Last week my oldest daughter, J, went back to school, she started 1st grade. She was thrilled, I cried. It makes me so happy that she is excited for school but it is bittersweet to think that my baby girl is growing up so fast. 
She is still so little, she is the shortest kid in her class and I’m pretty sure her grade. She is also one of the youngest because her birthday is in May. My youngest daughter, E, is two years younger and pretty much the same size!
One of the ways that I am a modern mommy is how they eat. I am very particular about their diets, they have only had fast food (other than pizza) maybe 4 times in their lives and that is when we are on road trips and have no other way to feed them. They don’t drink soda or even juice, they very rarely have processed foods. And while I do allow treats in the for of cookies, cake, etc. it is always homemade and I am able to control exactly what is in it. I guess that it’s not very modern at all actually 🙂 I love to cook and I love to bake, I pride myself in that we have home cooked meals 99% of the time and most things are from scratch. I take some short cuts, such as buying the steam-able frozen veggies, but for the most part I do everything from scratch.
This year is J’s first year going to school all day, she was in half-day kindergarten, so she is having lunch for the first time at school. I had always known that I would be packing their lunches every day, school lunches are terrible and not to mention EXPENSIVE! I knew that I would prefer to spend 10 minutes in the evening preparing her a nutritious, real lunch than to let her eat that garbage they try to pass off as food. Granted, hot lunch has gotten better since I ate it but not by much.
I had been checking out ideas for cold lunches on pinterest since I knew she (and I) would get bored with a sandwich every day. I came across Bento Box lunches. They are so cool and you can do some really fun things with them. I like that everything she takes is reusable, I didn’t want to have to buy plastic bags and stuff like that. I purchased a kit from Laptop Lunches http://secure.laptoplunches.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=K830%2DPLUM&eq=&Tp= this is the one she got. I like that it had an extra compartment for her snack and that the handles were situated in a way that would keep the bento box upright. The bag is insulated and it stays pretty cool, a fork and spoon are included.
she loves it, its a little big for her but it should last a few years. I will be chronicling my first year in bento box making, maybe I can get as good as the Japanese moms who make Hello Kitty rice balls!
here is what she has had for lunch this week
monday
Orzo pasta salad, mandarin orange, cherry tomatoes, ham, pretzels.
Tuesday
I didn’t take a picture, but she had leftover popcorn chicken from the night before, carrots and tomato, yogurt pretzels, and a babybel cheese
Wednesday
peanut butter and jelly hearts, pretzels, string cheese, carrots and tomatoes, and a lime jello.
I make the jello in individual, reusable cups. it is cheaper than buying the premade ones and I can control the portions.
I just noticed she’s been having pretzels the same side dishes a lot, I’m going to have to be more creative next week 🙂
I plan on making this a recurring post, I would like to hear some feedback from you all. Would you prefer a weekly post that shows everything from the week or a daily one that would be shorter. Thanks!
I also have some outfit posts coming up, I just scored big time from ModCloth during their 70% off sale so I will be showing you the haul when that arrives.
Ps. I am on instagram now, you can find me @bettiebanshee
Pacifiers&Pinups 
I found bento a few years ago, as I was getting bored of sandwiches at work, and haven’t gone back. I make my lunches at the weekend, and divvy it up through the week.
I’d heard about the Laptop Lunch boxes, but had also heard they’re very big – which that does look it. In fact, they’re often touted as “man bentos” by a lot of bento-ers/bento-ists due to their size. My favourite bento “brand” is Lock&Lock, they do a variety of great boxes in different formats and sizes, and I’d suggest that one of those might be better for your daughter, both in terms of size & portion control, now and in the future (they do childs boxes, but an adults box wouldn’t be too huge for her either).
I had actually looked at those prior to buying the laptop lunch box. The real selling point for me was the insulated lunch bag that was part of the kit and the quality. I am pretty conscious of portion sizes and I don’t pack more than I would normally give her for lunch and snack during the day. I can’t imagine the one I got as a man-bento, my husband would starve if that’s what he brought for lunch lol. I also got a cheap one from walmart for my lunch, its called “lunch on the go”, I think it was $6. I will take a picture for my next post. I wanted something that would fit in my backpack for school.
Ah, they must have expanded their range since I last heard about/looked at them. And I totally agree about insulated bags for bento boxes, I wouldn’t be without mine 🙂
I absolutely love bento boxes! Thank you for the new post too.