Cold lunches for school

[Stacerita]

DD makes her own lunch. If we have pizza for dinner, we always make/order more so she can take some for lunch the next day.

 

[The Princess]

Mine like to take a half of a bagel with cream cheese. Sometimes they even take cereal and buy the milk at school. Just something different instead of a sandwich all the time.

 

[MNmom]

How old are your kids?

My dd said she was bored with our lunches so I told her to make them herself. Complaining stopped.

Same thing happened in my house!!!! My kids (8,11,15) all make their own lunches and they have gotten very creative. Lots of different fruits/veggies, baked chips/pretzels, cheeses, fiber/protein bars, yogurts, etc.... They take turns going to the grocery store with me an try to find new healthy things that the other kids might like.

Good Luck

 

[vanillamickey]

i take the same thing every day.... i have been since 3rd grade i take a ham sandwich, chocolate bar or oatmeal creme pie, trix yogurt and goldfish


Great, now i have a craving for peanut butter

 

[clh2]

One thing my DD liked for cold lunch was a couple of tacos - which for her meant a soft shell taco filled with lettuce and grated cheese. Kind of like a cheese and lettuce sandwich - doesn't do much for me - but it wasn't my lunch. Hard part was figuring out these needed to be wrapped in saran wrap so they would "stay together".

Another thing we did from time-to-time, we would cube up leftover chicken, and stick toothpicks in it. She liked this cold. Something different than a sandwich. And then we'd put in some ranch dressing so she could dip the chicken.

She loves cold pizza in her lunch.

 

[Cindy B]

How old are your kids?

My dd said she was bored with our lunches so I told her to make them herself. Complaining stopped.

I did that as well. Complaining stopped. Both my kids make their own lunches.

 

[bigbabyblues]

At the kids' last school, they ate in their classrooms. Each classroom had a microwave and depending on their age, they could use it or have the teacher use it for them. It was perfect as my kids like to take left-overs, chicken pot pies, etc.

This is how my DS' school is, and I love it! DS take a lot of leftovers.

Other than that, he takes turkey sandwiches, pb & j, those cups with tuna and crackers, string cheese, raw veggies, fruit (apples, plums, grapes), a couple of cookies or whatever we have on hand.

 

[PattnFmly]

My DS#1 likes to take green salad for lunch. I cube up some cheddar cheese to add protein to the salad and put the salad dressing in another small container for him to mix at lunchtime. For that matter, he also likes to take pasta salad, sometimes with tuna or crab meat thrown in. Both do well with an ice pack in his lunch. His snacks/fruit vary with what's on sale, but we often do crackers, granola bars, rice cakes, yogurt raisins, cantaloupe, grapes, some cookies if we have them. He also takes a chocolate milk box wrapped in an ice pack - the lines for milk at school are too long and there's not much time to eat if you have to wait in line, so we just pack his drink too.

 

[Tikitoi]

Love these ideas. This is very helpful since DD just started bringing her lunch this year, so sorry not much help. We are still on the PBJ w/fruit, chips and juice. The only thing I can do differently is, since I don't work Friday's I bring DD her lunch. Yes, fast food.

 

[barkley]

hit the halloween treat aisles NOW. get the healthier treats and use those for lunches. so far i've gotten tiny bags of mini oreos as well as tiny bags of welches fruit snacks (in the past i've found graham bears and cheese gold fish). the per unit price is great and the kids love the mini versions of their favorite snacks.

as far as cold stuff goes-pb sandwiches (or goobers as ds insists on), meatloaf sandwiches (or the alternate 'meatball sandwich' which just entails me spooning some jarred spagetti sauce on the meatloaf for the sandwich ), bologna, lunch meats...string cheese sticks, sandwich wraps (if they like cream cheese use it in place of mayo).

snackie stuff-craisins, raisins (and ants on a log), trail mix, banana chips, dried mango, quacker mini rice cakes (dd likes the carmel flavored), chips, crackers, 'veggie sticks' (not the real kind-they're like those old shoe string potato snacks but made out of veggies and come in a variety of colors-even my non veggie eater ds enjoys these).

i agree with the thermos idea-dd lives for leftovers so her lunch is largly dependant on what's in the fridge from the nite before. ds on the otherhand pretty much rotates the same 3 items for lunch day in and out-goober sandwich, top ramen (they have access to a microwave) or baked potatos (i prebake then split it and put the butter and cheese on it-he nukes it in the container i send it in and sprinkles it with a little container of bacos.

 

[kldmom2000]

I haven't had kids in school for awhile but do schools normally let students use microwaves at lunch?

Not that I've ever seen