Post ideas for school lunches here

[dairyou]

We homeschool but my kids do like chicken caesar wraps for lunch. It has everything in a caesar salad but added with cubes of chicken. Wrap it in a large tortilla and it is tasty. If your kids don't like caesar, use ranch. My youngest prefers the ranch better. I've made them that morning and took it for a party at lunch and they were still very tasty!

Deb

 

[ladydancer]

Originally posted by eeyoreforever
One of my kids favorites to take is pasta salad. I cook the tricolor rotini, mix it with Italian dressing, cucumbers, olives, ranch beans and cheddar cheese and then let it stand in the refrigerator overnight. They can't get enough of this.

They also enjoy taking soup in a thermos occasionally.

Other than that, just sandwiches, although my oldest dd likes to wrap her meat in a tortilla instead of bread. Wal Mart sells a bread called Flatout and it is good to use.

Sounds similiar to what I make...Tricolor rotini, cucumbers, tomatoes, brocolli, cucumbers, black olives, green onions, feta cheese and Italian dressing. My grandkids love this.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

cold takeout,especially Subway and pizza(only needs to be heated up and be careful with the mayo in some of the subs)

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

I really liked the issue of the KRaft magazine, too--it had good ideas and wasn't too "pushy" on their products. A couple good takeaways:

--enclose a carrot stick or two to spread say, tuna on a cracker

--Put small amounts of 2 different ingredients in each corner of a plastic sandwich bag. Twist a pipe cleaner in the middle to keep them separate and make a "butterfly"

--Cut a sandwich with a cookie cutter and then cut the edges in pieces to make a puzzle


I thought these were good ideas that required very little time/effort and could make the lunch fun. Plus, I love the Kiss idea--I think I'll pick some up today--my kids start school Thursday (late, I know--think of me in June!)

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by hrh_disney_queen
Mine gets 25 minutes, and that includes standing in line for hot lunch..Plus it starts at 11:00. I don't want to one up you, but I always thought that MY son was the slowest eater on the entire planet!!

I

Wow, I wish my daughter had that long..they get 16 minutes....and in that 16 minutes it incudes standing on the hot lunch line to buy lunch!!
She hardly eats so hopefully that will be enough time for her just to get something in her. Her lunch would consist of either one or 2 pieces of cold cuts just rolled up....or 2 ritz crackers with peanut butter on them, or a small tupperware container with peanut butter that she eats with a spoon. On Chicken nugget day she wants to buy lunch but all she ever eats of chicken nuggets is 2 and that is her whole lunch...occassionally is she is really hungry she will have 3 LOL....she is terrilbly picky and wont eat bread so that leaves sandwiches out...she doesn't like tuna or any type of veggie but she does like GoGurt so she will have that in there everyday....can't just buy milk because she will only drink milk out of a glass...doesn't taste right in plastic (no clue what the difference is since I am not a milk drinker but she insists it tastes weird in plastic or juice boxes!) so have to send her with 2 juice boxes a day-one for lunch and one for snack....bad enough I have to struggle with what to pack her for lunch everyday I have to also pack a sanack and drink everyday in a seperate box for snacktime. If she wasn't so picky I would just have signed up for the full year of hot lunchs plan...its only 260.00 for the full year of hot lunches but she would never eat most of the stuff!

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

Smucker's Uncrustables

You keep them in the freezer and then put them in the lunch box,bag,whatever in the morning. By lunch they are thawed out and delicous. How do I know? I got to be a taste tester for the PB&J ones as well as some Ham/Cheese ones that were better used as hockey pucks than sandwiches. The PB and J was pretty good,though.

TOV

 

[Lisa96]

The Family Fun Super Snacks book is really good; I just bought that because I'm always having parties for my nieces & nephew and wanted some new ideas. One cute snack they had was to color some cream cheese blue w/food color and then give kids celery sticks and place out a bowl of goldfish. The kids have to use their sticks and cream cheese "water" to fish up some crackers.
Cold cuts spread w/mayo or cream cheese and wrapped around pickles are good, especially for kids who don't like bread. You could also wrap them around a piece of string cheese. Deviled eggs are a nice change from egg salad. One lunch I like for myself is reuben spread - you chop corned beef and swiss cheese up, mix it with some sauerkraut and Russian dressing and serve with either bagel chips or those small pumpernickle slices. I think you could probably do this with pretty much any sandwich combo. You can core an apple and then fill the inside w/peanut butter, then sprinkle granola on the peanut butter. For younger kids, apple slices can be dunked into peanut butter then into granola or even cereal. Banana or date bread (or zucchini or cranberry!) is good spread with peanut butter or cream cheese; you could always add apple or banana slices or raisins to fill it out a bit. Lavash bread is good for wraps; it seems to help keep together if you wrap it so that there is a "holder" of wrap on the bottom. I make a big recipe of shepard's pie and then portion it into small glass or microwave containers and freeze it. That's a great easy lunch, but I'm not sure how it would be at room temp - although it would be better than any of the lunchroom food they give at the school! What about potato skins - I wonder if kids would eat those unheated? You could make those pretty easily at home and then provide toppings like shredded cheese or cottage cheese, or a creamy dressing.

 

[kpgclark]

Thanks for all the ideas!

 

[dandelion]

Originally posted by BuzznBelle'smom
I really liked the issue of the KRaft magazine, too-
Put small amounts of 2 different ingredients in each corner of a plastic sandwich bag. Twist a pipe cleaner in the middle to keep them separate and make a "butterfly"
--

I liked that one too, have to put pipe cleaners on the shopping list. They said twist ties would work too.

My favorite of their suggestions was using waffles instead of bread. They showed one with pb, apple and jam (DD said it looked great) and one with ham, cheese and apple (DD said it looked awful ) Both my kids love toaster waffles so this might jazz up their lunches a little.

Also they vastly prefer hot dog buns to make 'subs' for turkey or tuna.

my kids start school Thursday (late, I know--think of me in June!)

Mine start tomorrow, last scheduled day is June 24

 

[jan/cape]

When my daughter was in the 3rd grade bringing cereal and buying the milk was all the rage with the girls.

She also enjoyed veggie wraps:
Spead Boursin cheese on a tortilla
Thin slices of red pepper
Carrot curls (use veggie peeler)
sprouts
red onion sliced super thin

The Boursin cheese is a bit expensive, but if it got her to eat anything remotely healthy it was well worth the price.

Now she will only bring
Turkey on a roll, bologna on a roll, or tunal you guessed ir.on a roll. Though she would not be opposed to on a bagel or bread, but it absolutely can not be white bread!!!!!!!

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

dandelion, our school schedules are similar because you're right up the road--I live in Galway!

I'm going to try the idea of "homemade Uncrustables" with a large glass to cut the bread--DD9 had these at camp and loved them, but I'm too cheap to buy them!

 

[dandelion]

Hi BuzznBelle we live in Wilton but we're in the Saratoga school district, kids go to parochial school.

I got a gadget from Pampered Chef that makes the Uncrustables perfectly, even crimps the edges. Whatever it cost it was worth it compared to buying them pre-made.

 

[kpgclark]

Hi all-

I found this recipe on the Kraft web site and I think it sounds healthy and good. I think I'll make a batch and freeze most of them. I think they'd be good packed with a container of yogurt.

Apple-Cinnamon-Walnut Muffins
Recipe Rating:
Prep Time: 20 min
Total Time: 40 min
Makes: 12 servings, 1 muffin each


1-1/2 cups all-purpose baking mix

2-1/4 cups POST Bran Flakes , divided

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. firmly packed brown sugar , divided

3/4 cup chopped PLANTERS Walnuts , divided

1/2 cup cinnamon-flavored applesauce

3/4 cup fat free milk

1egg , lightly beaten


PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Combine baking mix, 2 cups of the cereal, 1/4 cup of the brown sugar and 1/2 cup of the walnuts in large bowl. Add applesauce, milk and egg; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.

SPOON batter evenly into paper-lined medium muffin pan, filling each cup 3/4 full. Combine remaining 1/4 cup cereal, 1/4 cup walnuts and 2 Tbsp. brown sugar. Sprinkle over batter.

BAKE 18 to 20 min. or until wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean. Serve warm or cooled.