Plastic helpers

This week is turning out to be more hectic than planned!

After having sleepover guests on Monday, we now have a dentist visit planned for Wednesday, and there's no school on Friday (teachers' workshop), so we won't have much opportunity to pack lunches at all (whew!).

Yesterday's menu of fried rice and meatballs, grapes and cherries were well received and today after sleeping in, we fell back on the sandwich and nuggets option. So today, instead of a nicely packed lunch, I will share the "tools of the trade".

On the top left are the three plastic rice shapers - a rabbit, dog, and bear (sold in a set of 3). The bottom trio are sauce containers, for ketchup, mayonnaise, or mustard, that open up and seal tightly (sold in a set of 3). On the top right are plastic containers of various shapes and colors (sold in a set of 6, two of each shown). These are useful for packing small portions of food without having to worry about it all getting mixed up. I tried looking for colorful silicone cupcake liners - I thought they used to have them at Crate & Barrel but could only find them at Williams-Sonoma for $24.00. Each of these sets were $1~$1.50 at Daiso (which is also conveniently located between work and home), so compared to $24.00, I think I got a good deal!

What I really need is the 180mL Lock&Lock rectangular container, which I think is the right size for a preschooler's lunch. It's difficult working with the 330mL that I have now, because there's a lot of space to fill, and if you don't pack tightly, then all the food will move around and get mixed up. So what happens is, you pack food knowing you will have leftovers (although I've been pleasantly surprised a few times with a completely empty container). But for some reason, I can't find these 180mL containers anywhere in the US, even online.

Wish us luck with the dentist. We'll be posting more when life returns to normal.