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Bento-rrific

MOMs Group was fun (and super practical) this morning... After spending a few minutes catching up with some other moms, having uninterrupted conversations over cups of coffee that were still hot while we were drinking them (ANGELS ARE SINGING), we learned about bento lunch boxes and other ideas for getting sometimes-picky toddlers and preschoolers to eat new and healthy foods. After that, we headed for the kitchen and made lunches to bring home with us.

I ended up with one that looked very cool when I made it, but looked like crap by the time I got it home. It involved a two smiley egg men (a hard boiled egg sliced in half) holding mini waffle balloons on thin carrot strings, standing on cucumber grass. Oh, and the waffle balloons had grape-slice polka dots. CUTE. And surprisingly easy.

For my other lunch, I just put together some cucumber and cherry tomato flowers, some bread and cheese and half-meatball sandwich flowers, and some grape halves on skewers. Briony had this one for lunch and she loved it... Who knew that eating the same old stuff in a fun new way would make it that much more exciting for a toddler.

Actually, when I stopped to think about it, I can remember how excited I was when we'd have pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse (or our initials) when I was little. Who am I kidding... My dad totally did that again when I was visiting earlier this year and it STILL made me smile :)

I'm totally inspired to experiment with some of the ideas that Corinna introduced - likely not anything big and crazy, but if even cutting cucumber slices into flowers with a cookie cutter makes it 'special' then I'll totally start adding some fun little touches to Briony's lunch every once in a while. It took *seconds* longer than doing it the regular way. I just added some fun-coloured silicone baking cups and mini cookie cutter sets to my list.

Here are some links to our bento lunch box inspirations:
20 Easy Bento Lunch Boxes
Bento Lunch Ideas

And here's Briony enjoying her lunch today!




I'd call that a look of success. ALL HAIL THE MOTHER OF THE YEAR. Better cheer now, in case this never happens again ;)

Labels: Briony, Food is Yummy, Mommy Stuff, MOMs Group, Photos

posted by Lindsay @ 5:05 PM