Hellobee

Surprise your little one with a special lunch on St. Patrick’s Day. Your child won’t be able to resist this rainbow of veggies with a pot of gold at the end of it!

This lunch takes a little bit more time than your standard bento lunch, but it’s still simple enough that you can put it together in just a few minutes.

Ingredients needed:

• Diced tomatoes
• Diced steamed carrots (be sure they’re cooked until they’re soft and cut small enough that they’re not a choking hazard)
• Frozen corn
• Frozen peas
• Cheesy crackers such as Pepperidge Farm Goldfish or Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies

Equipment:

• a box to pack the lunch in
• paper or silicone baking cup

You will also need a couple of dividers to separate the strips of veggies as you pack them. I cut a few pieces of plastic out of some packaging but you could also use a spatula or your fingers to keep the veggies in place as you work.

Begin by placing the baking cup full of crackers in one end of the box. Insert the plastic divider into the box about 1/4 of distance from the top of the box. Fill the space you’ve created with tomatoes.

Put your second divider in at the halfway mark and place carrots in the space you’ve created. Hold the second divider in place and then carefully pull the first divider out from between the tomatoes and carrots.

Place the divider back into the box again and fill in with corn.

Fill the remaining space with peas and then gently pull both the dividers out of the box.

Depending on the age of your child and the size of her appetite, this could be a full lunch for her. If she is a little older or a big eater, you might want to add an additional box with a little protein and some other foods to fill her tummy.

You could also create the same look using fruit. In place of the vegetables, fill the bento box with strawberries or raspberries, cantaloup chunks, pineapple tidbits and kiwi pieces. Use cheese cubes or Cheerios to fill the “pot of gold”.