Do you know this phrase? Controlling the Controllable. Or should I say, have you heard of this condition? Symptoms include:
-Adding tasks to your to-do list even after you’ve completed them, just so you can experience the satisfaction of crossing that task off the list.
-Having a sudden irrepressible urge to rearrange your sock drawer or color-code your bookshelf or clean the living room blinds with a toothbrush after reading a terrible story in the newspaper.
-Recording what will be for dinner or what has been for dinner every night for going on fourteen straight years, even when those dinners consist of a pasta-potato-buttered-biscuit starchfest (picky toddlers) or a microwaved Boca Burger, which was as imaginative as it was going to get after a long day at the office  (picky bosses).
-Organizing your grocery list by supermarket aisle.
-Mentally spreadsheeting the time your children spend with you versus the time they spend in childcare or with a babysitter or nanny. (And hoping you will come out ahead.)
-Having the fleeting thought If I could make all corners of my life look and feel as orderly as this compartmentalized lunchbox by PlanetBox, then I can accomplish anything.
A little more about this PlanetBox, which is the first in a series of DALS holiday giveaways. The above photo is the lunch my daughter took with her to school this morning, and when I packed it last night after dinner (it was my turn) I employed the same lunch-packing formula I always employ when it’s the end of the day and there’s been some Pinot Noir and not one more brain cell is available for functioning. It goes like this:
Something Crunchy (crackers) + Something Fresh (edamame, clementines)Â + Something Leftover From Dinner (crazy delicious Trader Joe’s buttermilk biscuit — stuffed with ham and cheese)Â + Something Sweet (iced gingerbread cookie) = Lunch!
And yes, in case you are wondering. Employing formulas to complete basic everyday household tasks? Another grave symptom of The Condition.
Your kid can customize the PlanetBox with his or her choice of magnet decals. This one is “Modern Art….”
…And this one is “Under the Sea,” but they have over a dozen more to choose from. PlanetBoxes are made from non-toxic stainless steel and come with a carrying case (with thermos pocket) and two smaller steel containers. FREE PlanetBox goes to a DALS commenter chosen at random, with special consideration going to those who have inspired lunch ideas. Winner announced on Monday.
Update: The winner of the PlanetBox goes to Ingrid. Thanks to everyone for playing and especially for the fantastic ideas.
PS: The next giveaway will be announced very soon and will be for newsletter subscribers only.
Our daughter is only 10 months but refuses to be spoonfed, so we do a kind of formula: protein (beans or tofu), vegetable (sweet potato, avocado, beets) and fruit (banana, usually). Occasionally we leave cheese too, but if there’s cheese on the table, she refuses to eat anything else!
Hi again. To the mom who asked if the food stays fresh if packed the night before: YES, YES, YES! Not only does it stay fresh, but it stays IN PLACE… exactly as you place it… so even if Junior tosses his planetbox around like a football at recess, his food is still separate, organized, and tasty at the lunch table! Also, to the mom who has a 9-year-old big eater: my son just turned 10… he is 5’2″ tall and weighs in at 150 lbs. He is built like a linebacker and eats like one. He will eat anything (and everything) I put in his planetbox and tells me that it is always enough. The visual you get when you see the 5 different foods (more if you have something in one of the dipper containers that it comes with) tricks his mind into thinking there is more than there is… and believe me, there is PLENTY. The portion sizes are appropriate and that makes him eat healthier. Also, I have noticed that when he serves himself at dinner, he will cut the portion of, say, pasta to what I would put in his planet box. It has definately made him (and me!) at controlling portions. This morning, he had maybe 7 chips in one of the compartments… if I was still packing lunches in plastic baggies, he would have had twice that many… but he is content! We do not shop at Trader Joes as the nearest one is 30 miles away… my kid gets normal everyday food… but a planetbox section filled with cut up carrots/brocolli/etc with some fat free ranch or yogurt in the little dipper is just as easy and just as healthy… and yes, he gets sweets… but he comes home completely satisfied with 5 m&ms or one mini cookie because it FILLS that little tiny section on top. I cannot say a bad word about the planetbox… we LOVE it. His friend recently told his mom that Justin’s is the “coolest lunchbox on the planet” and that’s why it’s called the planetbox. High praise from a 10 y/o boy!
I like to mix it up with a theme lunch like all orange for Halloween – mac and cheese, clementine, carrots, butternut squash, BBQ chips, and candy corn.
But where in these boxes is the space for my beloved napkin note??
In the bottom of my daughters’ bento boxes this morning (which had two stacking compartments): a layer of brown rice topped with leftover Thanksgiving turkey soboro, some grated raw carrot, and peas, still frozen, that will defrost by lunchtime. In the top compartment were apple slices, four cubes of fresh pineapple, and a tiny square of homemade butterscotch blondie. (Made by the daughters last night, not me). The turkey soboro was made by finely chopping some leftover scraps of dark and white meat turkey with one bunch of green onions in the food processor, then sauteing it in a frying pan with some mirin and salt. It’s really tasty, especially the crispy browned bits. The boxes look small, but when you pack tightly it’s plenty of food, even for my ravenous teenagers.
I’ll buy the Pinot if you pack my lunch!!!
Inspired lunch ideas? I don’t know about that — you’re talking to a woman who has been known to send pb and j on a tortilla (“It’s a wrap! It’s fun!”) in a pinch.
That is a mighty fine lunch box, though.
Yikes! I do pretty much everything on your list except keep the daily food diary!
When I don’t have time to pack E a decent school lunch, I do “homemade lunchables” with crackers, lunch meat cut into squares, and cheese that E cuts out with cookie cutters while I’m prepping the meat and crackers. It won’t win me any parenting awards, but it works in a pinch. 🙂
I have three boys—the first has a laptop lunches box that we love (and that has survived three years of daily lunches). Cheers for dishwasher safe.
My middlest has a Pottery Barn box that drives us nuts—too many odd size compartments and fits too snugly in its bag/case (imo).
The youngest is about to start school and we’d love to try this case. We try to mix it up, lunch-wise, but stick to a protein, veggie, fruit and treat most days. PB&nutella was something we probably never should have tried, as that’s their fav now. We freeze Horizon yogurt tubes so they are still cool by lunch time. Cherry tomatoes and red pepper strips are go-to veggies. Thanks for the visual reminders that Cuties/clementines are back in season!
Am I too late? I don’t know that I have “inspired” lunch ideas as I follow the something crunchy- something fresh- something protein formula. My daughter is in a nut-free school so her protein varies between an organic milk/cheese or turkey roll ups. That lunchbox is super cool. I might want one just for me.
I’m a fan of peanut butter, honey, and sunflower seeds rolled up in a tortilla–uses all the leftover tortillas from taco night. With an apple and some yogurt and maybe a crunchy cookie treat it’s the perfect lunch!
I love this planetbox! I adore anything that has cute packaging, and when the product itself IS the cute packaging – consider my mind blown.
Lunches are interesting in our house. Every morning, I wake up and make my BF his sandwich while he makes our coffee. I cut it into triangles, and pack with a string cheese, every day, and he loves it. [And he’s 32!]
I, on the other hand, am much more difficult, especially if I try to think about my lunch in the morning. I find I’m much more satisfied on days when I pre-pack my lunch at night, and make sure to include both cold items and ones that can be warmed – I never know what I’m going to be in the mood for the next day!
I love to make a big tray of baked mac n cheese for dinner, and freeze off lunch sized portions from the leftovers. These nuke great at work and with a salad or some fresh fruit feel like a real meal.
Those planetboxes seem to make any lunch infinitely cooler and more appealing (…or at least they are more fun to make). We do lots of leftovers for school lunches, wraps, and sunflower seed butter sandwiches cut out in funny shapes with cookie cutters.
So many good tips! Especially the link to the vegetarianlunchbox blog on comment 80, which I couldn’t bookmark fast enough.
Also, I love the fact that this planetbox can be washed all in one go, as opposed to the pile of tupperwares that are the bane of my weeknight routine.
I’m not packing for kids, but here’s my tip: sometimes on the weekend, I make a huge pan of mixed roasted vegetables. I always include chopped onion and red bell pepper, mixed with either broccoli or asparagus.
My favorite thing to do with them is to mix with rotini, feta or mozzarella, Italian dressing, and maybe diced broiled chicken breast to make a hearty pasta salad. It keeps all week and doesn’t have to be heated up at lunch. But the roasted veggies are really versatile. They can be tossed with quinoa, cooked into a frittata or used as a pizza topping… all tasty as cold leftovers!
My all time most inspired lunch was a camp lunch I had packed of veggie sushi roll, edamame, small salad with japanese dressing on the side and rice krispy treats that my son and I made together. I packed it in a bento box and my friend who picked my son up marveled at how beautiful the lunch was. She saw what I had packed him because the entire lunch came back untouched. So I didn’t make that lunch again.
As I read this over lunch, I am most inspired by the stainless steel lunchbox. We recently converted our kitchen/food storage over to glass from plastic as we are trying to get away from toxins and BPAs. I think these lunchboxes are a great idea!
For lunch today, leftovers from last night – lemon and basil chicken in coconut curry soup (adapted from the last version of Martha Stewart Living). Make the chicken! We barely made it into the soup because we could not stop snacking on it! Super easy and really delicious.
OMG – I would *love* to win one of those PlanetBox lunch boxes…they are so cool!!
My only packing-the-kid-lunch tricks are these:
* my husband does it. seriously, every morning before he leaves for work. i don’t know how i lucked out into this, but i don’t question it! (i take care of making dinner and most other meals, so i think he was happy to find his meal niche and he’s sticking to it – works for me! 🙂
* each day, he includes a note or napkin with a drawing of a silly face and a reminder to PURELL! (small bottle of purell is tucked into a side pocket of her lunch box.) it’s germ season in our daughter’s school and we are desperate to avoid the stomach flu. as much as we exhort her to wash with soap and water in the bathroom, we figure a squirt of purell pre-lunch can’t hurt….
* strangely enough, our kid appears to be MORE willing to try strange/healthy/off-the-beaten-track foods at lunch as opposed to here at our dinner table. who knows why? my guess is that she’s chatting so much with friends she barely notices that new fruit or veggie she’s just snacked away on… in any case, this was my inspiration/discovery of the year and i’m working it to the max! pomegranate seeds, cucumbers, even leftover quinoa with sweet potatoes – all were a hit, at lunch!
thanks for all the other great suggestions, everyone – and for this awesome blog, jenny!
I wish I had inspired lunch ideas for kids. I don’t.
But I have a good one for lunch boxes. The schools in our area aim for “no-trash lunches” (genius–good for the environment and cheaper for the school with less waste pickup) so paper napkins are discouraged. I love(d) writing notes on the napkins and hated to change, but I thought: what if the napkin itself was the memory? So we bought a cheap 12-pack of white cotton napkins at Target and tie-dyed them together as a family. (This is not a skill of mine. I begged a crafty friend to help. Yes, I am that craft-challenged.) That way, they have a memory of a fun family activity every day in their lunchbox and are still no-trash compliant. And if I “need” to write a note, paper still works.
I often make onigiri (Japanese rice balls) filled with some kind of protein– leftover chicken/salmon/tuna, etc– and a little Kewpie mayo for my daughter’s lunch. The nori stays separate because she likes it to stay crisp, and some extra always gets packed because she likes to snack on it. Then I just add a fruit and a homemade treat of some kind– muffin, granola bar, larabar, etc.
Are you really reading all of these? 🙂
When there’s nothing in the house and I have to pack lunches, it’s always pepperoni, cheese, crackers and frozen edamame that will work in place of an ice pack.
My 7 year old would love this lunch box–she’s so over Barbie and I’m not giving in.
Inspired lunch ideas….mmmm…every morning between 6 and 7 am, I have to be inspired! My approach is much more boring than yours….veggies plus something to dip in (here is where the inspiration comes in…leftover homemade Caesar dressing mixed with yogurt…darn, it’s moldy, well then, mayo…no dressing, mushed up garlic/salt pepper with any of the following yogurt/mayo/sourcream/cream cheese)…..if there are left over meatballs (usually thai or Vietnamese style) then the dip is peanut butter with Hoisin, lemon and thinned with water. If we are short on protien, its tuna/salmon dip (just add mayo!).
Then some sort of protien – sometimes leftover (like meatballs), sometimes deli selections (meats and cheeses) cut in cubes with toothpick.
Then fruit — by far their favourite is fresh raspberries stuffed with choc chips! It doesn’t take very long and the kids eat it! Other favourites are frozen apple sauce with yogurt, pomingranite and other berries.
Some sort of baked good (cookies, muffins or bars) which we bake on the weekend (always cutting the sugar by 1/2!) and freeze. If we had a busy weekend, it is nuts/raisins/seeds mix, and if they haven’t had anything else with too much sugar, choc chips or smarties.
We also freqently make soup –so a thermos of that and crackers or some sort of bread. In winter, we often pack pasta and sauce (really, it is easier than making sandwiches!).
The other type of lunch they love is some sort of roll (e.g., salad roll) — using left-over chicken or salmon or meatballs, veggies and noodles/rice wrapped in rice paper, lettuce or nori with the peanut/hoisin dipping sauce….
If all else fails (meaning there is very little in the house), it is a sandwich or a wrap….tuna salad is the family fall back!
Thanks for the chance to win such a cool lunch box (I have to say, finding all the containers to put everything in is the biggest stressor of making lunch…where do all those lids go?)
We’ve got one of those ultra- picky eaters in the house. I’ve found the best way to get her to eat fruit is to pack applesauce with teddy grahams for dipping. Sometime’s she’ll actually finish the applesauce after the Grahams are gone!
My lunch inspiration? A fabulous school with an amazing cook that uses the school’s own organic garden vegetables in the kids’ vegetarian lunches. I just don’t know what I’ll do when my preschooler gets to eat there and won’t touch a vegetable!
The lunchbox is strictly for me! I am great with leftovers and vegetables – I just don’t like it when my food touches!
I think I’ve packed leftovers every day for the past month. So easy and so good.
Inspired is what I would like (to pack or to eat, if it were being packed for me) but my kids seem to prefer dull (comforting?) routine. Our formula is a protein, carb, fruit, veggie and treat.
A great lunch box like this would (might) inspire me in the mornings. I try to pack something that has protein and something that was alive in the recient past. I always figure that if lunch is a miss, my son will eat a lot of dinner 🙂 Thanks for the chance.