8/31

17 yo DD-
2 triangle shaped onigiri with carrot flowers on top. Hard boiled egg, cucumber slices, cheese squares and a few apple slices with the cores cut out that I stuffed with small red grapes. Not pictured is a plum and a small bowl of GF corn chips.

15 yo DS-
Pretty much exactly what the 17yo got. Notice the lil yellow fork in the cheese? I found a container of vintage olive forks at the thrift store for 99c! They're the perfect size for small bento foods.

7 yo DD-
2 flower shaped hard boiled eggs. celery with sun butter, peaches, cheese squares and apples like the teen agers got. She also had her usual full fat yogurt and an orange for afternoon snack.
In this picture her peaches look kinda lame and bruised. Just before sending her off to school I opened the box and inspected them in person, I asked her if they were ok and she said "yummy!" after tasting one. They didn't seem bruised to the naked eye, but the camera maybe picks up things we don't I guess.

8/30

This lunch was packed by my 7 yo DD. She got to pick everything that went inside, and I must say that I think she did a darn good job!
2 Hard boiled eggs, celery with cream cheese, cherry tomatoes on a stick, cucumber slices, red grapes. In the tiger bowl she cut flower shaped cheese. Afternoon snack is a bowl of full fat yogurt and red plum.

Often times my teenagers will ask for dinner left overs in their lunches. I don't usually photograph those because they aren't very pretty :) So if you see just the 7yo lunch posted you can safely assume my teens picked left overs that day. Which is fine by me, because that tells me I must be doing something right with my dinners since they seem to want them again!

8/29

7 yo DD- Ham rolls, flower shaped cheese, cherry tomatoes and black olives on sticks, strawberries and kiwi, and a small Gluten free cookie.
 Not pictured is a bowl of full fat yogurt and sliced apples for afternoon snack.

8/26

For my 17yo DD-
Gluten Free/Nitrate Free polish sausage, lightly sauteed zucchini, black olives and cheese on sticks, red and green grapes, red bell pepper slices. Small bowl of blueberries and cantaloupe. Not pictured was a pear for snack.

15 yo DS- Gluten Free/ Nitrate Free polish sausages, lightly sauteed zucchini, cherry tomatoes and cheese on sticks, red and green grapes. Small bowl of blueberries and cantaloupe. Not pictured is an orange for snack.

7 yo DD- Gluten Free/ Nitrate Free polish sausages, sauteed zucchini, black olives and cheese on sticks, a bowl of berries, green bell peppers and cherry tomatoes, celery with cream cheese.
Not pictured is a bowl of full fat organic yogurt and a small clementine for afternoon snack.

You will probably notice that most if not all of my lunches will contain the same or similar ingredients each day. If your kids have similar tastes like mine do, packing the same things will make your lunch prep time go much faster.

Each lunch also contains a reusable water bottle, cloth napkin and silverware. I pack trash free lunches so I tell my kids "everything goes back into the lunch box and comes home" even if I happen to put something small in that has packaging.

8/25

For my 15 yo DS-

Ham rolls, black olives and cheese on fish shaped stick, cheese cut into the shape of a fish and some cheese "bubbles?" I dunno. I needed to use up the last bit of cheese, heh. Celery with cream cheese with baby tomatoes under, fresh fruit mix of strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Extra not pictured was an orange.

This is for my 17yo DD.
Ham rolls, butterfly shaped cheese made from heart cookie cutters, kiwi slices, celery with cream cheese and some black olives under. A mix of berries with a flower fork. Extra not pictured an orange.

Finally we have lunch for the 7yo DD.
Ham rolls with a butterfly shaped cheese, black olives and cheese on flower sticks and a sliced strawberry. Cream cheese on celery and cherry tomatoes under. Fruit mix of blackberry, raspberry and kiwi. Extra not pictured is full fat yogurt for afternoon snack.

8/24

This is for my 17yo DD.

3 flower shaped Onigiri with red bell pepper shaped flowers on top. Hard boiled egg, cheese on sticks, cantaloupe balls, red bell pepper and cucumber slices. In the smaller container we have spaghetti squash with cheese. 

My oldest two are in High School so they have access to a microwave. Sometimes I will pack foods for them to heat up before eating.

Same day lunch for 7yo DD.

Cat shaped onigiri with Nori slices for whiskers and mouth, red and green bell peppers for eyes and nose. Tomato slices, cucumber slices, hard boiled egg, cheese on flower sticks and a mixture of cantaloupe and blueberries.

8/23

Lunch for 7yo DD.
Blueberries,cheese on animal sticks,carrot flowers,broccoli,hard boiled egg,half of a plum,"fancy" cucumber slices

and oranges for afternoon snack.

On the same day we had playgroup with my local Moms group. My 3yo DS also got a bento lunch.

Hard boiled egg, plum slices, celery with peanut butter and tiny chocolate chips, carrot flowers on fishy sticks. Cheese slices on animal sticks and a mixture of peaches and blueberries with a flower fork. He ate everything except the egg yolk.

8/22

Lunch for 7yo DD.

On the left we have cucumber slices, red bell pepper, cantaloupe flowers and plantain slices.
On the right we have teddy bear cheese, broccoli, carrot flowers and thin sliced pork chops (left over from dinner the night before)
In a separate container she also had  full fat organic yogurt with peach slices. And a cheese stick and clementine orange for afternoon snack.

Blue box is a cheap "bento" box I bought from our local Asian Marketplace. Flower sticks and veggie cutters were also purchased there.

8/19

This is for my 7yo DD.

Ham rolls, teddy bear cheese, small plum, cantaloupe, red bell peppers. Yogurt with raw coconut and for afternoon snack a small orange and plum.
This lunch included a lot of fruit. Normally it would not contain so much, but we had an abundance of fruit that needed to get eaten soon and  my 7yo helped to pack.

Notes- I lay most food stuff on either a Kale leaf or Lettuce leaf. I think it just adds a little something. Sometimes my 7yo will actually eat the lettuce, she loves salad. Cookie cutters are used for making shapes in cheeses. And my yogurt is always organic full fat.

Getting Started!

Welcome to my little corner of Bento happiness. Here I will post pictures and descriptions of lunches I pack for my 4 children. Three of them are school aged the youngest stays home with me, but he still likes his bento lunches which he calls "snack trays".

To answer a few questions I've been asked recently.

Why Primal?
We follow a mostly Paleo diet, however because we still do dairy including cheeses, milk, yogurt, sometimes rice for the kids and other "non Paleo but maybe Primal foods" I guess we are more Primal than Paleo. I may change the title of the blog at some point because I try to avoid labels and so the "rules" change often for me. I never was one to follow all the rules anyhow.

Whats Bento?
Wiki says Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.
I say Bento is a fun way to get my kids to eat healthful foods. I dunno about your kids but mine will eat dang near ANYTHING on a stick! So I take a few extra minutes each evening to make their lunches just a little more exciting.

Are you a Bento expert?
Heck no! Gosh I am just starting out! There are many many blogs out there dedicated to some amazing and beautiful Bento lunches! Most of my photographs are snapped from my cell phone. Sometimes I break out the "real" camera for them, but I don't usually have time since I have to pack 3 different lunches each night before bed.
However, I am more than happy to share my pictures, descriptions and any advice on shortcuts, recipes, helpful hints that I've learned along the way!

How old are your kids, what are their names?
My children are 17, 15, 7 and 3. Two girls and two boys.
Their names? Isn't that a little personal? :)

I will refer to them by DD for (darling daughter) or DS for (darling son) followed by their ages to keep them apart.

Any more questions?
Lets get onto the pictures! Yay!