Let's Pack Lunch!

I LOVE reading lunch packing blog posts! :)

I love new ideas and I love seeing pictures of cute food organized so neat and tidy in a lunch box. So I'm back to share two more weeks of lunch packing with you, and hopefully not bore you to tears. If so, feel free to skip! ;-)

A couple new pieces of lunch packing gear have been added to the mix: a stainless steel "food jar" (thermal for hot meals or soups, which probably won't get used all that often this year... but I like the option) and a stainless steel water bottle - both by Crocodile Creek through Amazon. This was another lengthy researching task just to find a good beverage container that won't leak all over his backpack but still safely keep beverages cold. When I first started researching, I was looking at Klean Kanteen brand, but those got terrible reviews for leaking. (Bummer. They have really cute ones at Pottery Barn Kids.) I read tons of reviews on lots of different brands, paying particular attention to ease of use for a young child, leakiness and materials it was made of... and finally settled on Crocodile Creek as well as Sigg brands. I selected the Crocodile Creek brand for Will because of the outer space print that was offered and the only complaints on it were that the picture wears off in the dishwasher. But he's only ever taking water anyway, so I don't mind hand washing the steel bottle and I can just throw the black and white lid in the dishwasher. I ordered Sophie a cute, purple, Sigg bottle, but that hasn't come in yet. The food jar has a screw top lid, which isn't all the way on in this picture so it looks kind of open on one side. We haven't used it yet and probably won't use it a ton because it would require forfeiting the convenience of the Planet Box and substituting some other containers/cloth baggies of supplemental food items. But I like having the option for when Will's a little bit older and less... um... clumsy. The water bottle has a flip-top plastic cover over a screw-on lid and pull-up/push-down sipper spout. So far, absolutely no leaking or picture peeling. It's 13.5 oz (hard to find anything smaller that's not a sippy cup) and keeps his beverage cold all the way till the evening when I empty his back pack.

Plus, it tucks perfectly into the elastic pouch on the front of his lunch bag.
So here is a look at the past two weeks of lunch packing.
Monday, September 19th:

Contents: cucumbers, yellow tomatoes and snap peas, cheese cubes and sesame sticks, ants on a log with natural pb, strawberries, homemade rice pudding for dessert. Okay, okay. He doesn't like snap peas anymore - I'll give those a rest. ;-) And he didn't eat the sesame sticks (but later ate them at home) or much of the ants on a log (which he usually loves at home??).

I really think he is just not as hungry as he normally is for lunch because of the snack they get less than an hour before he eats these lunches. He is just consuming less than is typical for him.

Wednesday, September 21:

Contents: apple slices, banana chips and almonds, Weelicious mini sweet potato muffins, broccoli, yellow tomatoes and carrot "coins", chocolate covered raisins.

Friday, September 23:

Contents: pitted cherries, baby dill pickles, red pepper slices, carrots and cucumber, whole wheat tortilla smeared thin with pb, a drizzle of honey and rolled up around a banana, Weelicious homemade graham crackers (hearts and stars).

Monday, September 26:

Contents: banana chips and Weelicious roasted honey and cinnamon chick peas, wheat braid pretzels to dip into Weelicious avocado honey dip, red pepper and cucumber "strips", pitted cherries.

This lunch was eaten the day I came to school for Special Helper, so I got to sit with him and eat a lunch I packed for myself too. It was cool to watch him handling everything (zippers, latches and spouts) with ease and knowing that all my efforts of carefully selecting the right gear were successful. He actually didn't eat much of this lunch but probably because he had 2nd helpings of the snack I brought, which was also pretty substantial and healthy.

Wednesday, September 28th:

Contents: nectarine chunks and grapes, pretzel rods, pb&j stars on wheat bread with homemade strawberry jam, yellow tomatoes and peas (weird combo but he doesn't care), chocolate covered raisins.

Friday, September 30:

Contents: apple chunks, pecans & almonds, sesame sticks, grape & cheese cube kabobs, green pepper strips, Weelicious mini sweet potato muffins, 2 Hershey Kisses.

Can you tell I love Weelicious?