I wish my lunches looked like that when I was a kid, those are very cool.  Thanks for sharing!

This looks reminiscent of Japanese style box lunch (bento box) you can get at Japanese restaurants. I enjoy those. LINK

Frankly it looks like a lot of effort to make. God bless mom's like you that go the extra mile for their kids.

I only had to bring a lunch during first grade. I remember it well it was a GI Joe box. I would eat everything though because I thought my mom took the time to make it. Some kids would trade items, but I could bear to do that, as it would have been akin to giving my mom's loving thoughtfulness. One day my thermos dropped an I recall debating whether I should still drink the milk in it. Glad I didn't. It was short lived though, the school soon offered a 5 cent little pint glass bottle of milk and a not so great 25 cent lunch. How time change.

Bento, eh?  Itadakimasu!

~Zoo

It is, but it's worth it.  I see so many overweight and/or unhealthy children the same age as my daughter and I really worry about their nutrition.  It seems that parents are getting so busy that they aren't paying attention to the basic needs of their kids.  My husband and I both work full time, and I work more than 50 hours per week, so I can understand how parents start to cut corners.  However, I never want to look back and regret not putting in the extra effort for my daughter. 

Yeah, they are basically American versions of Bento.  The company is called Obentec, and they created the system due to poor school lunch quality and the enormous amount of waste that school lunches (both school made and brown bagged) create each year.

This is today's lunch.  It's cucumbers, tomatoes, homemade brownie (really gooey), strawberries, pecans,  veggie dip and "ham" and cheese pinwheels.

What a great idea!!  I wish I had known about this years ago. 

My middle son was not a good lunch eater.  I also packed my three sons' lunches most days and I had a very hard time with only Brian.  He would eat maybe the desert or a snack but never his sandwich.  No matter what I packed either P&J or Ham & Cheese etc. it always came back.  I'd find sandwiches weeks old either in his backpack way down at the bottom or in his bureau drawers!!!

Yes, I would put his clothes away and from time to time I'd find moldy green sandwiches hidden under his clothes. 

Years later he told me he didn't like wheat bread.  Then I found out he doesn't like mayo.  Who knew?  He never would answer me when I'd question why he didn't eat and just mumbled some excuse. 

So I started something similar back then by packing things like crackers and peanutbutter in lieu of sandwiches or pizza muffins or cut up veggies with a little cup of dip. 

To this day, he's not much of a sandwich eater.  Even in high school years later he was a canned goods eater preferring canned ravioli or soups to sandwiches.  About the only thing I could get him to eat in the sandwich category was grilled cheese.  Those he ate. 

But now his wife is making panini sandwiches and he loves them.  It's like a whole new world opened up to him.  I'll have to tell her about your idea for her little boys. 

I can't get my daughter or my husband to eat traditional sandwiches.  My husband takes leftovers from dinner as lunch the next day, so he's not a problem.  It's just always been a problem with my daughter.  Luckily, she just brings her uneaten food home and doesn't hide it on me (ick...that's not pleasant).  Definitely tell your DIL about this system.  If she ends up with a kid like her husband, she'll make her life easier with it!

I actually ordered one for myself, too.  My husband usually eats all the leftovers, so I'm always packing my own lunch.  I like to have a variety of things, so I think this system will work out well for me, too.  Plus, it just looks fun to eat out of, LOL.

Here are more of her lunches:

Homemade veggie Sushi, tomatoes, strawberries, wasabi, and Pistachio pudding.

Cheese and "ham" stack cut-out in the form of dogs, cats and a duckie along with dog and cat picks to eat them with, grapes, pecans, crackers, thin mints, broccoli, radish and veg dip.

Salad (dressing is in the small container), fresh pineapple, pecans, soy jerky, and thin mints.

great pics and makes me very hungry. 

I wish you were my mom! 

That is super cool.