School Lunches

Hi A..

I like to do unusual things like the following. And, I find if I give my daughter enough choices she usually eats pretty well.

Roll-up sanwiches vs. plain bread
Pasta stix (penne pasta with a sauce for dipping)
Tortellini with toothpick for dipping into grated Parmesan
Peanut Butter & Apricot or strawberry jelly vs. grape
Hot dog bites and baked beans
Sandwich made on Croissant instead of sandwich bread
Sometimes I'll spread Ranch on their sandwich instead of mayo

Hope this helps.

Great question and I LOVE the answers! One thing I want to mention is that I encourage all moms to inquire with the teacher if there are any severe food allergies in the classroom. As a mom of 2 children who are life/death allergic to peanuts, lunch time is the scariest part of the day. I actually cringe when the phone rings at lunchtime!

Anyway, freezing small tubs of yogurt is a hit with my kids. Soup in a thermos is my daughter's favorite or make a pasta salad (I love the idea of penne pasta dipping sticks, mentioned in another reply!) with leftovers and their other favorite mix-ins is great.

Another thing that I didn't know until well into the school year, is that I could join my child for lunch! This is a nice treat and you can bring their favorites - even if they're hard to pack in a lunchbox!

AND, know that (at least in LISD) if you fill their cafeteria card with money so that they can buy their lunch, you can also go to the school and make specifications about what YOUR child is allowed to purchase (i.e. restricting ice cream, powerade, other junk that shouldn't be there anyway, at least IMO).

Good luck!

L.

A little about me:
Single mom to 3 awesome kids, 2 boys 8 & 6 and my princess who will be 4 in October!

What a frustrating thing school lunches are!! I have kids who eat pretty healthy, but just wait until you see some of the things kids are allowed to take for lunch, and what the school menu looks like. One commonly overlooked item is mini pitas. They even make whole wheat, and you can cut those up and fill them with everything from tuna, to pb&j! Also, my daughter, who will be in 1st grade this year, really liked taking a thermos with things like chicken noodle soup, or left overs from dinner. I definitely recommend making your own luchables with real cheese, and preservative free lunch meat, lunchables are actually really unhealthy. My daughter also figured out that she likes sunflower seeds, and peanuts, so we make our own trail mix. She even gets sugar cereal in a snack bag,which is a real treat for her, and its better for kids than fruit roll ups, or cookies etc. I sound like more of a health nut than I really am, but I just prefer to offer the best that I can, and enjoy treats as a family. I also freeze gogurts so that they are just right when she has luch, added bonus it helps keep things cool :) I have her pick once or twice a month that she wants to buy her lunch, and on Fridays, she gets to buy ice cream, or have one of those special treats she wants to have like everyone else. Good luck finding the balance, it is a strange new world when your oldest goes to school.

He could take a hot dogs or lunchabls

I make my own lunchables w/ crackers, sandwich meat and cheese, Roll tortillas with different fillings, grapes, rasins, granola bars, gold fish, mini carrots and mini tomatos w/ ranch in a small container (yes I have one that actually requests that!). make hotdogs rolled in crescent rolls, bake and send those- my kids eat them cold.

D.

When my daughter (now 14) went to kindergarten we lived in So. Calif. where Bento boxes were popular in our area. They're Japanese. Basically, I'd just make her anything small. Cut pieces of left-over chicken, slices of cucumber in sweet rice vinegar (asian), little pieces of apples with lemon, a California roll..... it was all little and in separate sections of the "box"... kind of like a tupperware container with lid. She loved it because it was all small and cute and different. Now she eats PB&J everyday of her life. What happened?

Check kraft.com. They have a lot of cool ideas.

My son never takes sandwiches. He prefers mac & cheese, bean & cheese burritos (roll and wrap in foil), applesauce (you can get the natural unsweetened in the little cups), Gogurt, grapes, rolled up deli meat. We also buy these chicken nuggets at Sam's that are really good and not too greasy. He takes those w/BBQ sauce.

Here are some fun ideas I do with my kids. Of course there is using cookie cutters to make fun sandwich designs. Both of my kids love that. Sometimes I make up my own trail mix using ingredients such as raisins, popcorn, cereal, dried fruit. Carrots and peanut butter or ranch is always a good one. Sometimes I use fajita wraps and make sandwiches out of that. My kids always liked leftover cold pizza or mac and cheese. Cheese and crackers are always good. I've made bagel sandwiches before. Use a bagel for the bread and any ingredients in between. I've sent nachos with my son before and you can either get some cheese dip or salsa. I hope these ideas help a little. pam