Ok, so I have never had an option of bringing my own lunch to school and I figured since my son's school provides lunch and I just added money to his lunch card, I was all set. BUT NO... he came home yesterday and said that his teacher told all the kids that they had the option of bringing their own lunch instead of buying lunch there.
So, now he'd like me to pack him a lunch. I read off the menu and for right now he wants to bring his lunch once a week. I hate to admit it, but I'm not really sure what to pack.
For those of you who have packed lunch for your kids, can you please tell me what you packed as well as do I need to throw in an icepack or can I freeze a juicebox and let that be the icepack? Can I add mayo or skip it? He has a soft sided thermal lunchbox.
Any creative or not so creative ideas are welcome.
Ideas I've had:
PB&J
ham & cheese
yogurt
fruit/veggies
chips
oreos
juicebox
lunchables (not sure if he will like them)
Thanks everyone. I contacted the school There is no place to store the lunch boxes and there are no restrictions what so ever. I will check out the sites and print out all of your food suggestions and buy a few more items like (thermos, sandwich containers, etc.). And since he has lunch at 11:30, I will not freeze the juice box (but may just put it in the freezer for an hour before school).
If anyone else has any tricks of the trade, please feel free to reply.
You ladies are awesome!
I found a lot of really great ides here:
http://easylunchboxes.smugmug.com/The-Best-Lunchbox-Syste...
I did order the set of 4 lunchboxes as well - LOVE them! Fit perfectly inside my daughter's zippered lunchbox from LL Bean. I also use Fit & Fresh ice packs. They are flat, so easy to situate inside the zippered lunchbox & still have enough room for a juice box or milk. Got both on Amazon!
follow weelicious on FB. she takes a picture every day of what she packs for lunch and then gives you the recipe for it. GREAT ideas on there...
buy one of those small single serving thermos so you can put in someting warm. pasta and chicken, mac n cheese, spaghetti Os, rice and chicken, leftovers from dinner, etc,etc,etc. possibilities are endless.
skip the lunchables (not good nutrition) and skip the oreos. I normally pack a hot something, a cheese stick (I put it in the freezer in the morning so it's mostly frozen when he leaves, perfect at 11:30), juice or milk, some sort of fruit, and 1 small piece of candy. I've never refrigerated his juice boxes, so it's no big deal to him that they aren't cold.
also, be sure to put in a note from you. he'll love it!
first you need to find out if there is a place for them to keep it cool. We have a cooler the kids can put thier lunch in (granted we have a small school). So we pack things that have to be cool, yogurt sandwiches with mayo. We have found that ice packs tend to freeze the bread and the kids wont eat it. Also find out what if any restrictions the school has. The kids aren't allowed to bring cookies, cakes stuff like that. They even frown upon chips. and definitely no pop, its not allowed in the school. I normally let the kids help me make thier lunch. What kind of sandwich they want. If they want fruit, raw veggies, jello ( the individual pre made store bought containers), yogurt etc.
They always get one sandwich and two sides. A juice box but normally they liked to get a milk from the school to drink.
If you put in a hard ice pack and put his sandwich in a tupperware (a good sealing one) it will be just fine, even with mayo, etc.
What you've listed sounds like a typical lunch. You might have to skip the peanut butter, though, as a lot of schools don't allow it.
When I pack a lunch (for other reasons) I usually make a sandwich. It helps to toast the bread, and then it doesn't get as soggy if you add mayo, etc. Yogurt is an easy throw in, as are cookies, chips, crackers, etc. If he likes dip, you can put in a tiny tupperware of some spinach dip and a baggie of tortilla chips, etc.
Lunchables are gross. You can make your own for a lot cheaper, and they'll taste better. Just put in some crackers, and cut up some good meat and cheese. My daughter loves that...a good role of summer sausage, some hard cheddar, and some Ritz crackers...yum. I wouldn't do it all the time...in our house, it's actually a Christmas treat served with olives, etc.
I definitely would use an icepack though...don't freeze his juice box. My mom used to do that and it was always still half frozen come lunch time. I hated it...I never had anything to drink.
You can get a good thermos and pack hot things, but I have no experience in this so I don't know if they'll actually stay hot.
Hi,there,
Getting cookie cutters in different shapes and using them on sandwiches can be a fun way to dress up your child's lunch. My kids also love cheesesticks. I would ditto the comment on PB & J. My own kids love it, but there is very likely someone in your child's school with an allergy to peanut butter.
My son is a kindergartner. I freeze a water bottle and use that as his ice pack. He eats a very early lunch though. Sometimes I put in a little sticker or note.
tuna salad with crackers
peanut butter and honey sandwich
quesadilla
chicken roll ups
hummus with crackers or in a pita
pasta salas
chicken salad sandwich
turkey sandwhich
taco puff (ground beef w/taco mix, a little sprinkling of cheese, sealed into the middle of biscuit dough and baked)
for sides (I usually do healthy 3 sides and 1 treat):
raisins
carrots
cucumber
celery w pb
broccoli
apples
orange
grapes
strawberries
applesauce
hunk of cheese
pretzels
rice cracker
cashews
trail mix
chips w salsa
yogurt
hard boiled egg
treats:
cookie
fruit snacks
Get a thermos and pack soups, Mac and cheese, leftovers, chicken nuggets, etc
Lunchables aren't very good id buy a good lunchmeat and roll it with cheese.
You can freeze a gogurt and it will thaw by lunch.
Get an ice pack for his lunchbox.
To be honest, when I was growing up, we brown bagged it and had no ice packs or thermal insulation to keep our lunches cold, but we had no problem with mayo and cold pizza etc. My siblings and I are all still alive and well! A frozen juice box would be just fine!
My first grader does not like school lunch. Matter of fact when I say "You have to buy lunch today." I get "Mom, I really really don't like to eat their lunch".
We switched sandwich types for PBJ, Turkey (no cheese) w/ mayo.
Pretzels/Cheez Its
Applesauce ("natural" or as natural as we get find)
Fruit or veggie (depends on her mood or mine) (usually grapes, strawberries or carrots, celery. She loves broccoli but she wants ranch with it and Dad says no ranch.
String Cheese (which is weird since she won't put cheese on her sandwich)
she purchases milk from the school and once a week she is allowed to buy chocolate milk (we can verify through the online system what she buys and she is very aware of that)
For snack she loves Fig Newtons, or trail mix...
I do add an cold pack. We have one sandwich box that has a cold pack in it and sits on a "ledge" type thing so that it doesn't lay right on top of the sandwich.
Lunchables I leave for when we go to lunch with her. *she doesn't always like them.
Thanks to our Funtainer Food Thermos, we have been able to pack all kinds of stuff for lunches. I fill it with boiling hot water and let it sit for 15 minutes or so. Heat up the food, dump the water and put the food in the thermos. It stays warm for about 4or 4.5 hours. This week my son had fried rice, chicken nuggets, and a hot dog. We make our own lunchables. My kids like the idea of stacking and making, but they hate the taste of the prepackaged stuff. The yogurt in the tube has been a big hit too. We treat it like a dessert. You can freeze them and they stay cold until lunch time. Sandwich wraps are easy and good. Cheese sticks work well too. My son also loves to get baby carrots and ranch in his lunch.
You have some great ideas, but I do want to suggest that you contact the school. My daughters elementary and middle schools did not allow any peanut products due to several kids with severe nut allergies. And yes, they did send kids home if they brought them to school.
