer a little variety and let them pick and choose what they want to eat. (The operative word being "little" and not an endless menu of choices.)

So I've found these bento box style food containers work great for snack and lunch. The girls each get their own and can pick and choose what they want. And it's only one container to wash for each of them. I got these for $1.75 each at Ichiban Kan.



Ichiban Kan (which means "different things") is a Japanese dollar store on San Pablo in El Cerrito. This store carries all sorts of ridiculously cute and practical food containers, from plastic tupperwares to tiered bento boxes and food decorating items like the little fake plastic “grass” food dividers you find in take out sushi or food cutters to make silly shapes out of a sandwich or lunch meat. The possibilities are endless, and I have recently been inspired by this blog I came across, The Week in Bento, where a mother records the bento box variations she packs for her son’s snacks. She often uses just a container with a silicone muffin tin liner to divide the food and food coloring markers to decorate rolls and rice:



The star and teddy bear were made out of left over rice using a Japanese food mold like the ones you can find at Ichiban Kan.
(photos courtesy of http://wendolonia.com/blog/category/bentos/)

What kid wouldn’t love opening up their snack to see this?