Welcome to Gaia! ::

So my kid will be starting pre-school next year.
I've found a great pre-school I love, but the lunches they serve are crap; processed food with added salt and sugar is not magically made "healthy" by serving it alongside boiled vegetables. talk2hand

So she's gonna be taking packed lunches!
The problem, of course, is that the other kids will be chowing down on chicken nuggets and cake for dessert, so I need to make what's in her lunch box look better.
But as much as I'd love to spend ages making a bento box scene, it's just not practical to do that every single day.


So far I've got 2 ideas:
1. Cookie-cutter sandwiches. Normal sandwiches, cut into a fun shape with a cookie cutter.
2. Bunny eggs!


(Just an ordinary boiled egg, moulded in a Bento egg mould, and dyed blue with organic food colouring.)

So this is where I need help from you guys.
The challenge:
-healthy packed lunches that look fun and appetising
-quickly and easily prepared

I love kitchen gadgets, so any cool/fun Bento gadgets you'd recommend are welcome, I've got plenty of time to order them online.
And in general, just any simple tips you've got for prettying up lunches quickly and easily will be hugely appreciated.

octodogs would work great in this case, since they're something every kid knows and loves, and they still look cute. (and they're quite simple.)

they make rice ball shapes in cute shapes, if your kid is willing to chow down on rice.

when your kid gets older, you might try shaped sauce bottles, too. they're cute and really useful.

you know, it sounds a bit tricky, but they make egg shapers where the entire egg (white and yolk) get molded, such as hearts and stars and such.

if you have a thermos for your kid, you could try using vegetable cutters to make a shaped veggie soup. i was considering doing that but i'd need the thermos and some smaller cutters first..... ^^;

if you feel like putting in some extra time, you could always bake cupcakes and carve them into different shapes (cat face, mameshiba, star, etc), since those will keep for a few days and they seem easy enough to cut into shape.

depending on the tastes of your child you could make a little veggie portrait of her (cherry tomato for a head, shredded carrots or chopped bell peppers for hair, lettuce for a dress, etc).

hope this does something to help. :3

i've tried the instant pickles before (the recipe i have only requires 4 ingredients and takes not even 5 minutes to prepare. plus, they're ready overnight), and while they're good, they can be a little salty and EXTREMELY sour (depending on the ingredients, the one i have uses lemon juice which is likely why it's so sour).

if your kid likes sour food, then the pickles would be a superb option. but like Sailor Blue Rose said, you should make sure to try them before you commit. have the kid try them too. :

of course, this is true of any new food. :3

how about jelly? in some small shaped silicone cups?