Share your lunch ideas . . .

With school starting, or about to start for all of us, I'm certain there are lots of mama's out there packing lunches for your kiddos. This is one of my least favorite things to do. I don't know why I struggle with it so much, but I do. And this year I'll have three kids to pack a lunch for. Ick! So, please, share some of your kids favorite "cold" lunches that you send to school with them.

 

Did you read the article about 90% or so of kids lunches are not properly kept cool. We are trying to get the girls to eat more so we are making them eat in the cafeteria

 

We are doing 3 days packed lunch, 2 days eat in the cafeteria. Most of the packed lunches will involve a sandwich which will come on white bread, hard roll or as a wrap. I also bought a funtainer so I will be sending in warm pasta and nuggets for him at times. While for Aaron, the main lunch will stay the same, I am going to vary his sides (veggies, crackers, yogurt, fruits etc) to give him variety.

 

I was thinking of doing a calendar, like

Mondays - PB&J or Sunbutter & J
Tuesdays - Hummus & pita
Wednesdays - PB&J or Sunbutter & J
Thursdays - Chicken nuggets
Fridays are pizza day at the school

Sides would be:
one veggie or fruit
one yogurt
one bag of chips/pretzels


I can freeze PB&Js so I would probably make a loaf at a time. I'd also be on the same lunch schedule as the kids, and my husband too, so I would be making four lunches nightly.

 

I will have to pack 3 lunches this year. :wacko:


Each day they will get a sandwich, yogurt or my oldest DD likes to take cottage cheese.

Then they will have grapes, carrots, apple or banana, cheese stick.

And then a cracker type thing and/or a sweet (cookie, brownie, etc).


I always make sure I pack 2-3 ice packs in the lunch bag to be sure it stays cool. :good: I only let my kids buy lunch 1-2 times a month. It takes WAY too long to get through the lunch line and I don't think they get enough food with buying the school lunch. ardon:

 

Here is a website full of pictures of packed Laptop/Bento lunchboxes.

 

There's currently a thread like this over in cooking if anyone wants to wander over there

I do 3 lunches a night. The kids and dh's. The kids have the option to buy. They get 30 mins to eat and they are the first ones in the cafeteria. So, no long lines and plenty of time. The kids get sandwiches, cracker sandwiches, yogurt, or cheese sticks. Then we have a variety of fruits and veggies as sides. They usually buy once or twice a week, depending on the menu. Neither of my kids are mac and cheese or soup fans so we don't mess with a thermos. We have insulated lunch bags with ice packs. I make up the night before and then keep everything in the refrigerator. Then in the morning, I add the ice packs to an already cold lunch.

Dh has access to a microwave so he gets more leftoverish type stuff.

Marissa

 

I've only been doing this for 5 days, but it's getting easier as long as I don't stress about variety!

We have a huge selection of packaged snack foods (DH bought out the snack section at Costco last weekend). Not the healthiest stuff, but decent -- all-fruit gummies, veggie straws, Nutrigrain bars, etc. They each get two of those per day, plus their YMCA after-school program provides a snack (usually an apple and crackers or something).

For the "main" lunch, Amy gets either a sandwich (PB&J or turkey) or leftover pasta kept warm in a thermos. Sarah won't eat sandwiches (or much else), so she gets either yogurt or leftover pasta. Then they each also get some kind of fruit.

It's kind of a pain to deal with warm food in the morning (since I have to boil water to warm up the thermoses, then heat the food and transfer it, while also making breakfast and getting everything else ready for school/work), but it's also a lifesaver because otherwise I have no idea what Sarah would eat.

DH got them to agree to buy hot lunch once a week (usually Mondays -- cheese pizza day) to save me a little trouble. ETA: As kindergarteners they eat first, so they have plenty of time for this. We'll see how it works next year!

 

I plan on doing some fun stuff like this. My girls will eat PB&J sandwiches, but anything else on bread they don't seem to eat well. So I'll probably put rolled turkey or ham and cheese on little kabob sticks, hot stuff in a thermos, various things. They also have to have 2 healthy snacks a day sent. Things that will be common are:

Gogurt all naturals (frozen, thawed by the time they eat it)
cheese sticks
fruit of any variety
cucumbers or carrots with yogurt ranch dipping sauce
homemade zucchini or pumpkin muffins
cheese and crackers
fruit chips (they sell these at Costco)
applesauce (no sugar added)
fruit cups (no sugar added)
hard boiled eggs

I am just going to use several ice packs. I survived my youth with packed lunches (bologna, ham, you name it) and I know my mom wasn't putting ice packs in mine. I will probably freeze/half freeze their drinks too...I'll have to start playing around with that to see what thaws by what time of day.

 

I will be packing 3 kids lunches this year too and then my dh's.

My one daughter eats cream cheese and jelly on bread, just jelly on bread and that's about it she will eat that all year round. We used to make more pb&j sandwiches but then they decided they didn't like that since they had to sit at a different table so no more peanut butter.

My other daughter doesn't really like sandwiches and she likes a variety of things and doesn't want the same thing all the time so she is harder to make a main thing for. So she will eat (my other daughter will also eat this stuff sometimes) left over homemade mac and cheese, leftover chili, just cut up slices of pepperoni, rolled up salami, ham, turkey, cut up cheese (usually cheddar). I am assuming my son will eat a cheese sandwich every day since that is what he eats now.

Besides a main sandwich/food they also get a yogurt and then one daughter eats mandarin oranges in 100%juice everyday as a snack (they are supposed to pack one snack a day for after lunch later in the day something healthy or they can't have it), the other one gets an apple every day. Some side things are pretzels, grapes, cheez-its, jello, pudding, I just bought some all natural snack bags (can't remember what they're called), graham crackers, granola bars (either homemade or nature valley).

I am sure there are other things but those are the mains things I can think of, we start school in 2 weeks.
I also fill up a water bottle everyday with water and sometimes add a juice box if I can't fit the water bottle in the lunch box with the other food since the juice box is smaller.

My kids are aloud to buy lunch 4 to 5 times a year. For lunch all the same grade eats at once so sometimes one of my girls classes are first in line and sometimes not you never know so if you are buying lunch you don't always have time to eat it (we have over 70 kids in the grade level for them).

 

I am ordering L&L those Laptop Lunch kits for their birthday (exciting present, right?! :lol: ). The only sandwiches they will eat are PB&J or grilled cheese. We are at a nut free school so PB&J is out and, of course, grilled cheese isn't that great cold. So, I will be using those laptop lunch kits to send a variety of foods. Crackers, cheese, different fruits, yogurt, veggies & dip, bagels, muffins, etc. I hope to make them the night before, but we will see how long that lasts!

 

I pack 2-3 lunches a week. There are certain things the girls like in the cafeteria, and some stuff they can't stand, so we pack only on those days. I love my pampered chef sandwich cut-n-seal, so I make lots of PB&J's and use the cut-n-seal on them. The girls love ham and cheese, so we do ham and cheese, crackers. Then for sides we do broccoli, carrots, applesauce, frozen yogurt, and/or fresh fruit. Then for dessert I will pack pudding snacks, teddy grahams or cheeze its or some kind of little pack of cookies, or sometimes for a big treat a fruit roll up. That's about as creative as I get. In the winter, I will get a small thermos and pack some soup.

 

My DD won't eat hot foods for lunch so it is always a sandwich (no nuts allowed so her favourite: Nutella is for breakfast only).

I always try to include four items:

Sandwich
one piece fruit or half carrot
2 snacks - small packet chips/LCMs/Cheese stick/brownies/raisins/goghurt

Sandwich ideas: (which has taken me five years to get right for her!)
white bread/wraps/rolls
Turkey, lettuce, cream cheese and cranberry sauce
Cream cheese and cucumber (sliced and peeled)
Cream cheese and grated carrot
Chicken, mayo and lettuce
sometimes ham instead of turkey and chicken

Canteen (cafeteria) once a week usually on a Wednesday to break up the monotony!

In the summer, as soon as she gets home from school, she refills her water bottle and puts it in the freezer for the next day.

 

Thanks for sharing all your ideas. I really do hate packing lunches. I'm packing for my three, and myself. My kids, I believe, have plenty of time to eat. For me, it's a cost issue. It costs $2.50 per child, per lunch. That's $37.50 each week and $150 every month. I'll have to track my expenses, but I'm fairly certain I can pack them decent lunches for far less than that.

How much do school lunches cost where you are?

 

No school lunches here, all kids take their lunch & eat at their desks. Once a week they get "hot lunch" which is brought in from Subway, Boston Pizza, Little Caesars, Wrapzone, Booster Juice, etc. We fill out order forms twice a year for those days, totally optional, and the cost varies depending on what you order.

 

We get a canteen list every term with the prices - I find it wholly expensive so I limit DD to one per week and give her $6 to spend on whatever she likes (usually chicken chips and garlic bread! - altho the other day she said she had a ceasar salad- very upmarket! and if she takes her own recess snacks, she has money left over for a snack/treat here and there on other days... (ps: we don't have cafeteria's here like you guys do )

 

Our cafeteria is $1.40 for lunch and $1.10 for breakfast cost increases as they go to the other schools

 

Lunch is $2.05 here. My kids pick based on the menu whether or not they want to take a lunch or buy lunch. Timothy always buys on Tuesdays because it's some form of Mexican food. This week was chicken and cheese quesadillas w/beans, chips, and salsa. Next week is tacos. Sarah always buy on Wednesday because it's some form of chicken nuggets with mashed potatoes and gravy. Most of the other days, they have no interest in.

Marissa

 

I feel your pain. I packed lunches for all three of my boys from K through 12 (actually preschool too) - now that's a lot of lunches! I actually like making the boys' lunch in the morning. I vary the components but usually some sort of sandwich, either turkey, chicken or ham on a ciabbata roll (or something similar) w/ lettuce or bagels with PB&J or cream cheese, plus pretzels, chips or crackers, fruit of some sort, and a drink. I usually include a cookie or something sweet too. It is hard to think of new things.

They don't like school lunches so they have never bought but I am just as happy packing for them. That way I control the ingredients.

Good luck! There are lots of good websites with creative lunch suggestions out there.

 

1. A half sandwich with turkey, ham, roast beef, or salami and lettuce
2. Something salty and crunchy, like chips, pretzels, or goldfish crackers
3. A yogurt stick or string cheese
4. Fruit (grapes, oranges, peaches in juice, apple slices) OR veggie (carrots or cucumber slices) or both
5. Ice water in their Thermos straw sippy

My kids are good eaters. They are fine with our lack of variety, but this is what I packed for kinder and what I will pack for 1st for now. I will let them buy occasionally, but the line is so long, they don't get a good recess. I teach at their school and I may occasionally pack a special lunch and sit and eat with them. Not sure if they will like that though, so we'll see! I could also sign them out and bring them home for lunch from time to time as a special treat!