An introduction..

Hi everyone.
Thank you for your interest in Baby Lunchbox. I am thrilled to see so many comments. To answer your questions...
I bought the rectangle glass container made by GlassLock (it has a plastic snap shut lid) at Bed, Bath and Beyond. The jars are left over baby food jars from puree days. As you can probably guess I made my purees but I did try a few store bought ones early on. I didn't like them much but the jars have been very useful.
I really don't have a lot of time to cook. I am a single mom that works four days a week so for those days in particular I need to be organized. I have worked in restaurants for years so I may have a different approach. I stay ahead of the food preparation, cooking the basic elements in batches and just mix up a small portion of salad or whatever that day. I pretty much always have a few different blanched vegetables and one cooked grain (quinoa, rice, orzo, or lentils etc) in the fridge. I am certainly not starting from scratch every day. A lot of things, like the roasted fish, are leftovers from dinner. I always have the basics like cheese, ham, tomato and fruit in the fridge and couscous in the cupboard in case I am in a bind.

I often cook at night usually while I am working or catching up on email. Not every night and no more than one thing and when I say cook I mean I try to put something on the stove- a whole chicken to simmer, a pot of beets or barley or I blanch pasta or a green vegetable - things that set me up for a few days, nothing complicated. I also often end up cooking something during at least one nap on the weekend.

My childcare is a nanny share arrangement where the nanny comes and picks my daughter up and takes the two kids to the park and then to the other mother's house to
nap. I pack her lunch in a large zip lock bag with her milk and water and the nanny transports it in a diaper bag. If it were in my bag running off to daycare I could guarantee it would get jumbled up but I know it survives its journey because I often see the leftovers still in their straight lines!

I would like to say that not everything in the lunchboxes is a hit with my daughter. I always make sure there is a few things I know she likes just incase and there is a lot of food there.. she rarely finishes the whole thing.

Thanks again, please check back,

Chloe