School Lunch Ideas

[Zim]

Just wanted to add--if you freeze string cheese and squeeze type yogurts and put them straight in their lunch boxes, they will be thawed out but still cold at lunch time. Acts like a freezer pack for the other stuff.

^ This is great advice. Additionally, when my DD15 was younger she loved sandwiches without crust. Instead of just cutting the crust off I would use cookie cutters for fun shapes. She especially loves my Kermit the Frog cookie cutter. In fact, might have to do that tomorrow as a fun retro cool surprise.

Another trick, for apple slices, keep a liter bottle of Sprite in the fridge and coat the apple slices before bagging them. They won't brown by lunchtime this way. And I have one of those Pampered Chef crinkle cutters - kids swear it makes the carrots taste better.

Also a fan of the Kashi bars and Kellogg's Disney fruit snacks (gotta give Disney a plug, right? ). And on the pre-packaged stuff always wait for the deal prices then stock up.

 

[whatname]

Great thread!

Any suggestions on how to keep an ice pack from making the sandwich soggy? DD likes turkey and cheese sandwiches. We add an ice pack but if it is up against the sandwich container, condensation makes the bread soggy. I try to separate them with something in between - fruit or veg - but they don't always fit and I'm wondering if there is a better option.

As for lunch options - We sometimes make a taco salad. Lettuce, beans, meat, tomatoes, whatever we had for dinner. Broken taco shell or doritos. We pack the veg, meat and beans, condiments, and shell separately and they put them together at lunch. We also do the mac and cheese, soups, pastas. We also cook it on the stove first, so maybe that helps with keeping it hot. I've thought about sending a hot dog in a thermos. Sloppy joe in a thermos with a bun on the side works. I think I'm going to make some pepperoni rolls.

Thanks! Only 100 and some days of lunch packing left!

 

[Dancemomof3]

Thanks everyone for all the great ideas so far. I had never even thought of things like spaghetti and meatballs and soup but my oldest and my son will love those. At their open house last week I asked my 2 youngest kids teachers about snacks. They both said they have had a lot of complaints and are thinking of working snacks into the day.

 

[kkandaj]

I tend to make my own lunchables, chicken nuggets in a thermos, and wraps. I serve these with yogurt, applesauce, and fresh fruits.

I get very frustrated hearing about other people getting to send nut products. Our school is nut free. It makes sending lunches in for my picky child very hard. He would eat a peanut butter sandwich every day. Unfortunately that is not even an option.

I don't want to turn this into a "nut free school" thread--just want to suggest using soy butter or sunbutter (made from sunflower seeds). If you try the sunbutter without telling your kid, they most likely won't even know it's not pb. It's delish!

 

[averysmom]

I don't want to turn this into a "nut free school" thread--just want to suggest using soy butter or sunbutter (made from sunflower seeds). If you try the sunbutter without telling your kid, they most likely won't even know it's not pb. It's delish!

You do have to tell the child though, b/c they have to be able to tell the adults that it's not peanut /nut butter! If the child thinks it is peanut butter, it will not be able to be eaten in a nut free school.

 

[kkandaj]

You do have to tell the child though, b/c they have to be able to tell the adults that it's not peanut /nut butter! If the child thinks it is peanut butter, it will not be able to be eaten in a nut free school.

This can be trialed at home first without telling the child. Then after they eat it and love it, you can tell them that it's really not pb--for future reference for when they take it to school.

I have never once seen an adult in a lunch room ask if their sandwich is pb. BTW--parents send all kinds of nutbutter sandwiches and nuts to our "nut free" school--I see it almost every time I eat with my kids on Fridays. In reality, there is no nut free school. (Not trying to start a debate--was just giving suggestions for the previous poster.)

One more tip--I use an entire loaf of bread and make several sunbutter/jelly sandwiches at one time, crimp the sides with a fork like uncrustables, put them in individual baggies, then put all of them in a gallon freezer bag. Pop them in the freezer and when you need one in the morning when you're in a rush, just pull one out and throw it in their lunch box. It will be thawed out by lunch. This saves me when I forget to pack their lunches the night before.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Lots of great ideas. I suggest a way to organize your lunch making. Try to find one self ( where your kids can reach) in both a cabinet and in your refrigerator, and store your stuff there. When you can home from the store, take an hour or so to do some prep-work. Wash and bag fruits and veggies and cut up meat and cheese etc. Involve you kids and establish routines for packing and unpacking boxes. If your school does not have rules on sharing foods, establish one with your kids. They need to eat what you send. Ask them to bring home leftovers at least for a while to see the amount you need to send. Try fun things like a fun napkin, or note once in a while. When you have time, have a baking day and fill your freezer with yummy cookies or muffins to fill lunch boxes. Easier and healthier.

food ideas that work for us:
tons of fresh fruits and veggies and dips
cut up lean ham or chicken or turkey (rotisserie chicken is great too)
cold pasta salad made with what ever they like
crackers, pickles, cereal bars, pretzels, rice crispy treats,

We have not had good luck with chicken nuggets staying warm, but have gotten easy mac, etc to stay pretty warm.

Invest in some decent containers, plastic forks, a good lunch box etc.

 

[meajuly5]

Individual hummus with cut up carrots or peppers as pretzels is a winner here. Mini sandwiches on slider buns, mini fruit kebabs with pineapple and strawberries and grapes, clementines, deconstructed chef salads to be assembled at school have been big hits

 

[averysmom]

This can be trialed at home first without telling the child. Then after they eat it and love it, you can tell them that it's really not pb--for future reference for when they take it to school.

I have never once seen an adult in a lunch room ask if their sandwich is pb. BTW--parents send all kinds of nutbutter sandwiches and nuts to our "nut free" school--I see it almost every time I eat with my kids on Fridays. In reality, there is no nut free school. (Not trying to start a debate--was just giving suggestions for the previous poster.)

One more tip--I use an entire loaf of bread and make several sunbutter/jelly sandwiches at one time, crimp the sides with a fork like uncrustables, put them in individual baggies, then put all of them in a gallon freezer bag. Pop them in the freezer and when you need one in the morning when you're in a rush, just pull one out and throw it in their lunch box. It will be thawed out by lunch. This saves me when I forget to pack their lunches the night before.

Good plan! Our school is nut free, and the kids self-monitor, but if a nut product is sent, it is left in its container and a note is sent home ( form letter) saying why the product is not allowed to be eaten at school. Most day cares/schools/ public areas here are nut free though, so it's really not a big deal, Kwim? I can count on one hand the number of times kids have brought nut products into my classroom

 

[thebeesknees]

My one son eats breakfast at 7, lunch at 10:30 (how dumb), no snack and doesn't get home until 4, so I have to pack stuff that will keep him full for awhile. The other two kids still get a snack mid-morning and mid-afternoon to keep them going. Some things I've packed are quesedillas, burritos, mac n' cheese (hot stuff in thermos, obviously), bagel spread with cream cheese (flavored is always a hit), boiled eggs, tortilla wraps with turkey and cheese. My kids love a baggie of popcorn or pretzels as a snack. I buy the larger bags of mini chips ahoy, oreo minis or cheese crackers and portion them into snack bags, much cheaper than buying individual servings. We do applesauce or pudding cups, clementines are super popular, mixed veggies with ranch or hummus for dipping, make our own nut-free trail mix with craisins, raisins, banana chips, yogurt pretzels or raisins, goldfish, etc. We make our own lunchables like so many other people on here. That way I can put in more protein and fewer carbs for my kids. Oh, and they love jerky every so often. I have not done the yogurt or cheese sticks for awhile because they said even with freezing them they were still tepid by the time they got to eat them, and they were getting wasted, so I save those for after-school snacks. Almost forgot rats on a raft for a special treat - spread some cream cheese on a graham cracker and dot with raisins, a good alternative if you can't do ants on a log due to nut allergies.

 

[Dancemomof3]

I went grocery shopping at Wal Mart today and stocked up on all kinds of stuff and invested in some different containers for keeping food separated and also to keep foods either cold or warm in their lunch boxes.


We actually sat down tonight and discussed the rest of the weeks meals and wrote out a "menu" for each of them. Tomorrow the my oldest and my son are taking turkey wraps, Pringles (I caved and bought the small lunch box sized ones) appples, celery and pb and 2 cookies and my youngest decided she wanted to veer from her routine and is having a string cheese, some pepperoni slices, Wheat Thins, Pringles, mandarin oranges and an apple and 2 cookies.Weds my oldest wants tomato soup and she will just choose whatever "sides" she wants from their box on the counter and their shelf in the fridge (thanks to whoever put that suggestion on here I just shoved everything in the fridge/cupboards when I got home from the store but as we were menu planning for the week I pulled it out and organized it all). That day my son wants spaghetti and meatballs that will be left over from tomorrows dinner and he too will choose his sides. My other daughter wants to try a wrap and I'm also putting half a pb sandwich in there just in case, she can always eat it on the bus on the way home. Thurs they want PB&J's, all of them and on Fri it's a celebration day because it's homecoming weekend so the local pizza place gave the PTA a huge discount on pizzas and they will also be barbecuing hot dogs, making pop corn and all other kinds of fun food (huge football town).

Thanks again for tall the great tips and ideas. Keep them coming

 

[gray52]

Our thermos's definitely keep my kids food hot, not just warm. I've been told a couple times that "the food was too hot to eat".

Our problem was that our schools provided too much food and my kids were over eating. Our school district provides as much food to a child in kindergarten as one in 6th grade. That's too much. We started mid-way through last year, getting only a little resistance... And now when they do eat at school (I allow once per month), they come home saying it's not as good as they remember.

We have two lunch bags for each child... One that's more upright for the thermos's... And one that lays flat for sandwiches.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[RamrodinTonight]

Today I made pizza "lunchable" with a small pita, sauce, cheese, and a plastic knife. These parts were combined at school with great success.