Major Frustration: I need new ideas for my kid's school lunches... please help!

[Juliah]

I made yogurt parfaits for my DDs today--kind of like the ones from McDonald's. Alternated layers of strawberry yogurt with fresh strawberry pieces, then topped with tiny Mickey cookies (like animal crackers, only smaller) that I found at Dollar Tree. If sending in a lunch, you'd probably need to pack the Mickey cookies separately and have your child add them in the lunchroom to keep them crisp.

Hmm, I wonder if apple pieces would keep their color in a yogurt parfait. Maybe top with graham cracker crumbs or peanut butter granola.

 

[jgates]

For a sweet treat.....

Graham Cracker sandwiches - Break a graham cracker in half & spread with Cream Cheese frosting or vanilla frosting - stick the two halves together and you have a sweet graham cracker sandwich.

Pasta salad - (my DD hates - her best friend loves) - use the curly pasta - the kind that is multi colored is nice (??rotini??). Add to the cooked pasta - diced cukes, diced tomatoes and diced mozzarella cheese. Mix with Viva (or similar) Italian dressing to taste.

Roll-ups - Whole wheat (I use lo-carb for me) soft taco shells. Use thinly shaved turkey, finely shredded cheese (co-jack is good), diced tomatoes & cukes if desired, squirt with cucumber ranch dressing and roll it up. I love this for lunch.

Maybe crackers with some of the flavored cream cheese spreads (??). Our local grocery store has fruit flavored, garden veggie (my fav!!), salmon etc. Great with ritz or club crackers. You could pre-assemble them and make 'sandwiches' so they didn't have to carry the spread separately - but the crackers may get a bit soggy then.

Slices of cheese & sausage?

 

[briannesmom]

To keep apple slices from turning brown without adding any other flavors you can dip them in any kind of lemon-lime soda (7up, Sprite, etc).

Amy

 

[dreams4disney]

I love this thread. I was searching the net yesterday for lunch ideas and all I had to do was look on the same boards that I am on everyday.

Great ideas!!

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I have used my cookie cutters to make the bread into shapes for sandwiches -- depending on the month, the shape could be different (hearts in Feb, Xmas trees in Dec, etc.) That makes the sandwiches taste better (or so I'm told.....)

 

[btass]

My DS has taken Rice and baked beans mixed together in his thermos, he loves it.

 

[tinaluis]

My DD loves hummus and crackers with a side of baby carrots.

 

[Jasminesmommy]

I just bought a Easy home cooking magazine yesterday. Its one of those little ones you pickup in the checkup line and this months book was Back to School lunches. Try and check it out. It is to be displayed till Sept 20th.

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

Just subscribing to this thread so I can come back. Great ideas! I have a 6th grade who is getting "too cool" for PB&J.

 

[mum4jenn]

Mine have to bring their container home!!! SO I can tell...I know many throw away their lunches, but if they are hungry..they will eat. I don't mind they not finishing something, but the rule is the dessert is for dessert, and if you can't finish lunch you shouldn't have dessert. So I remind mine to eat their fruit or veggie at snack and then they know they can have dessert. BTW I also have 1 with severe reflux, so I need to allow him as much time as possible for lunch, and the lines at his school are long. I know you are very proactive about school lunches...I wish I could (but at least I look at the school menu for ideas )in their school there is less than 20 minutes for lunch...so I think my reflux boy needs every minute he can. Also at their school there is a policy of no sharing...and the lunch ladies enforce it...due to food allergies.

I guess what I meant but didn't get my idea across correctly....Can't your children just empty the container?? You know...bring an empty container home but the food is in the trash???? I have witnessed this too at my school. It is kind of funny though. I ask them "what would your Mom say if she knew you were throwing all this food away??? She works hard trying to give you a healthy meal" THey just blush and make me swear I won't tell if I ever run into their mom!!! Kids are pretty sneaky!! My own dd will take her lunch on some days and she usually brings uneaten food home so I know that way what she eats but sometimes she throws everything away and when I ask her about certain items she is usually truthful about it she ate all,some,or none.

 

[btass]

....Can't your children just empty the container?? You know...bring an empty container home but the food is in the trash???? QUOTE]


My DS6 was doing that because he thought his dad would get mad if he didn't eat all of his lunch. I told him to eat what he was hungry for and chuck the rest, don't worry about it.

 

[ceecee]

I have packed salads. Cucumbers, carrots, grape tomatoes, etc with dip. Tortillas with cream cheese spread on them and add whatever they like such as ham, cheese, grated carrots, lettuce and then just roll and cut into little 1" pieces....they are fun to eat. DD likes the new snack pack things which are 100 calories (portion control) so I bought some of those. Cereal bars. I think there is a website that has different lunch recipes. Try Family Fun's website.

 

[Disneyrsh]

My girls are big fans of Einstein's bagels with cream cheese. We usually did honey whole wheat, and the cream cheese holds up pretty well.

The school we went to last year (private) had fast food carted in (Chick Fila, Jersey Mikes, Dominos) so with the exception of the Jersey Mike's ham and cheese sub, I had to make lunches for them.

This year they're going to public school, and I've been perusing the menu, it looks okay, but I'm betting that they're really not going to like the "breaded beef sandwich". And I'm laughing over the choice "lima beans". What self-respecting kid would eat that?! So, I'm guessing after the first month when my daughters rebel over tater tots and salisbury steak, I'll be hitting this thread again with a passion!

The hardest part for me is to make the lunches in the morning-I'm barely functioning at 7 am even with a giant cup of tea in me!

Anybody have ideas for lunches that I can make the night before, or is that just too much of a slacker mom?

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

The hardest part for me is to make the lunches in the morning-I'm barely functioning at 7 am even with a giant cup of tea in me!

Anybody have ideas for lunches that I can make the night before, or is that just too much of a slacker mom?

I make all of the kids' lunches the night before, there's no way I would even remember in the morning. I always pack cold or room temp. foods (I worry too much about keeping hot foods hot) so after I pack it I put it in the fridge overnight, put a half frozen bottled water, juice box, or gogurt in with it in the morning and there's a note hanging by the kids' cubbies where there backpacks, coats and shoes go that says "Did you get your lunch?" because I only pack lunches about once a week, otherwise my kids prefer to eat the schools.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

How do you keep the stuff in the Thermos warm by lunchtime? Doesn't it cool down a lot...I would have to keep something warm for about 6 hours.

 

[Strings]

Please keep the ideas coming. My DD is dairy allergic, and I found out the school is completely peanut free. I need all the help I can get.

 

[Zandy595]

I buy sliced apples in packages in the produce dept. They use some type of citric acid or something to keep them from turning brown, but it doesn't change the taste. Some packages come with carmel sauce.

 

[Zandy595]

DS won't eat sandwiches so I roll up the ham, bologna or salami and stick toothpicks in them (like on a party deli tray). The toothpicks keep the meat from unrolling and he doesn't have to touch it.

 

[Disneyrsh]

Just found mini bagels in the bagel aisle at publix.

This morning, for their first day of school, DD6 had a whole wheat mini bagel with pineapple cream cheese (loves pineapples), and DD5 had a whole wheat mini bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

They have their snacks at around 10 am so if I pack a cold bagel with cold cream cheese, it's still pretty appetizing by then.

And they get the complex carbs from the bagel, the protein and calcium from the cream cheese, and a little bit of sweet from the pineapple and the strawberry.

They have to go from 11:30 to 2:45 with no food, though, and we all have freakishly fast metabolisms, so I figure I'm going to have two bears to pick up in the carpool lane. I may pack two more bagels to bring with me when I pick them up.

 

[Wishful Tinking]

My kids are getting to the point they should be packing their own lunch. What I used to do when they were in elementary school was sit down with each of them before the start of school. Brain storm a list for each food group of foods they would like to see in their lunch. This was by far the best idea for us. Who better to ask then the child themselves. Every year Joanna requested Fruit Salad, Tossed Salad, Taco Salad, Macoroni Salad without mayo. Pepperoni with crackers. Yogurt and granola. Leftovers from the night before. She doesn't like bread products but does like crackers. And she won't eat cheese!

I bought all the little gizmos for storage. Including the little plastic container for salad dressings. The best investment was a really good lunch bag. One that stayed cool with a freezer thingy.

She also discovered she really liked chocolate milk! (not a milk drinker) I'd mix up a Carnation Instant breakfast with milk and put into one of those sippy containers. Store it in the freezer the night before. Then it would be the cool thing for the lunch box. She liked that the more she shook it the better it tasted.

Chris loves fresh veggies. His list always consisted of carrots, cukes, celery. He liked to dip those in Ranch dressing (again, had all the gizmos!) Sliced apples with cinnamon. That way they were already brown!! But the kids love them. He once asked for mac & cheese but said it was really globby by the time lunch rolled around.

Good Luck with the lunch prep ladies!