Sack lunch suggestions for avoiding CS...

[-Hope-]

I'm trying to cut my dining budget for our upcoming trip and I think we will probably skip the CS meals and take our lunches into the parks. Neither of my kids are huge fans of lunch meat though and I'm looking for ideas that we can easily carry. Of course we'll do some pb&j but I'd like some variety.

TIA!

 

[burnurcomputer]

You could do a "snack" lunch. Lots of fresh cut veggies and a small container of dip with a chunk of bread, or some nuts. Or you could do a block of cheese that you break up and serve with baggette slices. Do your kids like Nuttela? You could do that on bread with or with out the PB for a candy bar sandwich (what we call them). Soup in a luch thermal is nice too!

 

[tlbwriter]

Cheese and crackers, hummus with crackers and veggies, hard boiled eggs, chicken salad or tuna salad (as long as you can keep it cool enough). You can use a frozen water bottle as an ice pack to keep things cool, and then drink it with your lunch, so you're killing two birds with one stone. Also, there are yogurt tubes that you can freeze and they'll thaw by lunchtime.

 

[maggiew]

One of my DDs is a much better "snacker" than "eater". Here are some things she likes:

Fruit (grapes, strawberries, kiwi, etc.)
cheese cubes
crackers
veggies (celery, carrots)
celery with peanut butter
Nuts
trail mix
cereal bars/granola bars
tortilla wraps with chicken (not sliced lunch meat but chicken pieces)
beef jerkey nuggets

I don't know how budget you would consider them, but my dd also likes Lunchables - the pizza ones, meat/cheese/crackers ones, etc. I also personally take a pizza one and a nacho one with me when I work on election days as an election judge since you have to stay at the polling site all day and sometimes there is no fridge to put a lunch.


Maggie

 

[Jerseyguy's Wife]

I use unopened pepperoni and string cheese to make "pizza" on crackers, actual chicken breast (not lunchmeat) for sandwiches. Sometimes, I put the two together. Cut veggies and grapes (or even a bag of chips) for a side. And we ALWAYS carry water.

 

[maggiew]

I use unopened pepperoni and string cheese to make "pizza" on crackers, actual chicken breast (not lunchmeat) for sandwiches. Sometimes, I put the two together. Cut veggies and grapes (or even a bag of chips) for a side. And we ALWAYS carry water.

This kind of gave me an idea of a "make your own pizza" lunch. You can buy those Boboli crusts (or something similar), get the squeeze pizza sauce bottles, and maybe a small pack of shredded mozzarella or a few mozzarella slices. That would be easy to assemble even sitting on a bench waiting for a parade. It seems like it should travel pretty well too. But I haven't tried this personally.

Maggie

 

[-Hope-]

Great ideas everyone! Keep 'em coming.

 

[Mrs. Sojourner]

I use unopened pepperoni and string cheese to make "pizza" on crackers, actual chicken breast (not lunchmeat) for sandwiches. Sometimes, I put the two together. Cut veggies and grapes (or even a bag of chips) for a side. And we ALWAYS carry water.

I love the "pizza" crackers idea, my kids would think that was great!

 

[ArielsMommy]

Last time we went for a full day, we made PB&J for lunch and had fried chicken for dinner in our softsided backpack cooler. We kept everything cold on frozen water and gatorade bottles. You could probably have baked chicken also if you don't mind it being cold.

 

[KibbyCat]

My kids aren't that big on lunchmeat either - on bread. But when I give them rolled up slices of turkey or chicken to eat with crackers, they love it. We make our own lunchables this way, and it is very budget-minded. A box of Ritz, a box of saltines, and a few packages of lunchmeat will feed all 7 of us at least twice. I pair it with a package of string cheese and a package of applesauce or sliced peaches, and my kids are set! Besides, when they're tired and hot, they don't want a huge meal anyways. For my husband and I, I will add in a hamburger bun or a couple slices of bread and some condiment packs to make a sandwich. We bring a lot of frozen bottles of ice water to chill the food, along with some fresh water. (If the water isn't thawed by the time we want to drink it, we pour some thawed water over it.) I also bring insulated sippy cups full of ice for the youngest ones. The ice melts throughout the morning, and is perfect for lunch.

Two of my kids don't like PB, so they eat cinnamon sandwiches (butter with a little cinnamon sugar sprinkled on) or nutella. We also like tortillas and bagels. I get flavored bagels for the kids, which they eat plain. I eat plain or everything bagels with lunchmeat on them, or spread cream cheese on them. Those new Bagel Thins are nice, too, because they aren't so filling.

 

[Jessica527]

I love little tins of mandarine oranges or Clemetines. They are so easy to eat and are good warm/hot/cold.

 

[twinglesmome]

My kids like those little containers of tuna/chicken salad that come with crackers. They also like pepperoni slices/sticks and cheese. Baby carrots, celery sticks and grapes also travel well.

 

[-Hope-]

These are all great ideas- thanks everyone! My budget has officially been slashed.

 

[elainesj]

Hot dogs are our favored pack lunch. It's super easy to pack and carry, cheap, and good cold too.

and the suggestion about clementines is awesome. We just did a 4 day trip and picked up a small case of clementines. They were yummy, very portable, kept well cold and warm...and very reasonably tidy. The grapes went bad, the strawberries got soggy (we were trying to keep them chilled with ice) but the clementines were perfect.

I also have picked up deli meats and cheese along with dinner rolls to make easy sandwiches.

My new fave is cup noodles. Just fill with hot water (if there isn't a free machine, just ask at a CS for a cup of hot water) and presto...there's lunch. It's lightweight...but is bulkier than some other stuff though.

An even more portable (and cheaper!!) alternative is to get a conventional package of ramen noodles and cut it with a knife into quarters. This will now fit in a conventional styrofoam/paper coffee cup (and yes, i've done it). At the park, ask for a cup of hot water for free. At your table, add abt 1/4 to half of the seasoning package. Stir, then add the noodles and cover for 1 min. I did this a LOT for quick snacks on long (12+ hrs) plane trips because my kids didn't like airplane food. For abt 25 cents per person, you have a meal.

 

[luckyfin]

If you have a thermos you can actually put hot dogs with boiling water in them in the morning (you can boil water in your coffee pot!). They should still be piping hot later in the day.

 

[jkc0325]

Now that is a great idea!!!!!!!! I love hotdogs on a nice hot summer day

 

[DawnM]

We just do sandwiches.....PB&J or chicken salad.....but we have so many snaky things with us that if they truly don't want the sandwich they can fill up with other stuff.

Typically we take lunch in for 2 days strait and then break it up with a CS meal the 3rd day and then bring in lunch another 2 days, etc....

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

Is there a limit on what you can bring into the parks food-wise? We are doing a split stay and getting the meal plan for the first 4 days but not the last 3. I thought you could bring i some snacks/water but i did not know you could basically pack a lunch.

TIA for your info

 

[maggiew]

Is there a limit on what you can bring into the parks food-wise? We are doing a split stay and getting the meal plan for the first 4 days but not the last 3. I thought you could bring i some snacks/water but i did not know you could basically pack a lunch.

TIA for your info

I think the only limit is that you can't bring in glass containers (like Snapple drinks, etc.). You also can't bring rolling coolers.

Maggie

 

[Sagginit]

italian antipasto salad done as snack food, slices of pepperoni, sopressata, prosciutto, mozzerella cheese, provolone cheese, carrots, roasted red peppers, olives cauliflower, cucumber cut into wedges etc. you can pick the things your kids will eat and serve with bread or hearty crackers. that food is good room temp in case the ice packs don't keep it super cold. you can even bring italian dressing as a dip.

nutella with fruit slices as a sandwich on a brioche type bread. babybell makes those little soft cheese wedges, i used to snack on those with crackers all the time for lunch. soft cheese and fruit slices for a sandwich is also good. you can make your own trail mix by mixing nuts, dried fruit, cereal, choc. chips etc and snack on that or mix in with yogurt.

i havent bought it in a long time but you can buy those pre-cooked and sliced chicken pieces. you can wrap that with some salsa and chedder cheese in a tortilla to make a quesadilla type wrap.

and if you don't like ramen noodles thai kitchen makes this great bowls that cook on the same basis but have more flavors.

if i didnt get the free dining plan when i went i would totally consider this because i am not a big junk/fast food eater.