A Beginner’s Guide to Bento Boxes

It’s that time of year again where routines are back after a long summer of not worrying about packing lunches, what can or can’t be inside of them, and all the stresses that back to school brings. Keeping your kids excited about their lunches can be hard, but I have found creating fun sandwiches in a bento box style can do just the trick! 

What is a Bento Box?

The ancient Japanese tradition of packing lunch in a bento box, a decorative container with small compartments, is the latest trend these days. The dividers make packing lunch easy and help store different items in a single container (meaning less dishes to wash!)You can easily put these lunches together with the help of a few cookie cutters or creative thinking; bento boxes may just be the answer to getting your child to eat hidden veggies and other healthy items! I love putting things like cucumber, carrots, celery, and other less popular items  into my kids’ fun sandwiches, which then makes them want to eat it 

Easy & Healthy Bento Box Lunch Recipes

My go-to sandwiches always include Maple Lodge Farms ® Natural From The Farm® Oven Roasted Chicken Breast, as it adds such a great flavour while also being gluten-free, full of protein, and made with natural ingredients. Deli meats can be a very difficult thing to add as they are typically packed full of sodium, which can turn your healthy sandwich to a very unhealthy one and fast! Maple Lodge Farms® Natural From The Farm® deli has 25% less salt than the leading brands (Per 55g vs the leading natural chicken and turkey deli brand), which makes them my go-to! I love pairing it with a slice of good cheese in the sandwich as well and swapping chicken out with the Oven Roasted Turkey Breast to change it up from time to time. Their Spicy BBQ Cooked Chicken Breast is also in my mama lunches quite regularly! 

The kids love getting excited to see what sort of shape the sandwich is in, or the note snuck inside, or whatever surprise you add on the side! I love to send quality and healthy food on the sides with these boxes, such as strawberries, grapes, almonds, celery and carrot sticks, etc. and all of these items can be creatively added as well, changing them into little creatures or whatever you come up with! 

Lunchtime is such a highlight of our child’s day, why not make it a highlight for you? Comment below if you’ve tried bento boxes below!

P.s. Download this Back To School Checklist to get organized this back to school season!

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