What do your kids take to school for lunch and how???

[marius97]

I remember taking lunch to school everyday in elementary school...we didn't have hot lunch until 7th grade. I took all different kinds of sandwiches and snacks and never brought an ice pack with it. Now I know about salmonella and ecoli and as a parent I don't know what to do. I want to save money by sending lunch now. The only sandwich that seems safe is peanut butter. Is sending something like a ham sandwich with mayo safe if you just throw in an ice pack? What other simple ideas do you guys have? Life was so much simpler when people didn't know any better.

 

[RMulieri]

Depends on your school too..My school PROHIBITS peanuts, peanut butter because of the allergic children.

 

[Mom21]

Just buy an insulated bag and throw in an ice pack. My dd only goes to school one day a week but that is what I do. She has access to a microwave so I often send her frozen meals or spaghetti or something like that. If your child wants hot meals, get a thermos, add boiling water for a few minutes while you heat up the food. Then dump the water and add piping hot food. My dd's meal was still nice and warm at lunch time.

Another thing I bought was with the thermoses. It is meant for cereal. The top holds the dry cereal. The bottom portion has a gel insulation. You put that in the freezer the night before, add milk in the morning, and put in insulated bag. Milk still cold at lunch (she sometimes has a craving for cereal for lunch).

Here are some more ideas:
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/15-fresh-brown-bag-lunch-ideas

Just do a search and you will find plenty of sites with nice ideas for packing.

 

[mom2d&b]

My kids take their lunch everyday and I try to remind them to bring an ice pack but they can not be bothered. They have never gotten sick but maybe we are just lucky. They do use an insulated lunch bag/box. I think their cold drink ( water or juice) play a part in keeping the rest of the lunch cooler. And also think about how early some of the kids actually eat lunch. There was one year one of my kids had lunch at 10:30.

 

[Mom21]

Another thing about the ham is I pack it in a baggie separate from the bread and dd assembles it at lunch. That way I can tuck the baggie against the ice pack and keeps the bread from being soggy also.

 

[boakl]

The school's food isn't good and most of it is loaded with fat and calories!

I bought each of my sons a well insulated small soft-sided cooler (Columbia) at Kohls. It is large enough to hold a small ice pack, a drink, either a small thermos or Tupperware sandwich holder as well as baggies with food in them. Usually, the ice pack is still quite cold when they get home at 3:15, so I know the temperature is safe.

There are lots of things to pack for lunch my boys usually get either a sandwich (ham, turkey, etc) or a warm entree in a small thermos (found them at Target on a killer sale a few years back) such as soup, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, leftovers from dinner the night before. I simply fill each thermos with very hot water and let the water sit in the thermos for several minutes before pouring the water out and filling it with the warm entree.

For drinks, I fill a water bottle with Crystal Light lemonade. Cheaper per serving than the school's punch drink and they get more to drink.

In addition to the entree and drink they get a piece of fruit (whatever is in season, right now, lots of apples!), a dairy (string cheese, GoGurt, etc), a "crunchy" such as Cheez-its or pretzels, and a dessert. This is plenty of food for both their lunches and a midmorning snack.

I pack the same lunch for all three boys. I am not sure if I am really saving any money by packing their lunch vs. purchasing it (1.75), but I know what they are eating and that they are eating their lunch!

 

[marius97]

My kids take their lunch everyday and I try to remind them to bring an ice pack but they can not be bothered. They have never gotten sick but maybe we are just lucky.

The five kids in my family survived with taking mayo on sandwiches, etc everyday for years and never got sick. Ignorence is bliss.

 

[mjkacmom]

Today I packed dd8 peanut butter and fluff, dd6 a bagel.

 

[cmaee]

My kids eat the same thing every day...peanut butter sandwich (no jelly), pretzels, 2 cookies, fruit, and 2 juice boxes. I've tried encouraging them to try something else at lunch, but they insist that is what they want to eat. The amount of peanut butter we go through in a week is unreal!

 

[princessmom29]

I pack DD's lunch every day and never ice anything. Just throw it in the bag and go. They will not get sick unless they are storing their lunch on top of the heater!! Lunch meat has enough salt in it that it will not spoil in a couple of hours before lunch at school, and I cannot imagine anything you could pack other than perhaps seafood that would be a danger in that amount of time. I took a sandwich every day for 12 years with no ice and did fine. I bring them to work now in an insulated bag with no ice and have never gotten sick.

 

[JUJU814]

My kids are required to bring a healthy lunch to school, and the school is "trash free" so the school requested that we use "Laptop Lunchboxes". They are awesome. all different compartments for their lunch and the box goes inside this insulated "laptop" like case with enough room for their water bottle. When they get home we just throw everything in the dishwasher.

Sometimes they bring homemade soup in their insulated crayola soup containers. They always have some kind of fruit, usually ham and cheese sandwich, sometimes goldfish.

My son actually requests asparagus in his lunch. Tomorrow, dd will get chicken, peas and rice...she has been begging to bring that to school for lunch.

I really like the laptop lunchboxes.

 

[Kat77]

As someone else mentioned, you probably won't save money by packing lunches unless you're a super shopper/planner. Here school lunches average abt. $2 and that's hard to beat. I pack lunch for my boys daily and for my girls, as desired... saving money is unfortunately not a benefit but knowing they are going to eat something for lunch is! My kids are not terribly picky eaters either, school lunches are just kinda gross sometimes.
We have a supply of icepacks but when I was a kid my mother just froze my drink, it served as a cold pack and was usually thawed by lunchtime.

 

[Bastiansmom]

I freeze my son's capri sun and that acts as an "ice pack." By the time he eats lunch his drink is thawed, but has kept everything cold.
Edited: this was mentioned in the post just before this one...sorry Kat77, I really wasn't "stealing" your idea!

Today I packed an Uncrustable, his frozen capri sun, cheetos, a sliced apple, and a slice of cheese. The PBJ (in whatever form) and capri sun are usually staples, the fruit/veggie and dairy sometimes vary. He doesn't always get chips, but I got a really good deal, so he is this week! He is in first grade. We started packing his lunch this year so we could make sure he had stuff he would actually eat. Before this, he would eat non-stop after school because he didn't eat much during lunch. We do occasionally have him eat the school lunch just so he can "expand his horizons" a little bit.

 

[Kat77]

Lunch Ideas:
~#1 secret- Everything tastes better on a skewer stick or plastic pick! -Fruit slices, ham & cheese cubes, meatballs (fave!), sausages and peppers, teriyaki chicken (fave!).
~Tortillas are your best friend! Wraps are easy and can use up any leftovers- dice up chicken, shred beef, ect. When I make tacos, I now freeze indivual packets of taco meat for DS12 to make soft tacos for lunch.
~Thermos foods- chili, soups, noodles w/crackers or breadsticks.

 

[diamondpixienc]

DS(6) take his lunch 2 days a week & always want PB&J w/ bananas, baked cheetos, 2-cookies & we send fifteen cents for milk. Now, DD(4) takes her lunch 3-days a week & she will either have a lunchable(ham or turkey & cheese combo), hot soup or Mac&Cheese in a thermos (also from Target) or a Ham & Cheese w/ no condiments, baked doritos & 2-cookies w/either a sip pack or a small bottle of water... it depends on her mood that day

 

[Sorsha]

My younger kids usually have hot lunch, but on the days when the lunch served is something they just can't stand, they bring lunch from home. We don't do ice packs (scratching my head, trying to remember if I even own one) but they do have insulated lunch boxes.

Today was one of those days, "super nachos" was the main dish. Besides being rather unhealthy, neither one can stand them.

DD9 had a thermos full of chicken noodle soup, a small bag of saltines, a cup of applesauce, a bag of baby carrots, a Capri Sun, and a chocolate pudding. Now, the carrots will probably get eaten at recess as a morning snack, and the chocolate pudding probably won't get eaten at all until after school as a snack.

DD6 had a lunchable (of which she will probably eat only the crackers and meat and toss out the fake-y cheese) - she doesn't like sandwiches. Also a cup of mandarin oranges, a bag of baby carrots and a small cup of ranch for dunking, a Capri Sun, and a chocolate pudding. Again, the pudding will probably be her afternoon snack.

 

[CC&M]

Along the same lines as freezing the juice...I have always frozen "go-gurts" ... they keep my daughters lunch cold until time to eat and the yogurt has thawed by then.

 

[luckey-lasvegas]

This year I got my DD a Stayfit plastic sandwich container that you freeze. I did it more to cut down on the amount of plastic bags we use more than my concearn for food born illness. It works great and keeps her sandwich nice and cold. She also has a thermos that she takes for hot lunch. These are some on her favorites.
Hot lunch
Teryaki chicken and rice
Campbells chicken noodle soup
Mac and cheese
Hot dog

Cold lunch
Chicken ceasar salad
Chicken salad samdwich
Ham sandwich
Turkey and bacon sandwich
PB&J
Chicken,lettuce and ranch wrapped in a tortillia.

I usually send it with fruit, chocolate milk and a cookie or something sweet.

Today she had the chicken wrap with sliced apples, choclate milk and 2 homemade chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.