Do you think that bento style lunches are complicated and time consuming? Though they can be - the original Japanese tradition is particularly well known for it's amazing works of food art, I promise you, it really doesn't have to be! It's perfectly possible to make fun packed lunches for kids in a matter of minutes, and I've got 3 easy themed lunches to show you today that prove it!
These lunches have a dog or a cat theme, and thanks to a few simple tools they each took me less than 10 minutes to make. As a busy mum myself, I know how stressful mornings can be and how time seems to rush by, so I have a few tricks up my sleeve to get packed lunches made quickly and easily with no stress at all!
The first lunch was packed in our Munchkin bento box and has a dog theme, which only took an extra minute or two to add to the lunch thanks to one of my favourite Lunch Punch sandwich cutters and a few bento picks.
In this lunch I packed a ham and cream cheese sandwich on seeded bread, cut into a kennel shape with a cutter from the Critter Cutter Lunch Punch cutter set. On the side I packed a small apple and some tinned sweetcorn (drained) which I decorated with cute little dog bento picks. This has got to be the quickest and easiest fun lunch ever!
The second lunch might look a bit more complicated but it was a nice easy lunch to throw together too. I started with a sandwich of German sausage slices on brioche bread, which I cut into shape using the kitty cutter from my CuteZCute Animal Friends cutter set.
I also packed some sushi (shop bought ready-made), an orange mini pepper, sliced plum and grapes and some natural yoghurt with a little strawberry jam swirled in. I popped some dried fruit in the treat well and added some cat bento picks (from this bento pick set and this bento pick set) to decorate. This lunch was packed in our dark pink Yumbox Panino bento box.
The last lunch made use of our dog themed Lunch Punch sandwich cutter again. In this lunch I packed a roast beef sandwich on seeded bread, with an edible icing eye added to the dog part of the sandwich. On the side I packed cucumber slices, sliced baby sweetcorn, grapes and blueberries and a few Organix farm animal biscuits in the treat well.
I decorated the lunch with a few dog themed bento picks from this bento pick set and this bento pick set. This lunch was packed in another of our Yumbox Panino bento boxes.
I hope I've shown with this post that it really is easy to pack fun healthy lunches that kids will love with very little time and effort. One of the things that I love about bento lunches is how much easier they make packing lunches, and if you have an extra minute or two to get creative then all the better!
Do you have any favourite tricks for adding a little fun to your child's lunches?
Grace
Items used to make these lunches:
Disclosure: This post contains some Amazon affiliate links; I may receive commission on items purchased through the links.
Lisa says
I need to get some of these for my 5yo who will be having packed lunches as of September. They look great 🙂
Grace says
Thank you, I enjoy making packed lunches a lot more than I used to now that there's a little bit of creativity involved!
Mel says
These are just too cute! The cat sandwich is so adorable I'm not sure I could bring myself to eating it, he he!