school lunches

[PixiePlanner]

DD sometimes takes sandwiches. One day I was out of bread so I used a leftover Hamburger bun. She loved it! I haven't had to throw away any leftover buns since. I've use hotdog buns too. She is actually disappointed now when I make a sandwich on bread. I guess the little changes are fun.

 

[Smile4Me]

Grew up bringing lunch to school elementary through high school cause of food allergies...mom made the switch for the whole family cause it was cheaper. I still go home for lunch or brown bag it when I can! I love these ideas, because my boyfriend is now going to start taking his lunch to work (works too far away to come home everyday) and is a little worried he will get bored, so thanks for sharing and here are some of my ideas (sorry for the repeats)...

Thermoses are wonderful as has been said. You can do soup, chili, mac and cheese, ravioli, spaghetti, spaghetti-o's, etc. You can heat them really well and they will hold their heat til lunch, its great.

Home made chips and salsa

Sub sandwiches, build your own the night before

applesauce, comes in a lot of new flavors now, I absolutely love mango applesauce

Nature Valley bars, love the oats and honey and peanut butter flavors

pretzels, gold fish, trailmix,

fruit, whole pieces, halves, fruit salad, etc.

veggies

A neat trick my mom did if we needed something to stay cold and to save space- she would freeze our capri suns and use them as the ice pack! By lunch they would pretty much thawed, cold, and everything else would stay cold too!

Mom also use to do theme nights to keep eating interesting, such as Italian, Chinese, Mexican, etc. Often got those left overs in lunch too!

 

[belle41379]

Not sure if you are looking for more ideas, but here are a few:

Breakfast:

Make mini pancakes or homemade french toast sticks - both of which you can make in healthy ways. Send items to dip it in - healthy yogurt, applesauce, PB, etc.

Scrambled Egg Wrap - make the same as you would any other wrap in a tortilla or in pita. You could use cheese, salsa, etc.

Other:

Turkey Kabobs - use pretzel sticks and push pieces of turkey or other meat and cheeses on it.

Hope these help!

 

[ssdeverell]

I haven't tried it, but 'they' say you can toss with a little lemon juice and that will keep them from turning. Since I haven't tried it, I don't know if that would make the apples taste sour, but might be worth a try if you really want to send apple slices!

The lemon juice does work and does not change the taste enough to notice.

 

[gandycat]

Some things that my kids like:

whole grain bagels and string cheese
applesauce (I get the berry kind w/ no added sugar)
carrot sticks
grapes
strawberries
watermellon
apples
bananas
whole wheat pita with hummus
broccoli
peanuts
cold chicken nuggest (my dd's favorite, I do them a couple times a week, cook them in the microwave in the morning)
Orange and peach cups (hard to find ones prepackaged not in sugar syrup, these are treats)
goldfish crackers
pretzels
granola bars

It's hard sometimes to find more variety. Good luck!

 

[iheartdisney]

Nothing like an evening on the DIS to make one feel like an horrible parent! Of course, my mom packed me a sandwich, a fruit, a bag of chips, 4 cookies and a soda everyday for lunch, and I'm still alive, so luckily I can put things in perspective!
For the peanut-butter phobic children...my DD will not eat a sandwich MADE with peanut butter...just jelley for her, thanks! But if I get the uncrustables, she loves them. Go figure.
I love shopping SAMS club for fruit for lunches...they have grapes in cups, so no squishing, and the individual packs of apples slices. (my kids won't eat a peel, so no luck sending a whole one.)

 

[htmom]

ugh packing lunches. That is getting so hard at my sons school. No Peanut, No cinnamon,no garlic, and no paprika. The last two aren't so bad but the first two coupled with my son having a no artificial color diet is a bit rough. I did speak to one of the peanut allergy kids mom (we have two) and asked her what she packs.She listed pretty much every thing Hunter can't have LOL Luckily Hunter likes Tuna, so most days he will take a pack of tuna, carrots (can't have ranch because of the "spices" according to the mom I spoke to) and a piece of fruit. Sometimes milk and other times a Capri Sun. I have fallen to adding a Hershey Kiss though (after asking the mom before anyone jumps me for that lol)

 

[pigletto]

Our school is peanut free and my 13 yr old is a vegetarian, so I have to get a little creative. We do many thermos meals. Usually leftovers. I try to make enough for dinner to have leftovers for the next day. Soups, Salads, Tofu Parmesean (sounds yucky but the whole family LOVES it), veggie chili, pitas and hummus, veggies and dip.
I also buy fruit bars that we have here that have no added sugars or preservatives. They come in several flavors. They are pricey but the fruit in lunches was rarely eaten by her so this helps.

DS (6) will be a different story. He starts taking a lunch next year. The only sandwhich (and I mean only) he will eat is Peanut Butter, so that's out. So it will be many thermos lunches for him as well.
I'm getting some new ideas from this thread which is great!

 

[chickflick]

The lemon juice does work and does not change the taste enough to notice.

I've also sprinkled some cinnamon on the apples in the bag--brown is the new "tasty" in our house

Also, has anyone tried the Wheat Cracker Recipe from AllRecipes.com,
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Wheat-Crackers/Detail.aspx

I only add whole wheat flour(no white flour here) also some wheat germ and oatmeal for a great texture. I also add olive oil to the top, once rolled out. My daughter loves them with a side of nutella or peanut butter to spread

Happy Packing lunches--only a few more weeks left

 

[Befferk]

Question for you all who send apples--I've tried so many times on sending apple slices---from the ones I cut up, to the store packaged kinds....and they always turn brown before lunch and dd WONT eat brown apples. I put a cooler thing in her bag but they still turn. How do you keep yours from turning brown?

Our trick for cut up apples is pineapple juice. Leaves a better taste than lemon juice.

 

[MomtoEmIs&Ow]

Thanks for the ideas!

 

[txaggie94gigem]

ugh packing lunches. That is getting so hard at my sons school. No Peanut, No cinnamon,no garlic, and no paprika. The last two aren't so bad but the first two coupled with my son having a no artificial color diet is a bit rough. I did speak to one of the peanut allergy kids mom (we have two) and asked her what she packs.She listed pretty much every thing Hunter can't have LOL Luckily Hunter likes Tuna, so most days he will take a pack of tuna, carrots (can't have ranch because of the "spices" according to the mom I spoke to) and a piece of fruit. Sometimes milk and other times a Capri Sun. I have fallen to adding a Hershey Kiss though (after asking the mom before anyone jumps me for that lol)

so the whole school cannot have any of those things? why...

is your son alergic to artificial colors or is it for other reasons?

wow...just very restrictive at tthe school...understand the peanut but the other three are a little much i guess...

 

[aprilgail2]

Nothing like an evening on the DIS to make one feel like an horrible parent! Of course, my mom packed me a sandwich, a fruit, a bag of chips, 4 cookies and a soda everyday for lunch, and I'm still alive, so luckily I can put things in perspective!
For the peanut-butter phobic children...my DD will not eat a sandwich MADE with peanut butter...just jelley for her, thanks! But if I get the uncrustables, she loves them. Go figure.
.)

LOL---my mom gave me a PB&J everyday with a soda....I used to toss most of the sandwich and just buy a snack from school.
My daughter will not eat cold meat-cold chicken is a no go! She won't eat cold cuts either since they are cold meat. I end up packing her a piece of bread or a wrap (nothing in them), peanut butter, an apple, some cut up fruit and some cookies or chips. She will take the jar of peanut butter and a spoon and eat peanut butter for lunch, or she will take the jar of peanut butter and crackers, peanut butter and apples, peanut butter is the main staple in the school lunch though thank goodness are schools don't have a peanut ban- they just put the peanut kids at a seperate table.

 

[sherabby]

Our school is peanut free and my 13 yr old is a vegetarian, so I have to get a little creative. We do many thermos meals. Usually leftovers. I try to make enough for dinner to have leftovers for the next day. Soups, Salads, Tofu Parmesean (sounds yucky but the whole family LOVES it), veggie chili, pitas and hummus, veggies and dip.
I also buy fruit bars that we have here that have no added sugars or preservatives. They come in several flavors. They are pricey but the fruit in lunches was rarely eaten by her so this helps.

DS (6) will be a different story. He starts taking a lunch next year. The only sandwhich (and I mean only) he will eat is Peanut Butter, so that's out. So it will be many thermos lunches for him as well.
I'm getting some new ideas from this thread which is great!

Our school serves sunflower butter instead of peanut butter. If you can find it try it at home and see if he likes it.

 

[Priorityonecb]

My daughter was "one of them" peanut allergic kids that probably annoyed all the other parents! I just wanted to second the sunflower butter. It was delicious and my daughter still requests it even though she has outgrown the peanut allergy and can have the regular stuff.