Making Lunch Fun, One Box at a Time

ben·tol·o·gy (ben t äləjē) Noun : The study of making nutritious and fun lunches for my daughters.

I get a lot of inspiration from other blogs. So, in hopes someone might get some inspiration from me, I've decided to post some pictures here.

This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.Proverbs 3:7-9

Friday, August 29, 2014

Panda Mania

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, my oldest daughter started middle school this year.   She was pretty adamant that she didn't want "cute" lunches anymore, which was fine.   Well, last week she came home and said that she was telling her friends about "what I do" with lunches and they were intrigued so she wanted me to make her a cute lunch.  She specifically wanted me to recreate the Koala lunch that I had made for her younger sister a few days earlier.

Apparently her new friends LOVED her lunch and now, not only is she back on board with cute lunches, but her friends are sending in theme requests.  Today's requested theme was "pandas" so here is what I came up with.


  • 2 peanut butter and honey Panda sandwiches, created using the Animal Palz cutting system and decorated with food-safe markers
  • Cheese stick
  • Red grapes with a panda pick
  • Broccoli with a panda pick
  • Hershey kisses

In addition to the product links above, here are some of the products, or similar products, I used when creating this lunch:



This post contains affiliate links.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Fiesta Ranch Chicken Salad

We broke away from the sandwich zone for today's lunch.   It's one of our favorite summer dinners and it occurred to me that it would make a pretty good school lunch too!


The salad contains:

  • Salad greens
  • Grilled chicken
  • Corn
  • Black beans
  • Cheddar Cheese
  • Ranch dressing
  • Tortilla chips (which are intended to be crunched on top but she will probably eat them on the side)
*The recipe also calls for salsa but my daughter doesn't like it on hers so I didn't include it in her lunch.
Her lunch also contains strawberries and blueberries.   I added an eye pick because eyes make everything cuter!

In addition to the product link above, here are some of the other items I used when creating this lunch:





This post contains affiliate links.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

School Days

Sometimes I am really thankful that my daughters don't follow bento blogs.  Because if they did, they would not be nearly as impressed with today's lunch.   Today's lunch was completely inspired by this lunch made by my friend Rina at Bento School Lunches.  I didn't even change the math equation!!  I want to make sure to give her credit for her adorable lunch...but I'm not going to share it with my girls ;-)



  • PB and honey sandwich made on whole wheat bread, decorated with food safe markers to look like a piece of notebook paper.  I used strawberry fruit leather and Wilton's number cutters to make the math equation
  • Strawberries with a school-themed pick
  • Carrots and celery with ranch
  • Cheese stick decorated with markers (I know I have seen this idea somewhere but can't find where to give credit.  If you know, please leave a comment)
  • Hershey kisses
Here are some of the items, or similar items I used when creating this lunch:




This post contains affiliate links.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Cuddle Palz Sammie

Loving our new Cuddle Palz cutting system!   This lunch took less than 10 minutes to make....maybe closer to 5 minutes. It was FAST!


  • PB&J made to look like a bear using the Cuddle Palz cutter and food safe markers
  • Carrots with ranch
  • Red grapes
  • Hershey kisses
My middle schooler wanted pizza pinwheels again -- easy peasy!

  • Pizza Pinwheels with marinara for dipping
  • Carrots with ranch
  • Red grapes
  • Kit Kat candy bar
Here are some of the items, or similar items, that I used when creating these lunches:



This post contains affiliate links.

Monday, August 18, 2014

PB&J Roll-ups and a Deconstructed Turkey Bagel

For those that may be new to my blog, you will soon learn that I have 2 different eaters.  Although both my girls love fruits and veggies, my youngest daughter does not like any type of cold meat.  In addition, she absolutely loves peanut butter.  So, she almost always has a peanut butter sandwich, in some form, in her lunch.  Whereas my oldest daughter is more adventurous and will eat lots of different things.   So today I made PB&J roll-ups as a fun change to the traditional PB&J sandwich for the youngest.  My middle schooler wanted a deconstructed turkey/veggie cream cheese bagel.  She will most likely eat the turkey by itself and then have the bagel with cream cheese separately.  But, she has the option to assemble it into a sandwich, if she chooses.



  • PB&J roll-ups on a "So Sweet" skewer
  • Peas
  • Strawberries and blueberries
  • Wheat Thins Popped
  • Oreos




  • Whole Wheat mini bagel with veggie cream cheese and turkey
  • Peas
  • Strawberries and blueberries
  • Oreos
Here are some of the items, or similar items, I used when creating this lunch:





This post contains affiliate links.

Friday, August 15, 2014

1 Lunch, 2 Different Ways

As I've mentioned in previous posts, my oldest is in middle school now and doesn't want "cute" lunches.   No problem!   Here are both my daughters' lunches for today.  As you can see, they are the exact same lunch.  I just added a couple cute touches to make my younger daughter's an owl themed lunch and kept my older daughter's plain.  Everyone is happy!



Both lunches contain:

  • PB&J made using the Pampered Chef Cut N Seal
  • Cucumbers and cherry tomatoes
  • Red grapes
  • Pretzel Sticks
  • Hershey Kisses
  • Lunchbox Love Note
To make the owl sandwich, I decorated the sandwich with more cucumber slices for the wings and eyebrows and carrot for the beak and feet.  I used these eye picks for instant cuteness (that won't melt like sugar eyes sometimes do!)

Here are some of the products, or similar products, I used when creating this lunch:



This post contains affiliate links. 

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Cuddle Palz!

Earlier this summer we received the newest product in the CuteZCute product line, the Cuddle Palz, to try. Similar to the other CuteZCute products, the Cuddle Palz is super easy to use and provides instant cuteness to any lunch!  The 2-sided cutter and stamps allow you to make many different combinations.  I have a feeling you will be seeing many Cuddle Palz lunches on our blog!

Koala Lunch:



  • Koala PB&J made using the Cuddle Palz cutting system.   He is holding on to a piece of celery.
  • Celery with peanut butter
  • Grapes with a koala pick
  • Pretzel sticks 
  • Hershey kisses

Again, my middle schooler doesn't want cute lunches anymore.  So we kept it simple:


  • Pizza roll-ups with marinara for dipping
  • Peas
  • Red grapes
  • Oreos
Here are some of the products, or similar products, I used when creating this lunch:

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

First Day of School!

After taking the summer off, we are back in business as today was the first day of school!  I now have a middle schooler (ACK!) and a 4th grader.  The middle schooler has requested "no more cute lunches" but we are going to continue to pack "bento style" because it's environmentally friendly.

My 4th grader specifically requested a "pencil lunch" for the first day:


For my 6th grader, we kept it more simple:

Both lunches contained:
  • PB&J Sandwich.   For the pencil, I just used food-safe markers to decorate it.
  • Carrots or Broccoli with ranch
  • Raspberries
  • Oreos 
Plus, I included a Lunchbox Love Note to let them know I was thinking of them!

Listed below are the items, or similar items, I used when creating this lunch:




This post contains affiliate links.