Nora’s preschool this year was from 12:00 to 2:30, which effectively meant that (with driving time) it precluded lunch completely. They had snacktime at school, of course, but it was often mostly crackers and fruit, and Nora would come home super tired and grouchy, eating everything in sight until dinner time. I guess she could have had lunch at 11:00 am, but since she just finished up breakfast around ten (we are not a family of morning people) she wasn’t ready to eat again yet before school.

Anyway, with some inspiration from this incredible Flickr set, I decided to start making a lunchbox for Nora on every school day. The idea was that she could eat anything from the box that she wanted before school, or as snacks throughout the afternoon, but that way I had some way to make sure that all her snacks were adding up to a decent, somewhat nutritionally sound “lunch” meal.

In concept, this was a huge success. Nora loved opening the fridge every morning to find her box inside, and then opening the box to discover what new treats I’d packed. I think her favorite part was the notes I wrote her and stuck to the lids–she taped them all up on the back of her door, which was so heartbreakingly cute. Unfortunately, Nora didn’t actually like a lot of the foods I made for her. Since she can’t eat peanut butter (or any nuts), I tried to get fancy with muffins and biscuits with savory things baked inside, or cream cheese sandwiches and rollups. We even tried wraps with Sunbutter and honey, which she HATED. But as long as I stuck to simple, not mixed-together foods that I already knew she would eat, things went great. Score one for moms everywhere!