Cold lunches for school

[goofy's friends]

Lunch tickets have skyrocketed and my kids aren't allowed to use the microwave this year (changed schools) so, they mostly have to take a cold lunch! They are really getting bored with what I send and I am out of ideas, so HELP! What do you send in your kids' lunchboxes?????

Mine get a main item, 2 fruits/veggies, chips or crackers, drink, dessert (if I have it)

I rotate between these things:

Sandwich, Tuna and crackers, pastrami roll-up, peanutbutter crackers, carrots, cherry tomatoes, craisins, apple, banana, caprisuns, sunnyD

What do your kids like???

 

[Christine]

I will be of no help because I have one of those kids who wants the same thing every day:

2 small sandwiches on a hard roll. The must have on them Boar's Head Buffalo Chicken Breast with a squirt of any type of spicy mustard. No cheese, no lettuce, nothing else. He then wants a drink, applesauce, and then a "junky" snack. Everyday.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I sometimes heat up Chicken noodle soup for DS10 and put it in a small thermos. DS8 likes Beenie Wienie, Ravioli, Beefaroni heated in his. If I heat it REALLY hot, it will be warm at lunch time. Those little thermoses don't hold heat very well.

Lately DS8 has been taking a chicken salad sandwich, made from leftover rotisserie chicken. Yes, I use mayo, but I put a half frozen CapriSun in with it to keep it cold. My DS10 likes leftover Subway subs, too. Yesterday I grilled a bunch of chicken breasts to put on a roll for his lunches. They are frozen, so I thaw them just a bit, they finish thawing before lunchtime.

I usually put chips, a cookie and always a Hershey's Kiss..I have been doing that since they were first starting school..

Mine are very slow eaters, and rarely even eat the cookie or chips. But they always get their kiss!

 

[goofy's friends]

Ahhhhh, I like the kiss idea!!!

 

[NAB]

I have two kid and they both have a small thermos that I can put Pizza Pops or any of those pasta frozen dinner or what ever....

It only takes 10 mins. in the morning , put hot water in the thermos for that time and cook in the microwave what ever, even left overs from the night before. The kids say they stay warm. Make sure it is a thermos for hot food and not the ones they have for cold snacks only.

Soup, chili, Mac and cheese....heck my dd will just take a thermos full of rice.

I only bought a cheap thermos that was hard to open and didn't keep hot but I found the Thermos brand works great and has a fat top that they don't have problems opening.

 

[lovesmurfs]

My DD loves Chef Boyardee stuff (and chicken noodle soup). I preheat the soup thermos with boiling water, heat the macaroni (etc), and then put it in the hot thermos. I've had no complaints about cold food (even got a "it was too hot to eat" complaint one day).

Mine love cheese sticks, grapes, goldfish crackers, etc. I sometimes make homemade lunchables for them (somehow ham and cheese is more exotic when cut into little squares). I also buy generic gogurts, freeze overnight, and put it in their lunch boxes -- stays cold.

The best luck I've had with school lunches are the ones they pack themselves. Give them your roadmap (main item, 2 fruits/veggies, chips or crackers, drink, dessert) and have them make it themselves. Mine have made some pretty good choices.

 

[goofy's friends]

OK, there must be a trick to the thermos thing.....my kids say it doesn't stay warm--they don't eat until 12:30, is that too long? I've only used it twice because I do'nt want them to have a cold lunch.

 

[lovesmurfs]

I only bought a cheap thermos that was hard to open and didn't keep hot but I found the Thermos brand works great and has a fat top that they don't have problems opening.

Our posts crossed, but a second on that. You don't save money with cheap thermoses (thermi? ), or with cheap travel coffee mugs.

 

[NAB]

I fill mine at 7:30-8:00 and there lunch is at 12:00 . I too have got complaints that it is hot....

The thermos says use hot water but I use boiling water so the stainless steel inside is pretty hot when I put hot food in it.

 

[Tinijocaro]

Check these ideas out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/81648690@N00/page2/ ---

 

[Camicar]

How old are your kids?

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

 

[java]

OK, there must be a trick to the thermos thing.....my kids say it doesn't stay warm--they don't eat until 12:30, is that too long? I've only used it twice because I do'nt want them to have a cold lunch.

Fill it with boiling water and seal- while you make whatever you are putting in it. You are "warming the container" to take the hot item. It will stay hot. Just dump out the water and put in your meal.

 

[Christine]

OK, there must be a trick to the thermos thing.....my kids say it doesn't stay warm--they don't eat until 12:30, is that too long? I've only used it twice because I do'nt want them to have a cold lunch.

Same problem here. I do the whole boiling water thing in the A.M. too. Have also bought a few different types of thermoses. By noon, the food is just warm (and not warm in a good way). Also, I'm told that any type of pasta gets really mushy.

 

[trip]

Lunch tickets have skyrocketed and my kids aren't allowed to use the microwave this year (changed schools) so, they mostly have to take a cold lunch! They are really getting bored with what I send and I am out of ideas, so HELP! What do you send in your kids' lunchboxes?????

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

 

[PatsMom]

DD is a senior in high school. They have one microwave and the lines are usually pretty long. She takes cold lunch. She makes her own. She likes yogurt, fruit, vegetables with salad dressing and sometimes a sandwich. She'll also put in a Rice Krispie treat or something like that. For breakfast, she takes a granola bar.

 

[mjkacmom]

Poptarts, yogurt/gogurt, cereal, string cheese, soup in a thermos (we've never had access to a microwave), lunchables, pediasure...

 

[goofy's friends]

OK, I wasn't using the thermos correctly (it is a good one) DUH!!! I heated the food and put it in there thinking that was all I needed to do

That opens up a whole world of possibilities!

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.

 

[aprilgail2]

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

I can't believe that schools would let kids use a microwave- the liability issue would be insane!

My daughter takes peanut butter on crackers, peanut butter on bread, peanut butter on apples, a container of peanut butter and a spoon- sensing a pattern here?? Then she will have cantalope sometimes and some type of cookie/brownie. For snack she brings popcorn, pretzels, goldfish, chips, cookies-whatever we have that week.

 

[Mkrop]

We have the thermos brand as well. In the morning, I stick on the tea kettle, get the water boiling, put boling water inside for 10 minutes then put food in, usually mac and cheese.

And I just asked my son and he says it is hot and not mushy.

I got our thermos contanier at Kmart.

PB & J sandwiches.

Portable cereal, he buys milk at school and then he takes a juice for his drink, and then some sort of snack.

 

[CanBeGrumpy]

My kids like to take Stouffer's French bread pizza (cold) and Tyson chicken patties (cold). For both items, we cook them the night before, cut them up, put in a container, refrigerate overnight, and put them in the lunchbox in the morning with ice packs. Not every kid will like those items cold, but mine seem to.