Back to School Bento

The day has finally arrived for our household ... I am sitting in my living room, writing this blog in peace and quiet ... the first day of school has arrived! And yes, of course, I sent my kiddos to school with an awesome lunch. This is a revisit to the one I made last year, but this time, I included a tutorial.

You might be thinking, "Great! But my kid started school a few days or weeks ago. I'm SO late to this cool lunch thing." My answer to that: Nope, you're not late at all. So you didn't present this lunch on the very first day of school. That's okay. Nothing is stopping you from surprising them with a funky lunch tomorrow or next week. Just think how surprised they would be! So follow along with my DIY lunch tutorial, get inspired and make a school-themed lunch soon.

 Here's what I started with:
A bag of Bugles.
White sandwich bread - we don't usually eat white sandwich bread, but in this case, it's necessary for the lunch.
Starbursts - must include at least 1 pink type in the bag.
Deli meat - or pbj.
An apple - for the stereotypical "apple for the teacher".
Veggies - not pictured.
Two-tone string cheese - technically, you just need the orange side, but I couldn't find any plain, rounded orange cheese sticks.

First to make the notebook paper sandwiches:

(1) & (2) Measure the size of your sandwich container. You don't want to make the sandwich and THEN have to cut it to fit.

(3) Cut the bread to size.

(4) Make sure the bread slice does indeed fit into said container, and that small fingers can reach in to grab it at lunchtime.

Next, creating the look of the notebook paper:

(1) I had to pull out a piece of notebook paper, to remember the direction of the blue lines vs. the direction of the red lines. :)

(2) Use a blue Wilton food-safe color markers (available at JoAnn's and Michaels, or online) to draw horizontal lines on the sandwich bread.

(3) Use the red marker to draw one red line down the left-hand side of the "notebook paper".

(4) I double-stacked two sandwiches in my kids' containers, so I made two "notebook paper" per child. 

(5) Not listed: fill the sandwiches with the desired filling. Today, I used ham and spinach.

For the pencil:

Lay out the cheese sticks. Pick the ones that are completely orange on one side. Since pencils are usually orange or dark yellow, we want the cheese stick to mimic that look.

To make the pencil eraser:

(1) From the Starburst bag, pick the lightest pink or red candies. I choose Watermelon and Strawberry.

(2) Unwrap the candy, and pull out a paring knife or apple corer.

(3) Center the apple corer over the Starburst, and push down through the candy. 

(4) Roll the Starburst circle on the cutting board to smooth out uneven edges.

To create the pencil:

(1) Gently push a toothpick into one one end of the cheese stick.

(2) Add Starburst eraser. I found it worked best to twist the Starburst onto the toothpick, rather than pushing it on.

(3) Using a paring knife, carve away a bit of the other end of the cheese stick, and add a toothpick.

(4) Gently place a Bugle onto the toothpick.

Using the black, Wilton food-safe marker, color the tip of the Bugle to resemble a sharpened pencil.

To assemble, simply place the notebook paper sandwiches into a lunchbox container, and place the cheese stick pencil on top. Add fruits and veggies of your choice to another container.

If you are a homeschooling parent or have toddlers and preschoolers at home, this lunch is easily adaptable to plate at the dining room table.

Happy lunching, and happy 1st day of school!

Back-to-School Bento

At the start of this school year, both of my kids faced numerous unknowns. Since we moved over the summer, my daughter was beginning third grade at a new school. My son began kindergarten. Neither child knew any friends or teachers at their school; plus, they were riding the bus, which was a new experience. Although I could not walk through these new experiences with them, I wanted to send a special dose of reassurance from home. Hence, this cute back-to-school lunch.

The 'notebook paper' consists a ham sandwich, made with white whole-wheat bread. I drew the lines on the bread with food markers. (You can find them at Michael's.) The base of the pencil is a cheese stick. With an apple corer, I cut a pink Starburst to make the eraser. For the tip of the pencil, I used a black food marker to color the tip of a Bugle. Both the Starburst & the Bugle were attached with toothpicks.

To round out the meal, I added the produce that I happened to have on hand. broccoli florets, baby carrots, cut-up peaches & raspberries.

My kindergartener told his teacher that the best part of the day was "eating the pencil". I had to interject with an explanation. I guess it was a hit!