Hellobee Boards

Well, my toddler does eat leftovers pretty well, so I tend to pack leftovers from dinner for her lunch the next day (so she doesn't eat the same thing in a row, since breakfast and a snack are in there). I use a bento style thermos and pack her breakfast, lunch, and a snack plus her water and milk cups.

I typically pack some kind of meat main and two veggies or 1 carb/1 veggie.

Like:

fishsticks, green beans, and broccoli
salmon, broccoli, and potatoes
butternut squash pasta with meatballs
cut up Italian sausage, rice mixed with veggies
rotisserie chicken, peas, and cauliflower
a hamburger patty cut into bits, with corn and a veggie patty
two egg omelette with broccoli

I love our little lunchbot with a divider and using those silicone baking cups as separaters! We usually give her a meat/veggie leftover from dinner, and then a fruit.

Does she have a lovey? DD is 12 mo and we pack her lovey. I have no idea if it helps (I should really ask the teacher if she uses it for nap or not...). We're 2 months in but DD loves going!

Like @Anagram, I usually pack leftovers (sometimes they'll be from 2 nights ago), but pasta and rice are always favorites, along with bagels. One thing I do sometimes is make a large batch of meatballs and freeze them. I'll send them for lunch and they'll usually have defrosted enough overnight and during the morning (lunchboxes are not put in the fridge - we usually put in an ice pack to keep things cold) so that reheating them is easy. Frozen veggies are also great since they also defrost - shelled edamame, broccoli, peas, etc.

@Mae: I follow @bitesfortots on Instagram and she posts good ideas.
Congrats on finding a job!

@Mae: We use the bento thermos so it keeps the food hot 6 hours or so. So I pack it the night before and keep it in the fridge. In the morning while I make my coffee, I heat water in our electric kettle (it boils in 1.5 minutes) and pour that into the thermos for about 10 minutes while I'm getting ready. I come back later at some point and microwave the lunch until it's all hot, and then dump the water and put it all in the thermos. Hot till lunchtime!

I do the same for breakfast, since she eats at daycare and we usually pack hot breakfasts like oatmeal, eggs, pancakes and sausage, etc.

We have this one: http://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-SL-NCE09-Bento-Stainless-Steel-Vacuum/dp/B0016S7MJM/ref=pd_sim_79_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=41MrkK8ESyL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR115%2C160_&refRID=1VM29B3R069MBQBP4C3N

I pack breakfast in the bottom and lunch in the middle, with the afternoon snack in the top compartment.

We are in a nanny share but I pack a lunch for DS (15 months) every day. We have a yumbox bento box that I use to pack his lunch. He doesn't seem to care if things are cold so as far as I know, our nanny serves him lunch cold. Some favorites are:

- diced up veggie burger (there's a random brand from Costco that is his absolute favorite or Dr. Praeger's is good, too)
- diced up chicken or turkey sausage (I love the applegate farms chicken apple sage breakfast sausage)
- diced up meatballs (usually homemade which I freeze for later; usually with some shredded zucchini for extra veggies)
- diced up roasted/grilled chicken or low-sodium deli turkey
- bread/english muffin/bagel pieces with PB, hummus, or cream cheese
- non-messy pasta (I make a combo of ditalini pasta with peas/broccoli, pureed butternut squash which they have packets of at Target, and some kind of cheese. it's not messy when it's cold and the ditalini is really easy for little hands to pick up!)
- random veggies: broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, peas
- veggie/potato cakes (the Dr. Praeger's brand - he likes the broccoli/potato and zucchini/carrot/broccoli ones. I think they have them at TJs, too)
- cheese
- any fruits (sliced) but especially blueberries, pears, clementines, or grapes

I also usually send an extra piece of fruit (banana or clementine), two pouches (one yogurt-based and one veggie-heavy), and a snack catcher with cereal (chex, cheerios) or annie's cheddar bunnies. He doesn't usually eat all or even most of the extras but when he's going through a growth spurt they come in handy!

@Canoli: It's the target "simply balanced" brand. it comes in a blue box. I think they're in the canned fruit/veggie aisle. here it is on the target website: http://www.target.com/p/sb-butternut-squash-veggie-add-in/-/A-21541588#prodSlot=medium_1_25