let's talk lunch...

My girls had 1/2 day Kinder last year so we didn't have to pack a lunch. First grade will of course be full day! Our usual lunch at home is 1/2 sandwich, yogurt, and some fruit. I'm guessing that's probably going to be enough to eat at lunchtime (timewise) but they will be gone from home for 7 1/2 hours so I'm wondering if it's enough food.

Who wants to share what sort of lunches they pack for their kiddos?

 

Last year Trevor always took a whole peanut butter sandwich (he would sometimes take turkey), crackers of some sort (goldfish, ritz, pretzels) and a sweet snack. If we had grapes or strawberries he would sometimes take them instead of the cracker snack. Sometimes he would take yogurt in place of his sandwich. Sometimes he would take an apple, but that took too long for him to eat. He would always take a water bottle to drink. He would generally finish all his lunch most days.


Emilie would take a half sandwich (sometimes whole, but generally) half...she will take PB,turkey, ham. And the same types of snacks a cracker type and a sweet snack. She would sometimes take a yogurt or cottage cheese in place of a sandwich. Again, if we had grapes or strawberries, she would take these instead of the cracker snack. Emilie talked more at lunch and generally did not finish her lunch.




I generally saved the fruit for them to eat at home and tried to pack a more "filling" lunch. Last year they ate lunch at 11am and were starving when they got home at 3:45pm. They got 30 min. to eat lunch in kindergarten and I think they only get 20 min. to eat lunch in first grade, so it's not a lot of time.


ETA: Emilie will take a cheese stick as well and both will take a granola bar too.

 

L&L don't eat meat and we are a nut free school, so feeding them has been a challenge. They have the Laptop Lunches Bento Boxes, so 4 containers to fill.

1. Usually one of the following: cheese sandwich (very occasionally they will have ham on it), jelly sandwich, crackers & cheese, muffin, banana bread, rice cake with cheese.
2. Then they always have a fruit (grapes, strawberries, apples (that I precut otherwise they won't finish in time), melon, mandarin oranges, pineapple, etc)
3. Then 2 from the following: veggies & dip, yogurt, applesauce, goldfish (or other small crackers), raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots, string cheese (if there isn't cheese already included in something else), pudding, etc.

They usually eat all of their lunch, plus they have snacks at recess (usually I pack a granola bar or a piece of fruit). If they don't eat all of their lunch, they finish it after school for their snack


Laptop Lunches

 

Great question! Meara is going through a stage where she insists she doesn't like sandwiches. Ana could live on PB&J but I'm pretty sure lunch will have to be tree nut free. And they both vary each day how much they will eat. Also I think I will have to send. 1-2 snacks per day as well so I'm stumped about which lunchbox to get them since it seems like I will be sending pounds of food with them each day!

Tina, do you make the granola bars that you send? I'm totally stumped on finding nut-free granola bars that I can pack for them. I thought that would be a good and filling snack.

 

One of my girls takes a yo crunch yogurt almost every day for lunch. Nestle's crunch is her favorite, then oreo then m&ms. I usually do crackers or pretzels as well as carrot sticks. I have done grilled chicken stripes. I have also make "lunchables" with ritz crackers, turkey and cheese cubes
They also had to bring a snack which i usually did cut up fruit (watermelon, melon, strawberries, cucumbers (fruit because it has seeds- but really a veggie). Sydney has taken broccoli and cauliflower I know once or twice i gave them romaine lettuce. Just don't remember if it was lunch or snack. They take their snack in a reusuable lunch bag. This year they got them from Old Navy for $5. I don't put an ice pack in it so it has to be stuff that will stay without ice. There lunch bags are hard sided with an ice pack so i don't have to worry about the yogurt .

 

Wow, my two eat so much food! No wonder they don't eat dinner.

We have in each lunchbox usually:

3x a week - an entire Sunbutter and Jelly sandwich on 15 grain whole wheat. They like the chewy breads :bad:
The other two times a week are either pizza day, or a chef boyardee little pasta bowl or hummus/pita
a juicebox
two fruits - usually one fresh and one dried or canned. (apple and cranberries, banana and raisins, grapes and mandarin oranges, blueberries and fruit leather)
a gogurt (I buy the natural ones when they're on sale and freeze them, they're thawed by lunch) or a cheese (Alice likes the babybels and the soft swiss wedges, Royce likes the string cheese)
and either a bag of chips (they get a whole prepackaged bag of chips) or a nutri-grain bar/fig newtons/graham crackers.

And depending on what they ate for dinner the night before, sometimes I give them two dairies (yogurt and cheese) or both chips and a dessert.

And they eat almost all of it every day. Sometimes they won't eat the second dairy (secondary? :lol or the second fruit.


ETA: I also make an entire loaf of sunbutter/jelly sandwiches every other Sunday night, cut them, then freeze them. That way during the week I only have to grab pre-made sandwiches. I also divide up the container of fruit and cookies/graham crackers into baggies. It takes 30 minutes to do all of the packaging and saves me so much frustration during the week.

 

I have made my own, but I usually buy them. Here, Costco has a nut free granola bar (Kirkland) and so does Quaker.

 

special K chcolate chip bar is nut free. It doesn't even have the warning about may contain nuts. We bought a box at costco, but my girls didn't like them.

 

My girls usually get:

half a sandwich (PB&J) or meat and cheese on little cocktail sticks or leftover soup/spaghetti/casserole in a thermos
fruit of some kind
veggie of some kind
sometimes gogurt natural or individual Activia vanilla yogurt, or a string cheese stick

They like to get leftover tacos in their lunch (taco shell, cheese, leftover meat).

They normally have milk or water in a thermos, an Honest Kids or Fruitables drink box, or a Kirkland organic chocolate milk box.

I let them pick a hot lunch once a week (ours are pretty healthy). And they get to buy a whole grain cookie twice a week.

ETA: In kindi my girls had 2 snacks a day, and they were supposed to be healthy snacks (although some parents didn't follow that rule). I am hoping they still get snacktime in first grade.

 

Leighann- here is a good recipe for granola bars that I have made. I have not added the coconut and only cook for 20 min. (not the 40 min they suggest). They are really good!!

http://weelicious.com/2011/09/06/chocolate-chip-granola-bars/

 

Wow, I'm amazed at how much your kiddo's eat and that some of them even get snack times!! Sean never did, he's going into 5th grade this year.

From kindergarten to 3rd grade Sean had a sandwich, a thermos of juice/water, and a yogurt, or cheese stick, or applesauce, pudding, crackers....etc. He'd never finish fruit too, they get 20 mins for lunch and no snack time.

4th grade we let him start buying lunch at school. He'd take a bottle of water (milk upsets his stomach), and then eat lunch at school.

This year he's in 5th grade and Kaelyn starts kindergarten, we're going back to mainly packed lunches, he can buy lunch as a treat once a week or so.

 

at this point its cheaper for me to let them eat lunch in school than to pack it - but I would pack PB&J for Ian and turkey for Abby...I don't know if they'll get snack in 1st grade...

 

I don't mean to go off on a different topic, but what do your kids do with their lunch box when their finished eating. Do they have to hold onto it for the entire lunch period or do they get to go put it in their classrooms. My daughter will be attending public school for the first time, starting first grade. So were new to all this. I ask because she will have a 50 minute lunch period and I'm worried about her losing it if she has to hold onto it the whole time.

 

In Kindergarten, the kids put their lunch boxes in a tub that was labeled with their teacher's name. The aides brought the tub to the classroom after lunch and the kids got them when it was recess or time to get ready for home.

In 1st and 2nd grade the kids take their lunch box back to their classroom and drop it off on their way outside. In 5th grade, the kids take their lunch boxes outside and put them by the door they come through after lunch. Now sure what they do in the 3rd and 4th grades.

 

Holy cow, 50 min for lunch. :woah: The kids at our school have to hold onto their lunch bags the entire lunch shift, but it's fine because they sit at the table the entire time and then they walk back to the classroom and put them away. If the grade has recess right after lunch then as they are going out to recess they would put the lunch bag in a tub with their teacher's name on it. But no, kids at our school can not just get up during lunch and take their lunch bag back to their classroom.

 

We pack the following for the kids lunch at daycare:
- 1 sandwich (varies between PB&J, turkey or ham)
- Small container of fresh fruit
- Small container of cut of veggies (cucumbers, mini peppers, cherry tomatoes)
- 1 string cheese
- 1 container of applesauce, yogurt or jello
- 1 granola bar

One thing is usually saved for their afternoon snack. Sometimes they ask for raisins or goldfish, but not that often.

 

My son buys lunch 3 days a week and 2 days we pack. Honestly, it gets him the variety he needs because the school makes him take all of the lunch components and he eats them. For the days we pack, he gets a turkey sandwich, yogurt, fruit, and sun chips. He also get a snack time each day around 10 am so we send in yogurt pretzels, chex mix, or some sort of granola bar for him.

 

Im a mean mom and make them eat school lunches. I may start letting jessy take hers if we start having weight issues again. We are nut free only on class snacks so I can send her whatever

 

Our school (which is pre-school, kindi, and first grades only) has wagons for each classroom and the kids put their lunches in there each morning. There's a wagon puller who takes it to the lunchroom each day, and then an aide returns it to the classroom later with their finished lunch bags/boxes in it.

Is the 50 minutes their whole lunch period (eating time and recess)? I think ours is about that long combined.

 

My kids carry their lunchboxes to and from the cafeteria. And, they still get snack in 5th grade. For Marcus, I pack a sandwich, usually roast beef with lettuce and tomato, and some snacks--including some kind of fruit. What he doesn't eat at lunch, he eats for snack. Jonathan brings 2 bags, one for snack with a water, cheese stick, and banana or apple (he was getting daily headaches, so the ped said no carbs for snack). For lunch, he takes nutella and banana sandwiches, chips, applesause and a granola bar. Marcus does buy lunch 2-3 days a week, depending on the menu. Jonathan rarely buys.

 

I absolutely hate fixing lunch! I'd rather plan and cook 100 dinners than a week of lunches. Our school lunches are super unhealthy, but we buy them anyway lol. . .

 

My kids are picky. Zoe will never get a tray, even if it was all icecream she would bring her lunch. She takes, turkey slices or pepporoni slices, goldfish crackers, banana & a fun sized Hershey bar. She also will only drink water.

Allison has a similar lunch but she stinks up the cafeteria with canned chicken (it smells horrible). She normally will get the tray.

The girls take their lunch pale to the cafeteria and they take them out to the playground at recess and pick them back up on the way in.