5 Easy Steps to Making Lunchboxes More Fun

This post was previously published at Diana Rambles as part of the 4 great Bloggers, 4 great tips for the Back2School Bentoing series.

This post contains affiliate links.

Packing fun lunches is not as hard as you think and doesn't necessarily require a cabinet full of bento lunch supplies or artistic skills. With a few (and inexpensive) touches you can change your child's lunchbox into a fun lunch!

1) Cupcake decorations

In the picture above I added a reusable silicone straw and a cupcake decoration from the party store to dress up the lunch. My kids were thrilled to slurp their applesauce through the straw and with a quick cupcake decoration I made this simple lunch more exciting. And as you see the lunch came back completely eaten!

Same with this St. Patrick's Day lunch. I added three St. Patrick's Day themed cupcake rings from my local cake store and made this simple lunch festive and fun!

2) Silicone Cups

To add some color and fun I simply added a cute orange mini silicone cup to hold some Almonds and dressed up this simple Laptop Lunchbox.

Silicone cups can also serve as dividers and enable you to pack smaller portions and a larger variety of food which especially appeals to younger children and picky eaters.

3) Sandwich Cutters

This lunch was made more fun with a cute plane sandwich. It was made using a Lunch Punch Cutter. The cutter is easy to use (just press down and done) and removes the crust while making your kids sandwich exciting and fun!

These mini sandwiches were transformed with a sandwich stamp from All Things For Sale. No artistic skill required. But the outcome is an adorable and appealing lunch.

Another fun to use sandwich cutter is the CuteZCute animal sandwich cutter. It cuts the crust off (again, great for picky eaters) and you can choose between four different animal faces. Quick, easy and fun in no time at all.

4) A Lunchbox Note

Adding a fun Lunchbox Love note - no matter if homemade or similar to this store bought Lunchbox Love Card (joke edition) - sure will put a smile on your child's face and make lunch a little more special.

5) Food

But even if you don't have any of the tools above you can still make a cute lunch. This summer BLT lunch was simply made special by adding three Goldfish crackers and with two deli sandwich picks. Similar ones are available at the Dollar Store.

I hope I could show you a few tips and tricks on how to transform you child's lunchbox from drab to fab with a few simple steps. For more product ideas visit my bento basics page.

Here is what I used to make these lunches fun:

A plain Plane Lunch

We have been under a wind advisory since yesterday and  I thought an airplane lunch would be fitting for school today:

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Today's lunch in "plane" and simple and packed in our Sugarboogar Good Lunch Box:

• Strawberries with helicopter picks
• Energy Bites and Minion "Pilot" cheese crackers
• and a LunchPunch plane chocolate spread sandwich.

First Day of School 2013/2014

Yesterday was our first day back to school for everyone. Thankfully everybody had a wonderful day. I had to wipe away a tear or two and cannot believe how fast they grow up.

Here are our First Day of School Lunches:

My second grader was happy to take a school themed lunch in his Good Lunch Box:

• garden cucumbers and baby carrots
• strawberry hearts
• two peanut butter sandwiches and
• a Enjoy Life Cocoa Loco bar

I also added a sweet Lunchbox Love Card to make sure he knows how much I'll miss him!

My third grader wanted his Laptop Lunches bento box filled with all his favorites:

• apples and strawberry hearts
• Annie's Cheddar Bunnies
• a cute Snoopy container filled with dark mini chocolate chips for the vanilla yogurt
• Snoopy peanut butter sandwiches
• vanilla yogurt and a
• cereal bar

I also packed a Lunchbox Love Card in his lunch. It was very quiet here without him.

For my oldest son it was the first day of Middle School and nothing cute was allowed. We packed his Laptop Lunches bento box with:

• apples and strawberries
• Annie's Cheddar Bunnies
• a Woodstock container with dark mini chocolate chips for the yogurt
• two left over chicken pieces from the day before
• Vanilla yogurt and 
• a cereal bar

His Lunchbox Love Card is turned around to just show the trivia. All grown up!

Our after school snack

Things I used to make our lunches (contain affiliate links):

Pantry Lunches

When life gets hectic and time does not allow for a trip to the grocery store, I rely on my pantry to still have some decent lunch ingredients.

We packed lunch in our Good Lunch Box:

• Pirate Booty,
• stamped peanut butter and blueberry jelly sandwiches,
• all natural apple sauce
• and a few almonds

Lunch in our Easylunchboxes ( I made two identical ones) contains:

• Pirate Booty
• all natural apple sauce
• a peanut butter and blueberry jelly stamped sandwich
• and a cereal bar

Still good lunches when time is not on my side :)

Things I used for this lunch: