How Do YOU Pack a "Hip" Lunch?!
With the beginning of school fast approaching, I am starting to dread packing my kids’ school lunches. Although my kiddos definitely have the option of choosing a hot lunch at school, I prefer to pack a lunch in order to save money AND to provide them with healthy food choices. With that being said, I really get tired of the same old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, apple slices, and some kind of homemade treat (that’s usually not very good because well, Collin the baker… enough said). I need some variety AND my kids need some variety too!
…So this is where you all come in. Please share your most creative ideas for packing a healthy lunch that kids hopefully will enjoy eating and that parents can feel good about packing. And if you have any fun ideas for adding in a little note or fun surprise (I love making my kiddos feel special 😀 ), please share those ideas too!
My daughter loves leftover chinese restaurant food. Bottom half of the thermos fried rice with chop suey on the top. It’s usually a big treat after all the spagettios and chicken noodle.
My son is starting 1st grade. When I realize what he was eating for lunch at $1.90 everyday ; i decided not only i can do it cheaper but healthier as well. So during the summer, i experimented with a couple of different dishes i could easy freeze and then reheat. These dishes where a hit this summer and you can find the recipes on-line. Corn Dog Muffins, Breakfast in Muffin, Hot pockets, Homemade Yougurt in the Crockpot, chicken in the crockpot, egg and veggies cassaroles, and Chili. These are in addition to the classic PB&J, spaghettis and meatball, ham cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, grill cheese sandwiches and tacos. I also plan on packing left overs from dinner, and just heat it up in the morning and put it in a thermal container. This are great as they kept your food cold for up to 6 hours or hot for up to 4 hours. So I’ll be using alot of these Thermal containers which you can now buy in all kids of shapes and sizes. In the Winter, I usually make alot of soups. My son loves homemade Chicken soup, Cream of Broccoli and Potato Soup. So he’ll be eating a combination of soups and sandwiches. The sky is the limit with soups and they can easily be kept warm in the Thermal containers. I’ve also been stocking up on healthy snacks like Granolas bars, apple sauce, Yogurt, Jello, fruit Cocktails and I plan to use whatever fresh fruits are onsale. As far as the drinks, I bought water bottles to store milk or juice and depeding on what I am packing I will also be making fruit smoothies, iced tea, and lemonade. I hope someone can find this helpful.
Thanks for posting! It gave me great ideas for feeding my lunch packing Hubby too!
Well, my kids are too little yet to pack a lunch, but my thought other than food would be those silly bandz…one of those as a super cheap surprise esp. if their into them. I just bought some from amazon today for 1.99 pack of 24 Pets for my little one and more for Halloween handouts (as I like something fun in addition candy), and/or to also tape to the valentines at my son’s pre-school!
My kids school is banning Silly Bands for a variety of reasons. Just an FYI.
My kids started school last week and making creative lunches has been a challange. My 10 year old loves his turkey sandwich with lettuce. Sides are carrots, purple grapes and either pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds and a little sweet treat along with a bottle of gatorade. Sometimes we use fresh cucumbers instead of carrots or oranges when in season.
ITs still PB & jelly but i add bannana and instead of bread I put it in a wrap!
oh i like this simple and good, thanks for this. my daughter cant reheat anything when she gets to school they dont do that for the kids there so when i send lunch it has to be ready to go. thanks again
Welcome! Hope she enjoys it as much as my kids do.
Yeah, this post is permanently going in my Hip List!!! Thanks for all the great ideas everyone. Sometimes I will take food coloring and make a smiley face on my son’s sandwich. Or cut the sandwich up in strips to make it like finger food.
Collin,
I don’t usually post on your site, but I had to mention a great little product that my sister-in-law first gave me for my kids’ lunchboxes. They’re called “Lunch Box Love” and they’re made by Say Please (www.sayplease.com). Each little reusable “note” says something special or encouraging and I would slip one in my son’s lunch bag each day and return it to the stash of notes at the end of the day when his bag came home. Even though he was a boy, he really liked the notes from mom. Do take a look – I LOVE this little product!!!
Jen in MD
I just saw those! They are so cute and educational!!
They sell these at Books-A-Million and Toys R Us. They are a big hit in our house! My kids bring them back home and I put them at the bottom so they if they get the same one again, it isn’t for a long time.
My kids are too young for packed lunches yet – our oldest starts preschool in less than a month (!!) but it’s only 2 days a week and no lunches… thank the Lord. 😉 But, I do like to be creative (when I have time) when we pack picnic lunches, and heck, just making regular lunches during the day needs new ideas! I love this blog… https://www.lunchnugget.com/ but I don’t think she’s updating it anymore. I think she uses a Bento box. I’ve also heard of this laptop lunch box or something similar that’s a similar idea. I’m totally interested in reading these ideas to be prepared!
Okay – just tried replying, but I don’t think I did it right. So, here I go again….I’m wondering if, after following “lunch nugget” you know where she got her lunch box? I would love to find one like that! ~Thanks! ~
I feel dumb….just saw the rest of your comment….guess I quit reading to soon when I went to the other site before. oopsie! =)
I was reading on another board that someone uses holiday napkins, either themed or solid colors (even birthday ones too!) to pack lunch. I thought that was a cute idea! I actually have some leftover Christmas napkins, so of course, I’ll use those in December. Lots of times, you can find theme napkins real cheap at Party City and of course on clearance @ Target.
AFA lunch…well, my kids qualify for free lunch, so they eat that a majority of the year. I can see the lunch schedule online and I let them decide if they want school lunch or make their own. So its usually the standby Turkey & Cheese or PB&J, carrot sticks, piece of fruit and either water or juice box. Maybe a granola bar, jello or pudding cup (I prefer to make my own and pour them into the small individual containers) or a piece of chocolate.
A few times I’ve made a breakfast burrito. But I have to get up extra early to make it, I don’t like to make it the night before. Its just 2 scrambled egg whites & slice or two of turkey bacon with some shredded cheese that gets rolled in a wheat tortilla. I wrap it in alum. foil, then stick it in a warmed thermos (b4 scrambling the eggs, I fill the thermos with hot water and cap it while I’m working)
I use holiday napkins and purposely try to use the wrong ones (Easter at Halloween, Halloween at Valentine’s Day, etc). My daughter is still young enough that she thinks it hilarious to pull out a Santa napkin from her lunchbox in Sept!
I think that’s super funny! 🙂 What a fun idea!
Try the recipe book fix freeze feast. they have a breakfast burrito which you make a whole bunch of then freeze them. Take them out the night before heat in microwave and you have a yummy breakfast. All nutritional.
My daughter’s fave lunch is a tortilla that I spread a small amount of 1000 island then cover with grated cheese, spinach, and lunchmeat turkey. I roll it up and she LOVES it!
My boys are a little pickier! My oldest sons PTA raised money for the middle school and they have 5 microwaves so he gets leftovers or freezer meals (buget gourments, etc)
My youngest loves what we call homemade lunchables. I slice up cheese and lunchmeat and throw in some wheat thins. There is even a ziploc container that kind of looks like the lunchable container. I love the pre-packaged sliced apples and then to really make it like a lunchable he gets a really small sweet treat (think tootsie roll).
By the way-you guys with the $1.90 school lunches don’t know how lucky you are! Ours is $3!!! I give my kids a budget of $15 a month for school lunches. If they only pack their lunch they get to keep the money! It’s a great way to teach them how to budget.
I love your idea of budgeting! I will use this when my kids get older.
I just bought some of those Ziploc “Lunchable” containers at the end of school year. Thanks for reminding me about them.
i dont think i have ever seen the “lunchable” ziploc. guess i will have to keep my eyes out for it. That is great idea
Back in the day of the paper lunch sack, my mom would draw me a picture on my lunch bag every day. I still have the one from the first day of 5th grade. Its a picture of me in my “first day of school” outfit! Too Funny!
Stephanie,
I loved seeing your post because I too draw pictures on my daughter’s lunch bags!! Sometimes it’s hard to think of a new picture but it brings her so much joy that I keep doing it!! On another note, I make my daughter a grilled cheese sandwich before school and wrap it in foil. This is her absolute favorite! By the time lunch comes around, the sandwich is obviously not hot and she can dive right in! To be even more obnoxious (lol) I fold the foil and add a sticker as a closure. Also, she loves the strawberry milk that you don’t have to refrigerate:) Love everyone’s ideas!!!
I’ve tried that before but my son said his sandwich was soggy and cold by lunchtime. 🙁 Do they make thermal sandwich containers? LOL
Joy,
This may be more trouble than it’s worth, but I have also fried tortillas and then added the cheese instead of using bread. That seems to not end up as soggy!! Hope that helps:) I haven’t seen a thermal sandwich container but I haven’t really looked either! My lil one will eat the grilled cheese cold,hot,soggy, whatever!! As long as there is melted cheese involved:)
My mom would write me a message like a crossword…that’s fun for older kids.
My son starts kindergarten on Monday the 23rd and I too would rather pack his lunch than have him eat school lunch. I usually do the lunchables (ham and crackers, subs, nachos, and the pizza ones) We also do thermos with Beefaroni (Sp) and other hot soups. I just heat it in the morning. I make it really hot and by lunch time its perfect. For sides we do go-gurts, choc jello, grapes, apples, carrots with ranch, chips, gummy snacks, rice crispys, gold fish, and lots of other stuff. Hope this helps!
I am curious, do you stock up on your lunchables and sides using coupons? How much do you think you spend on lunch per day? Just curious because I am trying to decide whether I would save money making a lunch or just letting my kids eat school lunch everyday for $1.50.
I was wondering the same thing. I think I spend more than $1.50 a day on packing his lunch with the main item, sides, fruit and milk. Especially since my son can’t take PB to his school. Plus his school offers healthy food with veggies, fruit and milk every day (ie today was baked chicken, rice, peas, oranges, milk and oatmeal bars). Also, I like the fact that he gets a hot meal with lots of variety at school. If I pack something, he usually doesn’t eat it unless it’s a lunchable (which costs $1 on sale unless you make it yourself).
And all the salt and nitrates in the lunch meat are very unhealthy.
Im not sure how much I spend. I havent really sat down and figured it up. My main focus is to just get him to eat bc he is a very small child and getting him to eat is a real challenge. He is and has been underweight his whole life.
I hear you. It is so hard to balance whether my daughter is eating healthy versus are they eating ANYTHING. I keep trying different power bars for protein and hoping that fruit will satisfy the vegetable group. Good luck.
You’re so lucky that your school offers healthy foods! I was appalled when I saw my son’s school’s lunch menu!
Pizza-dillas! When “Pizza Day” at school comes around, I make pizzadillas instead. Use any kind of tortilla/wrap, turkey pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, small chopped veggies (mine will eat green pepper and mushroom) and toast up like a normal quesadilla. I send tomato sauce for dipping and they love ’em! Sometimes to mix things up I’ll make pizza bread (bread loaf dough rolled out, layered with cheese and toppings, rolled up and baked) but the quesadillas are much quicker.
I also make chicken quesadillas and send salsa for dipping, or pinwheel sandwiches. Sometimes I’ll just spread a tortilla with garden veggie cream cheese, add some sushi-style veggies, roll tightly and cut them up for “sandwich sushi”.
I use the little boxes that snap closed on each side. I send salad, canned peaches, yogurt all sorts of things and they don’t spill. It is cheaper than buying the single serving packages. My kids always buy milk at school, so sometimes I send them cereal and a piece of fruit, then they buy the milk to add to the cereal. They can snap it closed so the little bit of left over milk doesn’t get to their lunch boxes.
This is such a great topic! My littles just started 1st grade. Our school lunch is cheap, really healthful and tastey (says me and the kids). We are lucky not to have the PB ban, just in case. However, I like to know what they’re eating, how much, is it over processed; so I pack a lunch 3 days and hot for 2. I make roll ups with meat, cheese and mayo; hot dog on a bun; dinosaur chicken nuggets with broccoli “trees” in a plastic container; Spaghetti O’s in a thermos; ham salad (homemade) with crackers. I will make my own lunchables, too, and cut the cheese and meat into cute shapes! I’ve been wanting to make a stick sandwich: Take a large breadstick, wrap your cheese, condiment and meat around the outside. Wrap with plastic wrap. After I make the main meal, the kids can pick from a Babybell cheese, cheese stick, yogurt tube (frozen or just cold), fresh fruit and fruit cups. In my pantry, I’ve divided up a shelf into tiny containers. I have snack size cookies, tiny flavored rice cakes, raisins, kids Clif bars in several flavors, dried fruits and Slim Jim. Everyday, they pick their snack and for lunch they pick one “sweet” and 2 healthy from the shelf. I like to have them make the choice, from my choices. I know they can’t go wrong. Hope this helped! Lots of great ideas above. Also, http://www.laptoplunches.com has great meal ideas with the Bento box or just for lunch in general 🙂
son is gluten free, anyone have any suggestions for packed lunches.
They have these gluten free tortillas at Cosco you could make some wrap sandwiches
My brother has had celiac disease since he was a kid (he is now 36) He used to have to eat rice cake sandwiches every day or corn tortilla pizza’s. Gluten free has come a long way since then. There are plenty of breads you can use if you have a good health food store near you. There are also gluten free crackers at Sams Club so you could make his own lunchables.
He’s always happy with a turkey, ham or chicken sandwich, but sometimes I like to mix it up with Stacy’s Pita chips and hummus. He also loves feta cheese spread (feta, sour cream and sun dried tomatoes mixed) onto cucumber slices. A thermos full of homemade fried rice or canned chicken noodle soup does well also.
I buy a variety of snacks like fruit leathers (made from real fruit instead of sugar), fruit cups, pudding, Jell-O cups and granola bars as well. He gets a little something different every day.
Don’t forget your spoon! All of my plasticware comes from when our family eats out. I toss our plasticware in my purse and wash it at home. We use it over and over again. No need to waste a perfectly good plastic spoon! And, because it’s plastic, if it doesn’t come home it’s not big deal.
I love this blog and she just posted some lunch ideas: https://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-back-to-school-and-work-brown-bag.html
Here is a link to some very fun Bento boxes on Flickr. I wish I had known about these when my kids were young!
https://www.flickr.com/groups/bentoboxes/pool/with/1865325404/
So, when I was little, the beginning of grade school was always the first wednesday after Labor day. I always thought that was the standard, but it seems like I hear that grade school kids now start at some point in August. Is that true, always been the case, or did something change over the past 2 decades?
Unfortunately our school keeps moving the start date earlier & earlier. Last Wed. was their first day 🙁 I wish we started the Tues. after Labor Day.
Depends on where you live. Always the Tues. after Labor Day for me growing up on the east coast (and they still do). Down here in TX they go back anytime in the last half of August.
Depends on where you are, I’m sure. The state of Texas has mandated public schools start on the same day, Aug 23rd this year. Although there are some exceptions, and private schools here start even sooner. Not sure if other states have the same mandate or not.
In the South, schools start in August. Here in Central NY, usually schools start Wed. after Labor Day. But some districts do start week before Labor Day.
AZ started Aug 9th.
It depends on your school most of all. Most grade schools in our area start the Wed after Labor Day. But our school starts the Wed before Labor Day!!! Just have to be different, eh??? LOL
I live in Tallahassee, FL and our district starts on the 23rd. Thomasville, GA, which is 30 minutes away, started on August 2!!!
State of Michigan~ Public schools can’t start until after Labor Day. However, private schools can start whenever they want.
In Michigan, public schools, by law, start after Labor Day in order to help keep in-state tourism going. We used to start around the third week of August, though, until about 3 years ago. The sad part is getting out LATE… this past year was June 21!
I rember when I was at school it started in September! wow
Yeah in Tampa our schools start next week. I think that since its so hot and no one gets out anyways (plus all the schools are air conditioned) they just start earlier. When we lived in Nashville, some of the schools were on an alternate schedule where they only got 2 months off in the summer, but a lot of 2 week breaks. They did it because August was so hot!
GA is in the second week of school. 🙁
My boy starts this Thursday! We live in the Midwest so they start early because of the inevitable snow days!
Where we are now, we started last Wed. and that was later than normal. Had to start later due to the state budget, but usually, we’re starting the beginning of Aug. It’s the same where we were in GA.
when i was in school my grandmother would get cookie cutters and cut my sandwiches into shapes, i loved pulling out the different shaped sandwiches to see which one i had got that day. i now do that with my seven year old and she loves it as well.
I do the lunch box notes too…I also found some “kids” cards at Halmark for really cheap. They have sweet messages on them too. When I run out, I just write a little note on their napkin like my mom did when I was young.
For food..I love to put homemade soup in a small thermos (got mine at Target) and also pack a side salad and a yogurt. My daughter loves it!
I am VERY impressed with everyone who can successfully send containers, thermos’, etc. to school. With my stepson, I would NEVER see those items again! I can’t tell you the # of lunchboxes we went through before I gave up and went to brown bags.
Same here with my stepdaughter! LOL
Go to http://www.southernplate.com and look at one of her most recent posts called Liven Up Those Lunchboxes. It has lots of neat ideas like these:
1. Make a list of protein items, fruits, side items, etc. that your child WILL eat. Then choose something different from each category each day to vary the lunch.
2. Using colorful sharpies to draw designs or write messages on the bottom (outside) of ziploc containers. Just make sure words are written backwards so that when you flip it right side up the message looks correct. See that post for pictures.
3. She even has a school supply box that she keeps pens, index cards, stickers, etc. in to make cute lunchbox notes without having to hunt things down.
With that said, I think it’s more the parents that want to vary school lunches more than the kids. I know my son (3) would eat pb&j all three meals a day everyday if I’d let him. It makes him happy to have that so if he gets it 3 or 4 lunches a week out of 21 meals a week I don’t feel like it’s hurting him anything. There’s enough variety in the other meals to make up for having the same thing a few times a week.
One thing I do for my daughter (6-first grade) is on the notes I put in her lunchbox, I might include a joke I found or a picture I drew (kids love it when we draw for them…little does she know I have absolutely NO artistic ability!), or even a mission to complete like make someone smile, compliment someone, help someone clean up their area in the classroom…things like that. She loves all of these and it helps me think of something different to put on the notes besides “Love you. See you soon.” kind of stuff. And don’t forget to include something educational from time to time. Once in pre-k I wrote a note that said, “It is 11:15 (but instead of writing the time, I drew a clock with the hands pointing to the time) and you are eating your lunch. I can’t wait to see you at ______. (again I drew the clock in place of writing the time.)” And so on. It ended up having 4 different clocks for her to figure out the times on and helped her to see what the schedule looked like for the rest of the day
Sorry, this is so long. It’s been a while since I’ve commented on any blog and I guess I had let it build up.
LOL!!! Don’t let it build up so long next time. Freely comment. You’ll feel better 🙂
Sushi…..take a peice of bread roll out thin add peanut butter roll banana up in it and cut in 1 ince peices. also instead of peanut butter and jelly you could do peanut butter and mallow creme. chicken tacos (with leftover chicken breasts)
give them a penny for their thoughts 🙂
Tostidos with salsa and cheese, cheese slices and crackers (dont forget the ice pack) I pack them in separate baggies and that keeps the crackers fresh and crisp.
saw this the other day, and love the “bento” way of feeding kiddos. i do it at home for my toddlers. they love the options…and its exciting! {she actually gives you tons of ideas in a pdf form that you can print off}
https://wendolonia.com/blog/2010/08/16/back-to-school-back-to-lunch-lunch-box-ideas/
*kelly
using soft tortilla wraps-fill w/pb,honey, and banana; slice apples or pears super thin, add a little honey, thin slice of a white cheese(their preference); spinach leaves w/turkey & mayo and cheese; slice cucumbers real thin & use ranch dressing as spread or cream cheese; i tend to think veggies and fruit, but adding meat and cheese adds protein, or use boiled eggs sliced. make yogurt, pudding or jello and add fruit for a yummy dessert, or crumbled up cookies. make peanut butter and jelly muffins. many possibilities, many happy tummies!!! not to mention so much healthier!!
Thank you for all the comments! Since this is something I really need to work on (PACKING fun & creative lunches), I copied and pasted all the text and printed it so I can pour over it before I go to bed at night 😉 now I can make a list of all the fun ideas.
I need some serious help for teenager lunches, this kids only want to eat hamburgers, fries, pizza and coke! argh! 🙁
My kiddos are cheese hounds and love cheese quesadilla in their lunches. Tortilla, fold in half with some cheese, nuke for a few seconds, cut and ready to go.
How do you keep it hot and have it not get gross by lunch time?
Aluminum foil works the best for me 🙂
My oldest loves just about anything rolled up in a soft taco (leftover chicken nuggets, ham, grilled chicken, peanut butter).
My youngest likes peanut butter and chocolate chip sandwiches and ham and cheese without the bread.
I’ll put some frozen fruit into a container and it acts as an ice pack while it is thawing out.
Frozen yogurt tubes work the same way.
I try to always put a character themed napkin on top. (Target has Spongebob and Star Wars). Great topic!
Buy the big thing of vanilla yougurt and I put some in a small container with a drop of blue food coloring and give the kids some goldfish and they dip the fish in the “blue water” . I also make cut outs of the PB sandwiches. My kids favorite is the star.
I bought these the other day at Wal-Mart for $2.xx for 2 of them. They are BPA free.
https://www.ziploc.com/Products/Pages/ContainersSmartSnapSeal.aspx?SizeName=Divided%20Rectangle
I got a bunch of these at Target last month for $0.39 a 2-pack by stacking Target & manufacturer’s coupons. We’ve been using them for picnics and road trips, they’re great!
I will have to keep an eye out for those! Perfect!
These are so awesome for you moms who want to start trying out the easy bento lunches:) Perfect size for kiddos and you save on plastic baggies!!
https://www.easylunchboxes.com/?AFFID=41055
I am looking for a thermos that would actually keep food warm ….usually 6 hours after packing, the kids complain that everything is cold. What brands of thermos are other people using successfully?
Not sure what brand…the best I could find. The most important thing though is to put hot..hottest water in it for about about 10 minutes to prep the thermos and make sure the food is very hot or cold if you’re sending cold stuff. I finally read the instructions : ) .
Knowing people who work in the food industry for the schools I would just like to highlight a couple things. The first thing is that school lunch is healthier than what you may think. They have a certain criteria that they have to go off of so that the kids are offered the healthiest choices for lunch. Most kids don’t take all that is offered but they are healthy! A lot of the foods are baked and not fried. The treats that they have are usually 100% fruit or like in the cookies they use applesauce instead of the things that are bad for you. I just wish that people would actually look into what they are serving at your childs school instead of just automatically thinking its bad. It is taking away from Americans jobs and thats why they just end up getting a company to come in instead of real workers!!! And honestly if you think about do you really know that your children are eating all the healthy things you pack in their lunch?!?!?!
Unfortunately I think our school’s program is far from healthy. Many of the offerings are fried, processed and not very appealing. The fried chicken is one of the nastiest forms of chicken that I’ve ever seen served. The service provider has changed over the last few years so it’s much worse. When extras are offered it is sandwiches, fruit chews, slushies, fruit roll ups, etc. If a bowl of grapes, strawberries, etc were offered I would be pleased. A few years ago my boys asked if they could take their lunches. They may eat at school once or twice a year.
I’ve become a lot more particular about removing high fructose corn syrup from our diet so the bread, juices, condiments, etc we eat are without that product. Instead of regular hot dogs, we on occasion will purchase nitrate free turkey hot dogs, we prepare foods with ground turkey vs beef, etc.
I wish the school had a better, healthier, more appealing lunch program but unfortunately that’s not the case where our sons attend.
This is not true for all schools. Dh’s company supplies food to some of our local school districts and most of it is processed crap. Very little is fresh or homemade.
That said dh’s company does sell fresh food, but schools choose not to purchase because they need whatever is the cheapest and quickest to serve the masses. A lot of school food isn’t even made on-site any more either. It is trucked in already cooked from another building. 🙁
Mitzi,
Looks like we replied about the same time. I was referring to Sabrina’s post not yours.
Have you seen Jaimes Oliver Food Revolution, you will be surprise of all the junk that U.S. school serves this days.
Yes, that show was a real eye opener.
I work in food service at a public school. We follow guidelines issued by the goverment. I agree the lunches could be better, but you know what,honestly its about money and what the goverment sends us. We offer carrot sticks and celery, fresh fruit, and many other fresh good choices. You would be surprised how many children pass these items up and take only the baked chicken strips or pizza. Some days if we have yogurt or cottage cheese over half the children do not even know what it is or have never tried it. It’s sad.
It is really sad. In Michigan I know that they do offer alot of the healthier choices like fruits and veggies. Pop machines and flavored milk were also banned from my childrens schools. The hardest part is when the companies come in. We are lucky here that we still have the government food and criteria and dont have a certain company that brings the processed foods. I did watch the show with Jamie Oliver and the sad part was that all school lunch programs are not that way!!!!If you have real workers and not a company they are making homeade food everyday. I just wish that all the states could be like that. and unfortunatly people with kids just starting out have been scared away from school lunches when they have not tryed it for themselves.
My son LOVES to dip things…so I am planning on packing hummus or my black bean salsa as his protein because I know he will eat it, he will get to dip either tortillas, chips or pitas. He is super picky about sandwiches so this works out well for us.
My son is only 2 but since he doesn’t go to daycare coming up with lunches that are healthy and interesting is so hard! One of my favorite things is the Krustbuster.( http://www.krustbuster.com) My little guy loves just about anything I put in one of these sandwiches. And you can make your own uncrustables. (On a side note my hubby is addicted to those things and can eat like 12 in one sitting so it saves me a TON of money!) I take leftovers from dinner chop it up and put it in the sandwich (leftover pork loin with a little bbq sauce and some cheese),leftover pasta with a little italian dressing and chopped veggies goes over well, a slice of frittata (again with dinner leftovers) black bean salad with a hummus and cucumber sandwich is another favorite. But by far the krustbuster is the key!!
Please check this really neat website “lunch in a box”. It’s very organized lunch box.
Also some of people posting their videos at youyube, serching as “bento”. Cool!! 🙂
Okay…….this is probably a little strange, but my daughter loves broccoli and cheese……..so whenever they knock the green giant frozen ones on sale (the little boxes or the larger bags), I purchase/print any coupons and load our freezer. She takes a bowl of hot broccoli with cheese sauce in her thermos. She’s happy and who can complain when their child at a big bowl of broccoli? Sometimes I add cut up chicken to it or even pork and I typically get 2 lunches out of one.
Another favorites–I make shredded BBQ chicken or pork–she’ll eat it warm or cold by the bowl.
Another big hit–cold pasta salad–either made from scratch or the boxes mixes–you can stir in leftover chicken, tuna, and even some extra veggies.
We also make our own lunchables somedays–lean lunchmeat, sliced light cheese and crackers. My kids would love the regular lunchables, but they’re just so awful for them!
My boys are relatively easy to please with the younger one enjoying salads & soups. This morning my 10yo asked if I would buy hot dogs & BBQ sauce so that he could have a BBQ hot dog on a bun. That’s a first! The turkey hot dogs are in my fridge so that will be his sandwich for tomorrow.
Costco has smoked honey turkey that they eat well so that’s one of their weekly sandwiches. They enjoy frozen GoGurts, unsweetened applesauce, fruit of any kind, hot leftovers like spaghetti or chicken & noodles, veggie sticks/chips from Costco, Sun Chips, etc.
They enjoy it when I surprise them with a special dessert (angel food cake w/strawberries) or a Hershey’s Kiss.
I used to enclose a note w/a joke but they think they’re too old now. Their lunchmates looked forward to the joke notes, too.
My mom would still send notes even when I was in high school and I liked it. 🙂 Now I’m married with 2 kids and I think i would still love a note from my mom. You’re never too old!
Maybe try a comic if they think they are too old for a note. When my daughter was in high school, she had lunch during her hardest class. I sent a “funny”
cut from the newspaper one day to cheer her up. She enjoyed it so much that it became a regular thing! She always shared it with her lunch buddy and they looked forward to it, she said! Now I still occasionally send her one in the mail,
since she is away at college!!!
A lot of our lunches are dinner left overs….even if we had grilled chicken the night before, i will just make a grilled chicken sandwich or a gilled chicken salad the next day.
Costco sells hummus in single serving to-go packages. My 4 and 1 yr old love dipping carrots, celery, apples, and pita bread into it.
Great idea! My 8yo would love that in his lunchbox!
I like the bento box idea so I save on baggies, wrap, etc but didn’t want to pay the price. Then at Target in baby/toddler section found perfect containers by Sassy. Main container has two compartments and then other small containers as well. They come in bright pink or blue and fit perfectlhy inside a lunchbox, plus they have a snap on spoon, too. My daughter loves me to cut her sandwich in shapes and I always include a note. Now that she can read, I usually do riddles that she can share with her classmates.
Sidenote…I work partime as a lunchroom monitor and those prepackaged containers of fruit are the messiest. If you can take time to teach your child to open partway, drink part of the juice and then finish opening it up.
Wow! All you bento moms are very impressive! I had never even heard of one until reading this post. I googled it and holy cow, there’s a whole world of bento making out there I had never heard of!
I just happened to spend time last night on the internet searching for ideas since my daughter starts kindergarten on Thursday and I needed some ideas.
The best idea I saw was taking the ingredients of a sandwich and making a kabob out of it – ham, turkey, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cheese, etc. It recommended asking the deli counter employee to slice your meet 1/2″ thick to get the perfect cube sizes for the kabobs. My daughter will love this!
Thanks to everyone for all your ideas. I will be using many of them!
My kids will not eat a whole sandwich in the time given to them for lunch plus the other things I pack and they don’t like the crust so I usually make a sandwich and focus everything somewhat towards the middle and use a big cookie cutter to make their sandwich in a shape. We have donw Mickey, Cars, Crowns, Bats, Christmas Trees, whatever I can find they love seeing what shape they have.
Aside from your blog, I also LOVE “Another Lunch” https://www.anotherlunch.com/ blog. She does the CUTEST Bento box lunches for her kids. Even if you aren’t into the whole presentation of it, she does have some good food combination ideas. Definitely worth checking out.
I am a visual person and these handy containers have worked well for us and the photos of the yummy lunches give me great inspiration!
https://easylunchboxes.smugmug.com/The-Best-Lunchbox-System/Yummy-Lunch-Ideas/10136835_YSuyb#696914291_YxmUd
School box lunches are challenging. Luckily my kids like lots of things. We do soups, chili, sandwichs, salami rolls, yogurt, bell pepper slices and more. I just posted this https://gracefullysaving.com/2010/08/back-to-school-lunches-and-reducing-the-waste/
I was amazed at the amount that gets wasted and the cost associated with it.
Have a great school year!