Miss Girl has gotten some fancy new ideas from her public schoolmates. packed lunch? yes. packed lunch. and just like that, yesterday, i became a mom who packs lunches. not every day, mind you. i’m not insane. but i have agreed to do it once or twice a week. and i did buy the stupid dinosaur lunch bag, for god’s sake. and the sippy cup, too. damn me.
so for this first go-round, i went pretty basic. actually, i just made exactly what Miss Girl asked for. turkey, ham and cheese (orange cheese, Mommy!) sandwich, peas, apple sauce and fruit snacks. lucky for us, my dad left an icepack in our freezer on his last visit. i filled the sippy cup with ice for extra refrigeration pre-lunch and ice water during. she was thrilled. it actually only took about 7 minutes to do. and for just a brief moment, i thought wow, i could totally do this more than twice a week. and then i came to my senses.
at any rate, it got me thinking about what else i could pack (and what assortment of tupperware and sundry accoutrements i’ll need to purchase). so i started looking for ideas. i know better than to think i’m going to be that mom who chefs up an adorable bento box with homemade, flower-shaped, gluten-free, organic morsels inside, but i thought just maybe i could get a little more creative.
so i put kids lunch ideas into the Google machine and this is some of what came out. lord help those among us who aren’t Gwyneth Paltrow. and thank my lucky stars, the request for tomorrow is simply soy butter and jelly. (no, it won’t be rolled and cut like sushi.)
okay, for real? asparagus and gruyère panini? um . . . not my 4 year old’s cup of tea, but some of these may be options for others.
these look suspiciously like 21 Easy Lunches to Take to Work. they didn’t even re-shoot any of it to look like it was trying to be kid-friendly. wah-wah.
Kid-Approved Lunches (Food Network) which kids approved these? oh. right. the kids of the Food Network chefs that created them. sigh.
those first two make these bentos feel totally easy and normal! i may have a future here . . .
and, finally, there’s the Pinterest preschool lunchbox collection. apparently, if you put your child’s food into plain old ziplock bags instead of sectioned tupperware, subsectioned by silicone cupcake liners, (duh), you’re doing it all wrong. i haven’t felt this bad about my food-to-school game since the competitive cupcaking of 2012. jeez.
okay. and now i’m going to just breathe. and bolster my arguments for more school lunches.