Welcome to our first in a series of blog posts about Happy Lunches { and treats and snacks }. If you are a new reader you might like to catch up on our philosophy of clean eating over here. Mel and I are writing these posts together so some weeks you will hear from both of us and other weeks just one or the other.
First up let's talk about lunch boxes.
I know the topic has been done forever -at the start of every new year of school- freeze a popper, drink bottle, make it the night before etc I don't mean that - I'm talking about the actual lunch box itself.
I lived in Japan for a year and my host mother would pack me an obentoo lunch every day for school. They were serious works of art. I am all for creative but first thing in the morning or late at night - umm not so much.
I needed to get some sort of system happening that meant my two would be enjoying their lunches more - and maybe move past the fact that they no longer had a LCM bar, sugar filled yoghurt, chocolate muffin and ham and cheese sandwich in their containers.
Enter the obentoo concept without it being too tricky.
I am fortunate to have a Japan Mart in Southport - it's a newish concept here in Australia a bit like the 100en stores in Japan ( everything is one hundred yen ) Here they are $2.80. They have all sorts of great bits for obentoo for just $2.80 each. I managed to get the little winnie the pooh lunch box ( that has their savoury stuff in ) I do a second one too with sweet or fruit bits. I also found the egg shapers - you boil and egg and pop them in and they come out in the shape of the container. Cute tooth picks for holding things together, the silicone molds and also the little cutters.
So what if you don't have a $2.80 store?
With the exception of the egg molds which you can buy on line if you want to, you can easily substitute.
Just get toothpicks from the grocery store - there are all different ones.
Baking moulds also available in woolies or coles - or failing that get some paper ( foil would be better ) muffin or cupcake liners, and some shape cutters that you would use for cookies.
Lunch boxes - get a small plastic container - tupperware kmart target $2 store doesn't need to be winnie the pooh. Small is better trust me on this.
The other tip I have is put all the bits inside one big container or basket - so you can readily take that out of the cupboard when you go to prepare lunch.
I just chop things up smaller and they have a much larger variety than what they used to - inside each little cup I put a few bits, on the toothpicks I'll add other things and they munch away. Smaller amounts with an increased range is working perfectly for us.
Here was todays lunch box
- Leftover Stirfry chicken and baby corn
- Zuchini sticks
- Pepitas
- Boiled Egg
- Cherry Tomato
- Cheese
and
- Kiwi Fruit
- Blood Orange
- Blueberries
- Strawberries
- Cherries
Sesame Snacks ( sesame seeds, glucose syrup and sugar ) I'll share some of the other "clean" "processed" foods that we use in another post soon - this is one of the few that has sugar in it. as well I throw into their lunch sack an apple or banana and a yoghurt. While this may seem like a huge amount of fruit it's actually not - One strawberry three cherries 1/4 kiwi fruit some berries 1/4 of an orange - it adds up to about one serve. But it's a rainbow of variety.
Don't forget to pop over to Mels blog - she has the cutest lunch box system ever.
