Here is Madeleine’s bento for today: peanuts with sea salt, homemade molasses cookie, saltines with peanut butter, grapes, an onigiri (rice ball) with krab over the top, plus a few pieces of krab. I have yet to be able to create all of the beautiful images and figures that many true bento makers create, but as long as Madeleine enjoys it, gets a fair amount of nutrition, and is satisfied at the end of the meal then I feel like I’ve done my job.
Recently, I found out that the school where my cousin’s children attend has a ban on nuts in their lunch boxes. I couldn’t imagine having to pack a lunch without being able to at least pack peanut butter on crackers. Since my kids eat very little meat I try each day to include some type of plant protein, nuts being the primary product. They both enjoy peanuts, walnuts, pistachios, and almonds and will eat them in their original form (it’s not necessary to create almond butter or bake the nuts into a muffin…. besides muffins are where the vegetables are hidden). I can appreciate the need to eliminate nuts due to the allergic reaction possible for children/people with nut sensitivities. I would want the same for my own kids and their friends. Yet, I just can’t imagine school lunch without peanut butter and jelly. Sigh.
This realization of the nut ban has lead me to contemplate what other protein sources one could pack in a lunch and stay within the limits of the school lunch guidelines. Of course, there are various animal proteins and fish (oh, how I wish salmon packed better in a lunch…still working on that one; Madeleine would salmon every day), but plant protein is the goal.
Here’s the list thus far: avocado, soy / edamame, lentils, beans, and chickpeas. The other item to include would be egg.
I’ve tried egg for Madeleine – a little omlette which she has taken and eaten twice. A good choice. For Gregory, I’ve included hummus which I’ve come to understand he enjoyed thoroughly and scraped the edges of the container to get the last bits.
What other plant protein sources do you enjoy? What packs well in a lunch box, whose ‘refrigeration’ is limited to a strategically placed icy pack?
The search continues.
~Enjoy!
