What's for lunch?

It's no secret that my dear, sweet, second born daughter is a difficult eater. The funny thing is that when she was a baby, I made all of her baby foods and she had quite a varied and healthy diet. Some time shortly after her first birthday that all changed.

It all started with her refusal to eat any fruit except strawberries. Then she refused to try any vegetable in solid form preferring only the mashed "baby foods." I actually gave her baby food veggies until she was about 3.5 because she loved eating "sauce," but wouldn't touch them in whole form.

Here's the thing though...Claire does eat a lot of different foods that I rarely see other toddlers eating. She just doesn't eat a lot of "regular foods." She's loved calamari since she had it for the first time when she was 2. Mexican and Thai food are two of her favorite cuisines...give that girl some refried beans or fish cakes and she'll lick the plate clean. Give her a donut and she'll freak out because they are "begusting!" (not that she's ever tried one!)

Since we moved to California in August she's made a huge effort to try new things. One of the first days here she told me she'd love to have apples at Subway. The last time she ate an apple she was 10 months old! She loved them. I've since broken her out of her 3 year fruit rut when she would only eat strawberries. She's also discovered that green beans, peas, and broccoli are delicious.

In an effort to get her to try more things and make lunch a fun event for us, I've decided that we're doing "bento" lunches. Although I do have some authentic bento boxes that I purchased in Japan, I decided that for now we're going to use some cute sectioned plates I bought at the Target dollar spot instead.

Here's the first bento that I made for her. She's got a turkey and cheese quesadilla with salsa and sour cream for dipping. For her dessert, she had cherries and raspberries with whipped cream for dipping. Claire just discovered that she LOVES both of these fruits.Our second bento was a quick lunch I threw together. She had a turkey and cheese sandwich with a unicorn shaped cheese (I bought a bunch of awesome cookie cutters at Sur la Table including this unicorn one.), cherry and apricot skewers, whipped cream, and some yogurt.
The third bento she had was met with mixed results. Claire devoured the leftover kung pao chicken and heart shaped rice patties (made with mini heart cookie cutters). She had a few cherries, but I think she was a little full from the chicken. I have to give her credit though, she did enthusiastically pick up one of the sugar snap peas...but she did not like them. Not even with the ranch dressing and she'll eat almost anything dipped in the ranch.
Stay tuned for more kid-friendly bento lunches!