What's in your kids' school lunchboxes?

[wilbret]

Planning menus so we can go shopping. We've got our tried and true options and the reality of keeping some lunchables in the fridge for when you need them... but I'm always looking for ideas. Our kids are not adventurous eaters, so it's pretty pointless to try most things, but sometimes there's a combination or method that is interesting! Our daughter does like things the boys do not, like hummus and grape tomatoes, but I like to try to keep it simple by packing the same thing for each of them.

One of my favorites? Giving kids the power to make their own stuff, which saves me time and effort. Pizza rollups! Pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, etc.. in a tortilla, and nuke it. Pizza rollup! lol. They love making these things.

What's in your lunchbox?

 

[luvnwdwgal]

I haven’t packed lunches for our son in many years. He’s 39 now, but I’ve been packing lunches for my husband for 40 years. He has worked at the same Catholic school/church all those years and is finally retiring next year. Sometimes he’ll eat the school lunch but during the summer he always takes a brown bag lunch. Sometimes he’ll get leftovers but usually it’s a sandwich on toasted rye or wheat with ham or turkey and cheese. A baggie with chips or pretzels and either cookies or Little Debbie’s. Not the healthiest of lunches but he doesn’t eat fruit or salads.

 

[wilbret]

Healthy is definitely part of the consideration, but ultimately it needs to be something they will eat. I can put carrot sticks in my boys' lunchboxes every day, but they won't eat them. ;-)

 

[barkley]

mine are grown but 2 things that worked well for me (with one getting to the right time of year to avail yourself)-

one of my kids could eat meatballs 7 days a week/loved subway meatball subs. i started making 'meatball loaf'. just your standard meatloaf recipe only using the same spices i use for meatballs. i would make several and freeze them. make it like a traditional sandwich but substitute marinara for catsup.

like lots of folks, as far as the snacky or dessert part of lunch i bought stuff in larger quantities from walmart and costco so they could pick and choose (with a limit of how many for each lunch). one of my best discoveries was the smaller size snack items that are sold at halloween for trick or treat. i would get several boxes of the small fruit treats, rice krispy treats and such but my biggest/best find was very large containers of very small bags of pretzels, cheese puffs, chocolate covered pretzels and muddie buddies. these are SO inexpensive on a per unit basis, the kids loved them and if i stocked up when the halloween stuff came out i had enough for the whole school year (i still buy these b/c one adult kid likes them for lunches so they are a yearly christmas gift, and i like them because they are great for portion control on dieting). last years prices online from walmart were-

70 count pretzles-$3.99
70 count cheese puffs-$7.48
25 count chocolate pretzles-$9.22.

 

[DisneyHardin]

it’s a sandwich on toasted rye or wheat with ham or turkey and cheese. A baggie with chips or pretzels and either cookies or Little Debbie’s. Not the healthiest of lunches but he doesn’t eat fruit or salads.

My husband used to work a job where he was out and about and needed to take a lunch that didn't have to be heated up. This is the exact same lunch I packed for him - lunchmeat sandwich, chips and a Little Debbie

 

[dez1978]

my kinds are 10 & 7. we do lunchables, uncrustables-they now have them that are meat and cheese, not just pb&j, normal sandwiches. Sometimes mac & cheese in a thermos. An applesauce (pouch or cup) or peaches, a fruit snack, and sometimes they get a snack cake. Oh, can't forget the cheese stick. Admittedly, I am a lazy mom, and would much rather pay to have my kids eat school lunch (would prob be cheaper lol). We are not morning people in my house. Or at least me and 10 are not. So it's all easy things that they can do themselves, bc I told them if they were going to insist on taking lunch, they were gonna have to pack it and they have. Also, they are pretty basic eaters. So we just stick with the things they know they will eat. Like someone else said, I can send carrots in their lunch but only one of them will eat them.

 

[wilbret]

what cracks me up with kids is how fickle their tastes are.

We LOVE cheese sticks!
Kids, why isn't anyone eating these cheese sticks??

I think we've seen attitudes change on things like laughing cow cheese, cheese sticks, yorgurt, raisins, applesauce (we are back on again here), danimals, corn dogs.... we currently have a huge club store box of uncrustables, have told them they will be eaten before we get something else they like...

 

[dez1978]

what cracks me up with kids is how fickle their tastes are.

We LOVE cheese sticks!
Kids, why isn't anyone eating these cheese sticks??

I think we've seen attitudes change on things like laughing cow cheese, cheese sticks, yorgurt, raisins, applesauce (we are back on again here), danimals, corn dogs.... we currently have a huge club store box of uncrustables, have told them they will be eaten before we get something else they like...

oh yes... That irritates the heck out of me. They eat a ridiculous amount of something and I am buying it every few days, then the second I open the big Sams club sized container they suddenly don't like it any more. Every time! Tho I don't think my kids have ever NOT liked cheese. 10 did go thru a brief stage where he would only eat the colby jack ones and 7 would only eat the white ones, but at least they ate them all lol.

Our biggest issue with food is that 10 is super skinny and doesn't have a huge appetite, and actually could use more calories as he didn't gain any weight the last year. 7 is exactly the opposite and is quite the chunk (no i never say that in front of him) and has a huge appetite. We have to serve him his food (we actually serve both so it's not obvious) and limit seconds on things or say if he's still hungry he can have fruit. And thats really hard when you have one you are trying to get to eat more and one you are trying to limit without either of them noticing it.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Pretty much the same thing every day for my kids - turkey and cheese sandwich, bag of chips, fruit (apple or grapes typically), and some sort of treat. They sometimes buy a chocolate milk at school, otherwise just drink water from their water bottles.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

The kids have been at swim camp all summer, they're burning a lot of calories, but I've been trying to get them to eat slightly healthier:

1 juice box
sandwich on toasted wheat or white bread - either PB&J or cream cheese&cucumber
raw vegetable - baby carrots, cucumber sticks, celery sticks, grapes tomatoes or spinach salad
raw fruit - apple, clementine, peach or plum
frozen dannimals yogurt
1 mini slim jim stick or a tiny bit of jerky
2 hershey's minis candy bars

 

[wilbret]

Only one of our 3 likes peanut butter, which is a shame, since my dad is a peanut farmer. It really a perfect food. Shelf stable, high in nutrients, etc…

It is just as well, I guess. Some schools have really strict rules about it, and some don’t.

 

[sjberg79]

My son has autism and likes his routines, so his lunches don't vary much whether he's at home or at school. He likes uncrustables, blueberries, blackberries, banana (at home), small orange (school), cut up peaches and plums (home or school), PEACH applesauce pouches, pretzels, yogurt, daminal smoothies, pirate booty, cheese and crackers, teddy grahms. He will sit at the table with the kids with the nut allergies 1-2x a month as part of a conversation program so the nut allergy kids don't have to feel segregated. When he does instead of the normal PB&J uncrustable he will take rolled up deli salami and I make him a charcuterie kind of lunch with the same things but I make it look cuter in a bento box. He likes oreos or a rice cripsy treat as dessert or 2 pieces of plain milk chocolate Dove chocolates.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I haven’t packed lunches for our son in many years. He’s 39 now, but I’ve been packing lunches for my husband for 40 years. He has worked at the same Catholic school/church all those years and is finally retiring next year. Sometimes he’ll eat the school lunch but during the summer he always takes a brown bag lunch. Sometimes he’ll get leftovers but usually it’s a sandwich on toasted rye or wheat with ham or turkey and cheese. A baggie with chips or pretzels and either cookies or Little Debbie’s. Not the healthiest of lunches but he doesn’t eat fruit or salads.

My husband used to work a job where he was out and about and needed to take a lunch that didn't have to be heated up. This is the exact same lunch I packed for him - lunchmeat sandwich, chips and a Little Debbie

Can’t imagine grown men eating no fruits or veggies for lunch every day!
When my kids took lunch (one still does) they take one fruit, sandwich with lettuce/tomato and one treat- often cookies.
sometimes when younger I would send a more snacky lunch - goldfish crackers, slices of sausage, cheese, fruit.

 

[barkley]

Our biggest issue with food is that 10 is super skinny and doesn't have a huge appetite, and actually could use more calories as he didn't gain any weight the last year. 7 is exactly the opposite and is quite the chunk (no i never say that in front of him) and has a huge appetite. We have to serve him his food (we actually serve both so it's not obvious) and limit seconds on things or say if he's still hungry he can have fruit. And thats really hard when you have one you are trying to get to eat more and one you are trying to limit without either of them noticing it.

check out a product called 'benecalorie'. it's a flavorless/textureless calorie booster. my youngest is autistic and between being a very picky eater as a kid and being on a medication that just killed his appetite he was always very underweight. we discovered this stuff and found we could mix it into almost anything he would eat-applesauce, mac and cheese, tomato soup, marinara...he never knew the difference. each 1.5 oz. container adds 330 calories and 7 grams of protean to whatever you are consuming. it helped increase his body weight.

 

[PollyannaMom]

DS was hard to pack for when he was little. He hated the texture of sandwiches that sat in a lunch box. (I think one year, he ate cheese and crackers and an apple almost every day.) Cold leftover pizza was always a hit, though!

When I was little, my mom preferred to just pack me lunch money. But on the rare occasions she had to make me a bagged lunch for field trips, I remember liking hard boiled eggs.

One of my friend's DDs likes hummus with carrots and pita chips.

And some kids are more adventurous if you cut things into cute little bite-sized shapes. I've seen on Pinterest or somewhere using those silicone cupcake liners to divide up a regular lunch container.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

Can’t imagine grown men eating no fruits or veggies for lunch every day!
When my kids took lunch (one still does) they take one fruit, sandwich with lettuce/tomato and one treat- often cookies.
sometimes when younger I would send a more snacky lunch - goldfish crackers, slices of sausage, cheese, fruit.

Believe it or not he eats a lot more healthy now then when I met him. Only fruit he’ll eat is a banana though and he eats one for breakfast every other day. When I first met him he would only eat green beans and corn. He’ll eat cooked carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower now too though. His dad was a horribly picky eater and his mom just pampered him and the kids. She just wanted them to eat so she could get dinner done and over with.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Believe it or not he eats a lot more healthy now then when I met him. Only fruit he’ll eat is a banana though and he eats one for breakfast every other day. When I first met him he would only eat green beans and corn. He’ll eat cooked carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower now too though. His dad was a horribly picky eater and his mom just pampered him and the kids. She just wanted them to eat so she could get dinner done and over with.

I think we are married to the same person My husband only eats bananas too and also eats one for breakfast every day. He also swore he didn't "like" many vegetables when we first got married, but now will eat salad, asparagus, broccoli and most anything else that is served (except cauliflower - he still dislikes that).

 

[hdrolfe]

My son doesn't like sandwiches so it's often leftovers in a thermos. If we don't have leftovers I will get frozen lasagna or mac & cheese that get cooked in the morning and put in the thermos. Shepherd's pie is another one he really likes, or pasta with meatballs. I will also cook extra so we have leftovers for his lunch whenever I can, and sometimes freeze those for future meals. I also buy frozen meatballs because they are quick and easy to cook/reheat and he never seems to eat enough protein.

No idea what I will do about snacks this coming year, he no longer likes the things he used to. The bags of cookies or chips may work out, and I send apple sauce or fruit cups a lot because he likes his fruit cut up but it gets brown and "yucky" in the lunch bag, so I can't send apples or bananas. I used to send broccoli and dip but someone made a comment about broccoli being gross and he doesn't like to take it now.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

I think we are married to the same person My husband only eats bananas too and also eats one for breakfast every day. He also swore he didn't "like" many vegetables when we first got married, but now will eat salad, asparagus, broccoli and most anything else that is served (except cauliflower - he still dislikes that).

Kudos to you! I haven’t been able to get my husband to eat salad. He hates mayo/sour cream and he doesn’t eat anything with vinegar except ketchup. So no dressings for him. The only raw vegetable he’ll eat is a carrot and even that happens rarely. Cooking for the past 40 years has not been fun. He rarely wants to go out to eat either. I look forward to vacations so I don’t have to cook.

 

[neverlandsky]

Lunch was early so we took the Brunch approach. Yogurt, Thermo Oatmeal, Thermo Scramble Eggs & Potatoes, Bagels with Cream Cheese, Raisin Bread with Peanut Butter or Butter, Granola Bars, Grapes, Sliced Oranges, Banana, Cheese Stick, Cucumber Slices, Mini Carrots, Pickles, Hummus and Chips or Salsa and Chips, Tuna in Thermo with Crackers/Gold Fish, Egg Salad in Thermo with Crackers/Gold Fish, PopTarts, Jello, Pudding, Pepperoni Slices with Cream Cheese, Water.