Lunch box inspiration

Wed, 08/28/2013 - 12:00pm by sherlonya

Looking for inspiration as you face another school year of packing lunches? Or maybe this is your first year sending a young one off to school during the day. Maybe, even, this isn't the first year in school, but you've decided that this is the year you don't go for the hot lunch, and decide to pack lunch instead. Maybe you don't have kids, and you're looking for ideas to make your own lunches more fun. In any case, we have some cookbooks that might help.

Best Lunch Box Ever: Ideas and Recipes For School Lunches Kids Will Love is a packed-lunch cookbook with ideas that you can implement without driving across town looking for hard-to-find ingredients. It might even make you see some of the things you already cook in a new way, as candidates for lunch.

The vegans don’t need to be left out! Vegan Lunch Box: 130 Amazing, Animal-Free Lunches Kids and Grown-Ups Will Love! is full of ideas that will make those packed lunches interesting. You don’t have to be a vegan to see the fun in this book. Long before her book was published, McCann maintained a blog where she photographed and posted the vegan lunches she made for her son.

If you’re looking for something more striking, you might try Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes. Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal, and is common in Japanese cuisine. This book can help you see how different edible building blocks can combined to make visually impressive lunches for your kids (or yourself).