For us in Victoria, the school term started last week. Although we had a fun filled 2 weeks of holiday, it was indeed good to get back into a routine. The ironing of uniforms, waking kids up, getting their snacks and lunches ready and also the rushing out the door so we won’t be late bit. Out of all those I find packing their food for school the most challenging. What can I put in their lunchboxes, that is not only healthy, but is interesting and yummy enough to actually get eaten?

Last term I was a bit slack in the giving healthy food department. Not that I gave them junk, but I wasn’t that diligent on packing fruits and vegetables everday.  So this term, I vowed – healthy food only. Especially since it’s Winter and having healthy foods would also help keep their immune system up too.  I was checking my Facebook the other day and stumbled upon this particular link, something about lunches. And on it was about Bento boxes.  Now I know Japanese food always seem to look really nice even though they might be made up of something simple. It also occured to me that variety – not so much the indgredients but more so the way we put it together would usually stir not just the tastebuds but also create some kind of interest in the food.  So this time, instead of the usual cold cut sandwiches with freshly cut veggies, I have come up with different ways of presenting that sandwich!

On Monday, I rolled up the bread with cold cuts to make pinwheels rolls. I also included carrots sticks and cucumbers which were cut into little “moons”.  My younger daughter doesn’t eat tomatoes, so she got extra cucumbers instead.  My eldest girl got cherry tomatoes as part of her lunch pack. Today, I made some handrolled sushi, not with sushi rice, but left over rice we had the night before with canned tuna and mayonnaise. I also included some cut veggies again. For their snack I packed some smoked kabana cut into little bites along with some more cut veggies.  So far, the girls love what they got. Not only was there variety, but also the way they were prepared, everything bite sized and easy to pick! I know it sounds like it takes a lot of time to prepare food that look good, but seriously, it doesn’t. It takes the same amount of time for me to prepare a boring old sandwich as it takes to prepare the foods I mentioned above.  So give it a try. Be creative. It makes it worth your while when the kids finish up their school snacks and lunches without hearing them whinge “Mummy why do I get the same thing everyday?”