My wife Sharon is … awesome.
For years I worked as a freelance filmmaker. Over those years, Sharon and I worked very hard to be frugal and yet still have fun. Going out to lunch was a rare treat, particularly with 3 ravenous kids. So she did the only thing an awesome mom knows how to do… she made eating “boxed lunches” FUN! I present to you, Sharon’s Crazy Cool Kid Lunches.
Keep in mind, Sharon is a former accountant, who is going back to school for forensic chemistry. If you ask her why she does it, she’ll tell you something like, “I just want to get it all done at once so I don’t have to worry about it for another week. It’s practical.” She believes she doesn’t have a creative bone in her body. I disagree.
Sharon took photos of her creations over the years and shared them on Facebook, like any self-respecting mother would do. But today, I use the power of the Internet, and the hundreds of millions of followers of my blog to give her the true motherly awesomeness of recognition she deserves. I sorted through hundreds and hundreds of photos to find some of my favorites to share.
So, in a way, this blog post is to say thank you Sharon! Thank you for being an awesome Mom and doing what you do. Thank you for taking care of our little kiddo’s tummies, and mine too. I love you!
The Process
Sharon bought several sets of the Bento Easy Lunchboxes from Amazon. There are 5 of us in our family, 5 days in a work week, and yes she makes all 25 lunches at the same time. The supplies take up an entire cabinet in our kitchen.
Saturday mornings usually involve cooking from 7am until about 11am or so to make all the lunches. As you can imagine some lunches are more complex requiring cooking and baking, like meatballs, burritos, and chicken. Most others can be quickly assembled from off the shelf ingredients like cheese, crackers, peanut butter, bagels, etc. Every week’s meals usually has a good balance between them.
Keeping things organized in the lunch container is key. Meals like cheese and crackers, as simple as they may seem, can become a kid’s disaster if all the parts get mixed up. Small containers help hold and separate smaller pieces of the lunch. Also, you have to use the separate sections of the container to keep moist food moist, and crispy food crispy. It’s an art.
When they’re all done, they go into the refrigerator in stacks. When they’re completed, they dominate a large portion of the space.
The lids are color-coded, and we each are assigned a color. So, in the morning when packing the lunch boxes, the kids know what color to grab.
About the Author
Webb Pickersgill is a father of 3 awesome kids, and husband to an awesome wife. When he’s not busy eating the fun and creative lunches made by his wife Sharon, he is apparently blogging about it and some other things too.
