This Healthy Nut-Free Kid’s Bento Box is full of bright colors, nutritious foods, and fun details. Whether it’s the fruit kabobs, special shaped cheese, or delicious chocolate coconut rolls, your child is sure to find a few favorites!
I can hardly believe my youngest is about to start preschool. It will only be two days a week, but it still seems impossible that she’s somehow old enough for any type of school. And yet I also feel confident that she’s ready. We just got all the details from their preschool for the new protocols they’re putting in place to help protect the teachers, staff, and children. With the Covid Pandemic Addie’s first year will for sure look different than Brighton’s first year. But I’m so thankful for these new safety measures, and so thankful they’ll still be able to go.
As we begin to prepare for them starting back, I’ve found myself focusing in on the things Addie eats best to try to figure out which foods to send for her lunch these two days each week. They move fairly quickly from one activity to the next and only have about 30 minutes for lunch. While Brighton is a really good eater, Addie is definitely more finicky and realllly enjoys taking her time.🤪
So in an effort to send a lunch that I know they’ll eat, here are the things I’m focusing on:
- Foods that can easily be eaten with their fingers
- Favorite foods I know they eat well (and quickly)
- Foods that are healthy – fruits, vegetables, hummus, cheese, etc
- AND a fun little treat with instructions that it is to be eaten LAST, thankfully they’re really good at following this rule.
In addition to the things above, Brighton’s class last year was a nut-free class due to some of the other children having severe allergies. I am 100% on board for supporting those who have these allergies, as I can’t image the fear of having my child exposed to something that could be dangerous to them. Because of that, in preparing this bento box, I opted to make it nut-free as I suspect we’ll need to do so this year as well.
You’ll see here that in order to make this lunch fun for the kiddos, I used a small cookie cutter to create a little person in the Colby Jack cheese slices. My kids thought this was super fun! I used a whole grain sprouted cracker, but you could easily make this a gluten-free bento box by swapping out the whole grain for a rice based cracker or other gluten-free cracker of choice.
For the fruit, I used toothpicks as little skewers to make kabobs. Again, just another easy thing to make lunch a little more fun. I then sliced up some veggies to be eaten with hummus. I used Sprouts Organic Roasted Red Pepper hummus as it’s super fresh and household favorite. All the other ingredients found in this bento box are also from Sprouts.
It’s my preferred choice when it comes to finding fresh produce and healthy prepackaged snacks for the kids. Aside from my love of their selection, they also run the best sales and have great coupons in their app!
Speaking of prepackaged snacks, these chocolate coconut rolls are new FAV! They’re like a light wafer with a creamy chocolate filling. Not overly sweet, but just sweet enough to totally satisfy the sweet tooth. And entice my kiddos to eat everything else in an effort to get to the treat! Because let’s be real, it’s all about the treat, right?!
The Scoop on this Healthy Nut-Free Kid’s Bento Box:
- Healthy and Fun
- Super Colorful
- Full of vitamins and minerals
- Tasty and delicious
- Perfect for taking on the go!
Aside from thinking about the foods and things I’ll be sending with the kiddos in a few weeks, we’ve also been talking with them about what the can expect this year. Especially when it comes to changes that have been made to help with the spreading of Covid 19. Thankfully it seems research is showing that it’s not spreading a lot among kids. So one of the main things our preschool has put in place is a system of drop-off and pick-up that eliminates parents from being in the hallways.
They are also keeping the children in their rooms more and doing less where they bring all the kids together for devotions or outdoor play.
I fully believe these choices have been made with a lot of thought and wisdom. And as parents, I think it’s our job to talk to our kids about what they can expect. And what they need to do to help with these things.
We’ve been prepping Brighton for the changes, and talking to the kids about not putting their hands to their face as much as possible. Reminding them to be sure and wash hands and/or use hand sanitizer before they eat their lunch. I know the teachers will help guide them through these things. But I really believe they are so smart and able to understand these simple things and how they help protect everyone.
In this season, I believe we have to do the best we can to take precaution and then we have to walk forward in faith and continue living our lives, trusting that He is in control.
I hope this fun bento box has inspired you to start thinking through fun and healthy lunch ideas for your own little ones! If you missed last week’s post, check out this fun after school snack!
We’re all in this together!🧡
Healthy Nut-Free Kid’s Bento Box
Ingredients
- Crackeres and Cheese:
- 10-12 medium-large crackers of choice gluten-free if needed*
- 3-4 slices Sprouts Colby Jack cheese
- Hummus and Veggies:
- 1/3-1/2 cup Sprouts Organic hummus
- 2 large carrots peeled and cut into sticks
- 1/2 cucumber cut into thin sticks
- 1/2 medium bell pepper cut into thin sticks
- Fruit Kabobs:
- 4-5 strawberries cut into small pieces
- 1/4-1/3 cup blueberries
- 2 small kiwis peeled and cut into small pieces
- Fun Treat:
- 10-12 Sprouts Chocolate Coconut Rolls
Instructions
- For the Cheese and Crackers: Cut cheese slices with small cookie cutter to make fun special shapes. I used a small gingerbread shaped cutter. To keep the cheese from making the crackers soft, wrap the cheese slice in a small piece of plastic wrap, or put crackers in a small snack size bag.
- For the Hummus and Veggies: Add 2-4 tbsp hummus to bento box, along with carrot, cucumber and bell pepper sticks.
- For the fruit kabobs: Alternate strawberry, blueberry and kiwi pieces on toothpicks and add 4-5 mini fruit kabobs to each Bento box.
- Finally add 5-6 Sprouts Chocolate Coconut Rolls to the box. Easy peasy and so colorful and fun!
This post is sponsored by Sprouts Farmers Market, but all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that keep Lemons and Basil in action!
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