School Lunch Box - Pesto Pasta & Snacks

I make this school lunch for my daughter the morning after we've had pesto pasta as part of our dinner. She loves it on its own for dinner, and we like to add either shrimp or some simple roast salmon on the side. This version of pesto does not include nuts, using pepitas instead. You can sub in vegan parmesan to keep the pasta vegan and sub GF pasta if you are GF.

I've included the recipe for the pesto pasta below in case you don't have the leftovers to use and you want to make a fresh batch (this will make a big batch enough to serve 4). You can scale up or down how much pasta you cook off and toss with the pesto if you're only making one or two servings. Refrigerate or freeze the leftover pesto.

*Tips for bento boxes:

- They work best when you fill up the compartments all the way, otherwise the ingredients have room to move around and get messy.

- Always have at least 1 item you know your kid will eat, then feel free to experiment a little.

- Leftover fruit, pancakes, etc from breakfast? Add it in. I find when Aila likes something in the morning she is still interested in it later in the day, and you'll waste less food.

*Note: Aila's school is nut free, so I will only ever have no-nut or nut-free-alternative foods in her lunch. She is also allergic to raw or whole egg, so there will never be any hard boiled eggs, frittatas, mayo, store bought salad dressing like ranch, etc in her lunch, until she grows out of it!*

*Everything in these lunch boxes can be eaten cold / room temperature - they don't need to be heated up. I suggest adding an ice pack to whatever bag or carrier you put your lunchbox in to keep everything as fresh as possible.*

Makes 1 lunchbox.