7/20/19: When I was in grade school in the late sixties and seventies, the lunches most mothers packed were somewhat uninspiring. But while the other kids got peanut butter and jelly or spam on Wonder Bread, my mother sent me to school with more eclectic offerings like cream cheese on homemade date nut bread, peanut butter and bananas, and deviled ham. I loved those lunches, but while they tasted great (and made my classmates jealous), I don’t remember being especially jazzed about how they looked.

Singapore-based mom Li Ming, however, goes the extra distance with her kids’ lunches. She sends her sons to school with Instagram-worthy one-of-a-kind bento boxes. Showoff.

“I started making charabens (Japanese boxed lunches) when [my older son] went to primary school in 2011. He missed me terribly then and had problems adjusting to the longer hours at primary school. I started packing him charabens, hoping to cheer him up and let him feel my presence and love through them. My younger boy loves the charabens I make for his brother and requested for them too.”

-Li Ming

Not satisfied with just creating gorgeous-looking, nutritionally-balanced lunches for her kids, the busy mom also shares step-by-step tutorials on her blog so we can try our hand at making them, too. How does she manage it?

You can follow Li Ming’s adorable Bento Monsters on her blog and on Instagram.