Bento Lunches for a Picky Vegetarian Toddler

SchmoopyBoy's playschool recently transitioned from a peanut-free facility to a nut-free facility. I initially went into a semi-panic. Almond butter and jelly sandwiches and macaroni and cashew-cheese were some of the few lunch entrees he would actually eat on a regular basis. Oh no! What on earth would I replace them with?! What could I put in my picky little guy's lunches that he would actually eat?

We have tried sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches. He is highly unimpressed with sunflower butter. Quite frankly, so am I. It is very bitter. Plain sunflower seeds, on the other hand, are a success. Go figure. So sunflower seeds it is.



Noodles are always a hit, so he gets pasta probably close to twice a week. Bonus, the year long dairy-strike that SchmoopyBoy was on appears to have come to an end. So I've been able to add cheese to his lunches for about a month now. A small bowl of shredded cheese added to the pasta lunches below is almost always a successful addition (it must be a separate bowl because goodness knows the cheese must not touch the noodles).

Here are a couple pasta lunches that came home almost completely empty (cheese bowl not photographed). Plain noodles (they must be plain, SchmoopyBoy does not do "goopies") with seasonal fruit - pomagranate seeds and pears in the top picture, apple in the bottom picture, and some combination of the only vegetables he will eat on a semi-regular basis - carrots, peas, and cucumber.




My bento lunches for SchmoopyBoy are hardly the creative and cute creations you can find on more advanced bento sites. I had lofty intentions of putting together beautiful and creative lunches that would awe and impress, but given the amount of time I have to throw something together each day, I'm pretty proud that I manage to throw together something other than lunchables!