OT... Lunch Box ideas

[mom2val]

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[dizneechic]

All 3 of my kids use the bento boxes from laptop lunches. Inside I put a juice or water, in the larger container goes their main meal, and then in the 2 smaller containers I put a type of chip and the other has a fruit/veggie. We love them because as soon as you open the lunch box everything is open and ready to eat vs kids trying to open each bag to get at their food or choosing to eat the dessert first and not having time for the main portion... apparently I've volunteered too many times in the lunchroom . I also like that my kids just close it up and I see what comes home, vs what's not eaten getting tossed in the trashcan. We're on year 3 with the same boxes.

Main meals are things like ham roll ups (rolled ham and cheese sliced into pinwheels and stuck with a toothpick), hard boiled eggs (my kids love them), chicken nuggets, left over pizza, sandwiches, salad (my oldest ds would eat salad day and night), and pasta salad (I use the cover for this one).

Veggie/Fruits are carrots, cukes, tomato's, grapes or cantaloupe. For the chips it varies between goldfish, sun chips, wheat thins, ritz (they love with pepperoni), cheez-its, or "party mix" which is me mixing up cereal and misc treats. I also tend to stick a mini fruit roll up on the side where the silverware goes since it's usually left empty.

 

[Betzee]

I'd love to get some new ideas for lunch...

My DD6 has a peanut allergy, so no PB&J for us, and she refuses to eat sandwiches, so no go there, either. She had bread and butter with sandwich pepperoni almost every single day of 1st grade last year!

I always add in a chip/pretzel/cracker choice, a fruit and some kind of goody, i.e., cookie, pudding, etc., but I really need some ideas for a main course. I hate to pack her bread and pepperoni every day again this year....

I tried the soup and spaghetti-o's choices, and the thermos would come home almost as full as it was when I sent it, so that doesn't work either...

Help!

 

[dizneechic]

.... and she refuses to eat sandwiches, so no go there, either...

Try a "roll up" or call them pinwheels. My dd4 wont touch a sandwich with bread (but likes bread with butter ) but will eat almost anything I stick a toothpick in. So we just roll ham (or turkey) and cheese together and slice so they look like little spirals, stick a toothpick in them so it's presented nicely, and she'll eat 2-3 rolls.

 

[mom2val]

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[#1 Pocahontas]

My daughter has a bento box and I love it! She seems to eat more of her lunch if I send small portions of many things verses large portions of a few things.

Today she got:
2 slices of roast beef....she won't eat them if I put them on bread.
2 strawberries
3 small carrot peices
1/2 peice of bread with peanut butter...although I try not to send that often
3 Wheat Pringle sticks
1 small cookie
Apple juice

I need more ideas though. She is SO picky though it makes it hard. She likes things in their original form.

 

[emma'smom]

We have a regular lunch box, but lots of mini-snack holders--so the "bento" concept. We put just a few of each thin in two by two inch containers.

Some things we pack:
hummus
snap peas
cherry tomatoes
cut up peppers
baby carrots
cut up celery sticks
mini-salads
cheese cubes
rolled up turkey or ham
trail mix (no peanuts--peanut free school)
grapes
blueberries
applesauce
cottage cheese
yogurt
raisins
dried cherries
strawberries
hard-boiled eggs
gold fish crackers
wheat thins
canned fruit (like pineapples, peaches, etc)

....leftovers (soup, casserole, whatever)

Sometimes we toss in an apple or banana. Sometimes I do mini-tea sandwiches cutting them up with mini-cookie cutters. They don't always eat the bread--so this is just when they are in the mood.

 

[Hannathy]

For a change I would make peanut butter and ritz cracker "sandwiches" for my DS. I did this because I got tired of packing the same thing not him getting tired eating it. He would take a 1/2 peanut butter n jelly sandwich, rice krispie bar, fruit roll-up and buy choc milk every single day of the school year except when they had french toast strips or nachos on the menu ,about 1-2 times a month! Some times I could put a baggie of Doritos in for a change. talk about in a rut. I tried giving him different things only to have him bring it home un eaten and my DS said why are you doing that, just give him what he eats and forget about it. so that is what I do now, even tho it bores me to death.(men solve things so differently)

One of his friends used to bring in cereal and then buy milk for his main part of lunch. I always thought that was a novel idea.

 

[MiniGirl]

I used to send in frozen grapes or frozen yogurt. By lunch time, they were thawed perfectly. I have also sent in leftover pizza. One of my dd's favorite snack is any kind of "roll up." I will take ham or turkey, add a little shredded cheese and a few spinch leaves and roll them up. My dd loves this.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I'd love to get some new ideas for lunch...

My DD6 has a peanut allergy, so no PB&J for us, and she refuses to eat sandwiches, so no go there, either. She had bread and butter with sandwich pepperoni almost every single day of 1st grade last year!

I always add in a chip/pretzel/cracker choice, a fruit and some kind of goody, i.e., cookie, pudding, etc., but I really need some ideas for a main course. I hate to pack her bread and pepperoni every day again this year....

I tried the soup and spaghetti-o's choices, and the thermos would come home almost as full as it was when I sent it, so that doesn't work either...

Help!

DS has never liked lunch meats and is not fond of most veggies when raw so I have to get creative with main courses also.

I do a lot with cream cheese like:
*pita with cream chese spread inside stuffed with apple or pear slices slices and sprinkled with cinnamon
*tortilla roll up with cream cheese and jelly
*cream cheese and graham cracker sandwhiches
*basic bagel with cream cheese

he also likes:
* cheese and crackers
*boiled eggs
*cold pasta salad
*cheese sandwhich on a roll
*nutella sandwhiches (this is a chocolate spread made from hazle nuts--not sure if your DD can have tree nuts or not; it is common in Europe but available in the US pretty readily these days)

 

[Ashlander]

Ziploc is making a disposable container similar to the Bento Box. I like it because it is reuseable and there are three compartments. I will put a sandwich, pretzel and fruit in there and they all stay in their compartments. The fruit juice does not end up in the pretzels, etc. My kids really like wraps - so that is something we'll send a lot.

 

[tjbaggott]

Peanut butter is not allowed in most of our schools here (many kids with peanut allergies). My 12 year old would live on peanut butter if he could. But we found other things he likes instead, and one of his favourites is from a KRAFT recipe:

WAFFEL SANDWICH
Put between two waffels,
-thin apple slices (granny smith reccommended)
- 1 slice of deli Ham
-thin sliced cheese (cheddar or other)

Put in separate container, some maple syrup. Dip waffel sandwhich in syrup for each bit! YUM!!!!

 

[PollyannaMom]

It's so comforting to know there are other kids out there who don't eat traditional sandwiches! - DS took string cheese as his protein almost every time he packed last year. (Occasionally deli ham - just rolled up, or leftover pizza if we had it.)

Pretty much the same sides as people already mentioned - sun chips, goldfish, baby carrots, etc.

And he usually buys once or twice a week.

 

[skw444]

My dd likes when I make her a "homemade lunchable". I cut cheese and ham into slices and include crackers. She likes this over a regular sandwich. She has a insulated thermos, so we also do leftovers...things like macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, casseroles.

 

[dizneechic]

I have always been curious about those- do the items say put or do you tend to get stuff kinda mixed together? DD's school throws all the lunch boxes for each class into buckets and they pretty bounced around between the class and lunch room.

If I send in something that's really soupy like applesauce I use a lid on a container and it wont spill into the next section, but otherwise everything stays lid free and unless its dust from pretzels nothing seems to mix.

 

[worm761]

DS13 school starts on Monday. I have been a cooking fool on the weekends trying to get things premade to make my life easier. He has Asperger's Syndrome so is a very very picky eater.
He liked pizza roll ups last year but half way through the year decided he didn't like them any more. I made "pockets" last weekend for lunches/breakfast. We made bacon, egg, and cheese; pizza and taco pockets. They are very easy to make. We used a biscuit dough and just rolled it out very thin. cut out a shape using a storage container so they are all the same size. On the bottom piece put a little of each item to go in the pocket. Put another piece on top, pinch to seal, poke holes in the top for steam to escape. Then just bake like you would regular biscuits. Super easy! I froze them then put them in bags. He can grab what he wants to throw in his lunch box. But he has a microwave at his school...so these types of things work for us. For the pizza I used left over spaghetti sauce with pizza toppings and mozzarella cheese. for taco: left over taco meat with shredded taco cheese. For BEC: bacon, scrambled eggs, and a half piece of american cheese. You could potentially put almost anything in them. I wander in the frozen food section and see what Hot Pockets there are then just duplicate it at home without all the preservatives and stuff.
Next I want to try to make fruit roll ups for school lunch. The recipe uses dehydrated fruit. I will probably try that sometime this week. My goal is to get plenty of stuff made up for lunches and in the freezer before the baby comes so we are still experimenting to see what he likes.

 

[jinia]

DS7 is picky to. Refuses anything soupy or mushy at all. The only sandwich he will eat is PB&J which thank heavens is still allowed in school- although any minute that can change. PB on whole wheat ritz - pretzels and apples to dip in PB&J mixed together - pizza - watermelon - carrots - on mondays a treat like pudding - almonds - peanuts - dried dates -goldfish - guacamole with chips - homemade whole pita chips (big favorite) - granola bar - grapes - frosted shredded wheat - for special days nutella with pretzels and apples -either water, pink lemonade by honest kids (yummy), or milk. I put a protein, bread, fruit or veg in. Always a challenge!

 

[annagirl]

Our school is very strict on well balanced lunches. Every kid has to have 1 serving fruit, veggie, bread, protien and dairy. They provide milk, everything else comes from home.

I almost always pack - sandwich (pbj, meat), a cup of fresh fruit, a themos with a hot veggie (peas, green beans) - and usually some crackers or other small hand snack as a side. On Fridays I may slip in a cookie if she has done well for the week.

Yes, I'm that strict. lol!

 

[VBAndrea]

Here are some things we pack:

Main Items:
Ham and Turkey sandwiches on wheat with miracle whip
Yogurt
Mac and Cheese with broccoli
Turkey sausage cut into pieces w/ketchup (same as hot dogs but not mechanically separated nasty meat)
Pizza
Pizza Bites (try not to do this too often since not too nutritious)
Chicken Nuggets
Tortellini


Sides/Snacks:
Yogurt Drinks
Cheese sticks
Fruit (grapes, melon, oranges sliced)
Baby Carrot sticks
Granola bar
Cheese crackers
Vanilla wafers
Olives
Pretzels (infrequent b/c kids aren't allowed "junk" food at school, but I consider pretzels to be borderline

I'm sure I have a few other things on the menu, but it's been so long since I've a made school lunch that my brain is on hiatus. Sometimes I'll put leftover pasta (spaghettie or tettrazini) in the thermos.

 

[mjantz]

My DD loves to take a salad. Its a great way to use up leftover veggies & bits of meat. We put the dressing in a separate container & at lunch time she pours the dressing over the salad & then puts the lid on & shakes it up.
DS is a bit more difficult. He packs his own lunch & takes a PB&J almost every day. He makes them in advance (PB on both insides of the bread with jelly in the middle) & sticks them in the freezer. 1 loaf makes enough sandwiches to last him about 2 weeks. Other than that he eats a lot of applesauce & occasionally carrots & ranch. He's pretty darn picky so I have to slip in the nutrition.