School lunches

[worm761]

I know it is very early to start thinking about them already! But school starts here in less than a month so I need to start planning. Lunch as DS's school is $3 per day. Crazy! So almost everyone packs a lunch. He is really not a sandwich kind of kid. So I am looking for some creative ideas for the lunch box. I made English muffins yesterday and we made mini pizzas for lunch today. I was thinking I could freeze them and he could take them for lunches. Cheap and easy! They do have access to a microwave so that expands our options. So what do you send with your kids for lunches?

 

[bigbabyblues]

My oldest will be in 3rd grade this year, and he takes his lunch also. He takes different things, leftovers if we have any that he wants to take, etc. He started (mostly) packing his own lunch towards the end of last year, we always check and see what he has, though.

His favorites are tuna in a pouch (they eat it plain, with a fork ) , tuna salad sandwiches, tuna salad without a sandwich (usually with crackers), those little tuna-salad kit things, (are you seeing the trend? ) mac & cheese, raw veggies, leftover cooked broccoli (kids tease him about the smell, but he loves it and doesn't care, lol) grapes, plums, turkey sandwich, pretzels, cheese crackers, string cheese, cheese cubes, cookies, etc. He likes those Chex mix bars (and so do I!), and a certain kind of granola-type bar, we usually have something like that too. I've frozen single-serving sizes of sloppy joe in baggies, thawed them in the fridge, and sent those with a bun separate (he has access to a microwave), I've sent the little containers of ravioli and spaghetti o's at times, soups, etc. He likes pickles, I'll put a couple spears in every now and then.

We usually buy stuff a week at a time, and he goes to the store to pick out what he wants; DS2 will start Kindergarten this year, and he'll do the same.

HTH!

Steph

 

[semo233]

Check out this thread from last year:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1918277

There were so many good ideas, I subscribed to the thread for easy retrieval!

 

[mjantz]

I'd invest in a wide-mouth insulated container & you can send some leftovers. I've sent soup, mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, all sorts of stuff.
My DD loves green salad for lunch. I make it in a reusable sandwich container & send a separate container of dressing. She pours on the dressing & shakes it up. Its great for leftovers or those little bits of cheese or veggies that aren't really enough for 1 person.
If you can send PB my DS makes up 8-10PB sandwiches at a time & freezes them. If you put PB on both insides of the bread & the jelly in the middle they don't get soggy. It takes him about 30 minutes every 2 weeks or so but then he's set for 2-3 weeks, depending on whatever else he decides to pack instead.

I'll post more as I think of it.

 

[weesignlanguage]

I'd invest in a wide-mouth insulated container & you can send some leftovers. I've sent soup, mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, all sorts of stuff.
My DD loves green salad for lunch. I make it in a reusable sandwich container & send a separate container of dressing. She pours on the dressing & shakes it up. Its great for leftovers or those little bits of cheese or veggies that aren't really enough for 1 person.
If you can send PB my DS makes up 8-10PB sandwiches at a time & freezes them. If you put PB on both insides of the bread & the jelly in the middle they don't get soggy. It takes him about 30 minutes every 2 weeks or so but then he's set for 2-3 weeks, depending on whatever else he decides to pack instead.

I'll post more as I think of it.

What a super idea!! Do you just toss the frozen sandwich in the lunchbox and it thaws before lunch? That is neat!

 

[mamalle]

I found some great little lunch containers at homegoods that have individual ice packs that fit right into the top. I use those alot for my kids.. Mine are easy though- pb&j and turkey are staple lunches. I let them order 2x a week for $1.75 per lunch also to break the week up.

 

[PaMom001]

Hamburger Helper used to make individual serving packets and DD liked those. She also did single serve mac & cheese, soup and put all 3 in a wide mouth thermos. We haven't found the Hamburger Helper singles in awhile. Maybe they only do those for the school year, though, that sounds wierd.

 

[CrAzY4DL]

Here's a different thread from last year about school lunches:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1951020

 

[skip323]

My dd's are not much for sandwiches either. So I have gotten some great ideas over the years from magazines etc. Some that she has liked:

Making our own lunchables: cut up meat with cheese and crackers, Tuna sandwiches or Tuna with crackers, pizza sauce for dipping and then I include cheese sticks/ cubes, crackers, turkey pepperoni (and the magazine had broccoli but that didn't go over with her), rotisserie chicken cut up with bbq sauce to dip it in, a cheese and fruit or veggies just like a party : cubed cheese cut up fruit, cut up veggies with ranch dip. Fruit salad with cheese, cheese crackers or pb crackers, celery sticks with pb or ranch to dip. Salad with dressing in another container, cheese in another container and whatever else she might like on there. Granola bars with a cup of fruit. I always keep applesauce on hand in case I am too tired to cut up fruit or veggies.

 

[mjantz]

What a super idea!! Do you just toss the frozen sandwich in the lunchbox and it thaws before lunch? That is neat!

We pack lunches the night before so it has overnight & the school day until lunch to thaw out. He's not complained so they must be getting thawed out.
The first time he had to do it he complained a bit (he's 12) but now he sees the benefits & gets it done & lets me know when he's almost out so I can buy some more bread.

Packing the night before is a huge timesaver to us. I usually pack while I'm fixing dinner since I'm in the kitchen anyway. I've also found that I'm more willing to take the extra time to make fruit kabobs & other time-consuming stuff if I do it in the evenings then in the AM (I am SO not a morning person!).

Another thing, if you have kids that are packing their own lunches is that we have a chart. Take one thing by each tic-mark & the lunch is healthy & balanced. Here's a (small) example:

-PB&J, chicken nuggets, hot dog
-gogurt, cheese stick
-pretzels, chips
-strawberries, broccoli w/ ranch
-fruit snacks, cookie
-juice box, milk in a container
-napkin, spoon, straw

Although I did this for the kids I find it helpful for me as well when packing their lunches.

 

[semo233]

My DD12 loves Amy's organic burrittos, the bean and cheese ones. I cook one, cut in half and put in her double stainless steel walled wide mouth thermos that I warm up first with boiling water.
Turkey peperoni and mozzerella cheese is another favorite.

 

[skip323]

Oh! my other dd also does not like sandwiches. She, though, loves yogurt so I always have yogurt or gogurts on hand. I can always include half of a sandwich or just some sandwich meat cut up, no bread, Or I will do a small cup of cheerios to go with the yogurt. Works well for her. She also will eat, upon occasion, a boiled egg for lunch and I'll include crackers and cheese with veggies or fruit.

 

[bzkds]

One thing I used to do was to put a hotdog in a thermos and fill the thermos with boiling water. Pack the bun separately, with a container or packet of ketchup. My kids would dump out the water (or even just fish out the hotdog) at lunch time and it was still warm.

I also made breadsticks and added shredded cheese or cut up pepperoni to the dough before baking. Then send a container of spaghetti/pizza sauce to dip the breadsticks.

Beth

 

[brymolmom]

I don't think I've seen my kids' favorite yet....BAGELS. Easy and quick and sandwich-like even tho not a sandwich. We get a bag full of the mini-bagels in the beginning of the week. They are allowed to have them until they're gone - then it's something else. DS likes them with cream cheese and dd with butter.

I'll put a yogurt and/or string cheese and/or goldfish and/or carrots/cucumbers (they have ranch dip at school - makes it easy for me).

I have tried to do the warm-thermos and even though I have a good one, it hasn't worked out great. The kids like soup and it is a pain to warm up the soup in the morning and transfer it and inevitably their lunchbags get soaked (leave some in the bottom and not good at twisting the top on tight) - ds is in 2nd grade this year - maybe we'll have more luck. Anyway - I like to keep things drier in the bag most days.

 

[spare+a_pair]

We have funtainers and I send lots of stuff with my DS's to school since he gets tired of the same old sandwiches for lunch!

Here's what I send:
Soup
Chili
Spaghetti
Meatballs or Sausage in BBQ sauce
"Roll Ups" - sandwich meat, large peperroni & sliced mozzerella, or pimento cheese spread onto a tortilla and rolled up
PB, apples, celery, and crackers
Hamburgers
He is also welcomed to take any leftovers that dad hasn't taken!

 

[mickeyluvr004]

Oh! my other dd also does not like sandwiches. She, though, loves yogurt so I always have yogurt or gogurts on hand. I can always include half of a sandwich or just some sandwich meat cut up, no bread, Or I will do a small cup of cheerios to go with the yogurt. Works well for her. She also will eat, upon occasion, a boiled egg for lunch and I'll include crackers and cheese with veggies or fruit.

One thing I love about the gogurts is you can freeze them and the kids like eating them in the morning for breakfast its like eating ice cream for breakfast, I might try and send one frozen and it should still be cold for lunch

 

[PinkRhombus]

One thing I used to do was to put a hotdog in a thermos and fill the thermos with boiling water. Pack the bun separately, with a container or packet of ketchup. My kids would dump out the water (or even just fish out the hotdog) at lunch time and it was still warm.

That idea never even crossed my mind. Thanks!



I do the frozen PB&J too. About 2 loafs at a time, though.

If I have a little left over chicken from whatever it is, I'll chop it up and put it in some little snack sized bags inside a freezer bag. Those are perfect for either making up a little chicken salad (mine like it with grapes) or putting it inside a pita or rolling in a tortilla.

I buy several big bags of snack crackers, teddy grahams, etc. once a month and bag them up in the snack sized bags. I put that in a big bowl on top of the fridge (so no little hands get to it ) and between that and frozen PB&J's, even if I forget until the last minute about their lunch, it takes me 10 seconds to grab a sandwich, cheese stick, snack bag and a capri sun.

 

[gymboqueenkaylee]

My daughter is super picky. There are only a few select things she will eat. Her school doesn't give the option of a microwave so, I had to get one of those thermos mug/bowl things to put her preciously nasty spaghetti-o's and other things like mac-n-cheese, rice, etc in. We are not allowed to send sodas or sweets (which doesn't bother me one bit).

Some of the things I send are:
spaghetti-o's (YUCK, but she likes them)
mac-n-cheese
Rice (not white but the kinds in the package lke chicken rice, broc. and cheese rice, etc)
Hot Dogs (well turkey dogs but she doesn't know the difference)
home made lunchables(turkey cut into shapes, crackers, cheese cut into shapes)
Fruit "salads" (no lettuce because she won't eat lettuce, just tons of different types of fruit)
Green beans (LOVES them, her favorite food, I know I have a strange child)
Peanut Butter and something for her to dip with (she won't eat PB on bread or anything else, uses it as a dipping sauce)
Sausage and Busicuts (she loves even if it is a breakfast food and if she will eat, who cares)

Sometimes I have to get creative. I get tired of packing the same things over and over. Not that she cares eating the same things over and over, mommy just gets tired. Between her allergies and being picky it's rough.

 

[powellrj]

We don't really eat cereal for breakfast, but my kids love to take a tupperware bowl of dry cereal and add the milk at school.

 

[mamalle]

funny you mentioned cheerios I send that also with ds to go along with his yogurt.. He eats that on a daily basis.he isnt a sandwich eater so this works out well for him.