Lunch ideas that can been taken to the parks!

[growinupdisney]

We will be staying on site but no dining plan, we usually eat at the parks for lunch and dinner but breakfast in hotel room(muffins, fruit,cereal bars,cereal etc.) but we decided that we may bring lunch into the parks(especially at DHS) since we don't care for any of the cs restaurants enough to eat 2 meals there. Any ideas? I already bring a small cooler bag with drinks so throwing a few more things in there is not a big deal. Aside from sandwiches, any other ideas? We will have the small refrigerator in the room but will also have a cooler on the room to hold stuff. Anything that doesn't have to be refrigerated would be nice too? last year we did share meals because in the years past we ended up throwing alot of food away because there was soo much. I hate trowing away food. I did bring ziplock bags and we put some leftovers in that we ate on later.
Just trying to eliminate 2 meals at the parks everyday! We will eat multiple meals at Epcot because this is our favorite park to eat at. I would like to save a little $$ since we will be eating at Epcot alot, doing a character meal etc. so any cost cutting food ideas would be great!

 

[lady_bug_888]

I would bring cut up veggies/fruit (especially juicy stuff like cucumbers and cantaloupe). Instead of sandwiches maybe pizza pretzels or cheese buns? That way they don't need to be refrigerated. You could also do crackers and cheese/meat (beware of garlic sausage...your cooler will smell like garlic forever!). We usually pack our lunches with a sandwich or other carb/protein combo, one fruit, one veggie and a snack. Snacks for us are usually granola bars, yogurt, cottage cheese and sometimes something really junky like fruit snacks (cause they're SO GOOD!!!).

Interested to see what other people say because we can always use more ideas!

 

[growinupdisney]

I would bring cut up veggies/fruit (especially juicy stuff like cucumbers and cantaloupe). Instead of sandwiches maybe pizza pretzels or cheese buns? That way they don't need to be refrigerated. You could also do crackers and cheese/meat (beware of garlic sausage...your cooler will smell like garlic forever!). We usually pack our lunches with a sandwich or other carb/protein combo, one fruit, one veggie and a snack. Snacks for us are usually granola bars, yogurt, cottage cheese and sometimes something really junky like fruit snacks (cause they're SO GOOD!!!).

Interested to see what other people say because we can always use more ideas!

What are pizza pretzels and cheese buns? I have never heard of these they sound yummy( where do you get them?)

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

We took out lunch into the parks on our trip last January. We packed peanut butter and jelly, chex mix and banannas. It worked pretty well.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Will you have a freezer at the hotel?? If so freeze grapes, go-gurts etc to keep things cold. Cheese sticks, fruits, crackers etc.

 

[karemore]

We always take sandwiches. I have those ziplock sandwich size reusable containers. I pack one container for each of us. They come in handy too for leftovers because they don't leak when thrown into the backpack!

For some reason we never get tired of PB&J at WDW. (I think anything tastes good when you are there.) I also pack carrot sticks, apples, raisins, peanuts, those cheese and cracker packs, pretzels, almonds, wheat crackers, but not all on the same day.....

There's so much other yummy stuff we know we're going to eat we don't worry too much about the lunch/snacks we pack along. It's just to save time and money.

I'm starting to make my list for our next trip!!

 

[mickimousemama]

microwave mac and cheese cups
(most of the baby stations have microwaves)
you can also get the soups and pasta's in the little microwave cups.
Bring tortilla shells (We like the tomato basil and spinach ones) to make sandwhiches, they pack/store much easier than bread, we just waited until we got sat down to put together our sandwhiches
Dried fruit,
pudding cups,
fruit cups
apple sauce
cereal bars
slim jims
gogurt
trail mix

I had a 5 day menu when we went
Day 1 B-Waffles (I brought my waffle maker and mix from home, just add water and cook) L-easy mac cups w/grapes
Day 2 B-Bagels w/jam L-PBJ's (We used left over waffles to make our pbj's like tacos, fold em in half and chow with pretzels and cheese stix
Day 3 B-Poptarts L-Speghettios with apple sauce
Day 4 B-Yogurt Granola bars L-Summer sausage, cheese sandwhich crackers and fruit cups
Day 5 B-Cereal with Milk L-Cup-o-noodles, sandwhich wraps

We usually just had a snack and then ate dinner out

 

[growinupdisney]

Good ideas lets keep them coming!

 

[Eeyores#1Fan]

Standard for us:

Uncrustables (PB&J and Grill Cheese)
Individual bags of chips
Honey Buns and Oatmeal Cakes
Fruit Cups & Fruit Snacks
Granola Bars
Tuna and Salmon in the pouch
Tortilla wraps
Sliced Cheese (we use one of the bottle coolers I had from when I had babies to keep these cool)
Kool-Aid packs (single serve kind)
Bottled Water (can mix with Kool-Aid if wanted)

 

[juliebean]

I don't know how they can stand them - but my kid's love those "lunchables" - I know they aren't great, but they are a rare treat, they especially like the "pizza" ones and they are packed to be indestructable.

We've had good luck with frozen gogurts, granola bars, cheese sticks...

We would freeze a bottle or two of water and it was a great icepack.

 

[lady_bug_888]

Pizza pretzels are basically bread twisted in a pretzel shape topped with pizza sauce and sometimes cheese. You eat them cold and they are scrumptious! I live in Canada but even when I lived in the states I could always find them in the bread department of a local grocery store.

Cheese buns are basically just buns with cheese baked on top (sometimes in the middle too!). They are really yummy just plain. Even my son who HATES cheese likes cheese buns (go figure!). I have always been able to find these in the bread department too. Sometimes I have had to settle for cheese sticks which are long and skinny buns but they are just as good.

I'll be bringing some with me when I come but we are renting a car when there and I will be checking out the grocery store for them as well!

 

[growinupdisney]

Just thought of something that might be nice...cut up some chicken, ceasar dressing, parmesian cheese mix together and put with tortillas = chicken ceasear wrap! I can make this before we leave and should keep in the fridge at hotel and not take up too much space.

Any other ideas?

 

[Nena2007]

These are all fabulous ideas!!!

 

[tigger51276]

I am on a tight budget this trip and will be taking lunches to the parks (I always do breakfast in the room).
Breakfast:
2 kinds of cereal
bagels (plain and onion)
granola bars
yogurt
Lunches/dinners:
bagel w/yogurt
raw carrots, cerelry
peanut butter and fluff
chef boyardee single serves
ramen cup o soups
easy mac single serves
salads
pasta
hot dogs
chips/pretzels
popcorn
cheez it's
peanut butter crackers
apples
grapes
oranges
bananas

The nice thing is most of this doesn't need to be refridgerated and can be made at the parks by getting some hot water from counter service. The hot dogs and pasta I can make at the resort (i'll have a kitchen) and can then put in a thermos to take to the parks and it'll keep them hot/warm. For the yogurt I have special yogurt cups that you either put in the fridge or freezer and it'll keep your yogurt or even small servings of fruit cold.

 

[ccgirl]

We will be staying on site but no dining plan, we usually eat at the parks for lunch and dinner but breakfast in hotel room(muffins, fruit,cereal bars,cereal etc.) but we decided that we may bring lunch into the parks(especially at DHS) since we don't care for any of the cs restaurants enough to eat 2 meals there. Any ideas? I already bring a small cooler bag with drinks so throwing a few more things in there is not a big deal. Aside from sandwiches, any other ideas? We will have the small refrigerator in the room but will also have a cooler on the room to hold stuff. Anything that doesn't have to be refrigerated would be nice too? last year we did share meals because in the years past we ended up throwing alot of food away because there was soo much. I hate trowing away food. I did bring ziplock bags and we put some leftovers in that we ate on later.
Just trying to eliminate 2 meals at the parks everyday! We will eat multiple meals at Epcot because this is our favorite park to eat at. I would like to save a little $$ since we will be eating at Epcot alot, doing a character meal etc. so any cost cutting food ideas would be great!

We like to eat somewhat healthy on vacation so I will buy cucumbers and bagged carrots and we eat those for snacks. They also sell those in single serving vaccum packs as well. We also have apples. Peanut butter and jelly is easy if you like those. If we want chips, I buy the can of pringles as it resists crushing more than the bags. I also buy the take and toss ziploc containers to pack things in. We freeze water bottles overnight so they double as ice packs and ice cold drinks. Cans of tuna/chicken are good. We bring the packets of mayo rather than pre-mixing it. Sometimes, we even bring salads.

Hope this helps.