Reduce Daily Kid Lunch Packing Fatigue with Bento Box Templates
TL;DR — Use these templates to guide daily decisions for lunch packing; rotating through the choices in each compartment. A formula reduces the mental load of having to decide each morning.
Access the templates for 3, 4, or 5 compartment bento boxes in this free
Google Doc
Longer Story — Are you sick of packing lunch every day? I was, too. I thought: there has to be a better way! Why am I dreading every morning when I walk into the kitchen? Why am I staring in the fridge for 60 seconds with horror? Why does my pantry taunt me with foods my kids won’t eat? Can’t I just drink coffee, listen to music, and enjoy making lunch? Okay okay. I don’t need to enjoy it. I just don’t want this daily routine to mock me.
At work, whenever I find myself repeating a task over and over, I think about ways to DRY it up! The Don’t Repeat Yourself Methodology in software engineering focuses on reducing redundacy with abstraction. Why couldn’t I do that here? Wasn’t I likely choosing the same foods over and over again? And here came the templates!
I chose the fastest format, Google Docs, inserted a table to match the different layouts of my kids bento boxes, and started created formulas! Each compartment holds a different food type — thanks good old food pyramid for the inspiration! I can now use this as a morning map and just grab a food from each box! You can rotate top to bottom if you have it in stock, and have something different each day with little thought!
The foods I included needed to be either something I can easily
* Wash and cut
* Throw in the toaster oven while I do other things
* Take from dinner leftovers
* Grab from the pantry
It’s not about looking like it should be on Pinterest, but as a guide to rotating foods and making simple choices. Bonus points, the bento box naturally lends itself to looking (at least slightly) more put together than I would have done without it.
More bonus points: if you share child lunch duty with another partner, this guide ensures you are both on the same page and saves tedious disagreements about lunch packing strategy. You’re both following the same guidelines and project description! Easier delegation and teamwork!
Directions for use!
Head on over to the template; make a copy!
Edit the foods to match foods you have or want to have in your household.
Want to shake it up? Do 4 out of the 5 compartments with safe foods you know your kid eats and do the last one with something new each day. Good news: they will be at school so they can’t look at you with disappointment when they see it! (I’m half kidding)
Print it out; hang it on the fridge; enjoy that morning coffee/tea/water as you prep for your daily scrum, knowing that lunch is taken care of!
Examples
Bask in these un-edited Bento Boxes — showing that you can veer from the formula if that makes it easier and it doesn’t have to be overflowing.
