I didn't manage to get a picture of the girls' lunchboxes this morning, so I decided to give you a peek at a few of the essential tools I use to make their meals fun and portable.
This container is great for packing salads or fruits and veggies for dipping. It has an airtight built in cup that has yet to leak. I bought these at the Dollar Tree last year, and thought I'd try them out. They have become one of the best containers we have! I had 4 of them originally, but threw one out after it was left in the lunchbox over the weekend with broccoli inside :P
I'm not so frugal that I won't throw out a stinky container, and that one was STINKY! Another one got left at my grandmother's house and I haven't dug through her cabinets to find it. So we are left with two, which motivates me to wash them as soon as we get home so I can repack them for the next day.
These silicone baking cups are great for separating dry and moist foods. I put them inside large compartments to hold snack crackers, raisins, and my favorte - side salads. They have become very popular thanks to the growing popularity of bento lunch bloggers and pinners, so they are easy to find in a variety of sizes. I recently got a 2 pack of larger ones in the bargain dollar section at Target.
I have a variety of other plastic box containers that only have one compartment, so I use small plastic lidded bowls to hold sauce or other small items like chopped tomatoes or peanuts. The silicone bowls are actually baby food storage containers, and the lids are more secure than the others, but stain easily. I made the mistake of putting pizza sauce in 2 of them, and they are now orange and still smell like pizza after 3 washes.
Now for the fun stuff! These are mini cookie cutters that I got on spring clearance at Hobby Lobby. They work great for cutting cheese and fruit into fun bite sized shapes.
The butterfly cutter is sandwich sized, and makes an adorable crustless sandwich. I purchased it at Dollar Tree.The round cutters cut circles on one side and are scalloped on the other side. I found this pack of 6 in tapering sizes on the cake decorating isle in Walmart for around $3. They work well for cutting tortillas and sandwiches, and the small one is perfect for cutting lunch meat into those perfect lunchable-esque rounds. They would also be great molds for shaping granola bars, crispy rice treats, or even a serving of cooked rice.
Up until now, I have had to get really creative when making kabobs for my girls (using toothpicks, chop sticks, and even plastic spoon handles), but I stopped in the Dollar Tree yesterday for a few organizational items, and found these great plastic picks. They will be used for meat, cheese, pickles, olives, and fruit, and I may even get out the glue gun to add some fun decorations to the top for an added surprse.
I keep a variety of plastc bags in the pantry, and use them mainly for wet items like cut fruit, or to keep sandwiches fresh and soft. It's also nice to have them as a backup in case I dont get the reusable containers washed.
The ice packs, drink bottles, lunchboxes, and our one piece containers are with the girls at school, so I'll have to show you those later. The girls have 3 mini turkey and cheese sandwiches, pretzel sticks with peanut butter, and side salads today. Joplin picked a pear for her fruit, and Isis wanted raisins.
It may seem like a lot of stuff, but we have accumulated all of this over time. Just always be on the lookout for useful items at good prices, and eventually you'll have a nice little stockpile of tools.
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