Need cheap ideas for lunch box
Moms View Message Board: Parenting Discussion: Archive July-December 2004:
Need cheap ideas for lunch box
My DS refuses to eat hot lunches at school even though we qualify for the reduced lunch program. He says he feels sorry for the kids that have to eat that stuff cuz it looks and smells yucky. (I have been there at lunch and the food doesn't look appealing to me either) So I was wondering if anyone has any cheap ideas for his lunch box. He was takeing peanut butter and honey sandwiches but the bread would get soggy,(he'll only eat peanut butter and honey on a sandwich), so now he has been takeing a bunch of snack stuff like peanutbutter on club crakers like a sandwich, Doritos, cookies, and a juice box. I know this dosen't fill him up cuz when he gets home he is famished and eats everything he sees. I can't afford Lunchables and that kind of stuff and as far as I know a microwave isn't available for use by the students. So please give me some ideas for a healthy lunch for my 5yr old.
He is just taking snack stuff for lunch? I wouldn't let him just take snack stuff for school.
He gets the hot lunch reduced because your family needs him to have a reduced price lunch, so i would let him have the lunch provided.
You can give him one snack to take too. The hot lunch is healthier than just snack stuff. Ask the school if they will give him a sandwich instead of the hot lunch. They used to give out peanut butter sandwiches if the child didn't like the hot lunch - of course now with peanut allergies..... Maybe they give out bologna sandwiches.
All kids are famished when they come home from school.
Inexpensive Lunch.
Bologna Sandwich or
Cheese Sandwich with mayo
Raisens
Apple
No snack food. - Snacks are expensive and a nutritionally zero.
Due to my DK's severe nut allergies, I pack them both a lunch bag daily. They usually eat their entire lunch and still come home famished. That's quite normal. I remember the same feeling as a kid when I came home from school! LOL!
I usually pack (in an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack)...
- milk (in a Rubbermaid sport bottle)
- a sandwich, usually with deli meat and cheese
- fruit or veggie (apple, pear, plum, grapes, orange, banana, raisins, carrots, cukes, celery, cherry tomatoes, ...)
- Tostitos/Goldfish crackers/Wheat Thins/Triscuits/Cheerios/Kix/Pretzels/Teddy Grahams...
- Cheese stick/cheese shape
- Once in awhile I'll put in a sweet treat like a small chocolate donut or a Milano cookie. Generally I don't buy any junky snack foods like potato chips or Twinkies, etc..
I sometimes make homemade lunchables. Much cheaper and healthier than the store bought kind. Sliced deli meat, cheese, crackers and grapes sort of thing.
Both my dk's take their lunches to school - my dd because the cafeteria lunch is "yucky" and my ds because a hot lunch is not available at his school.
My dd is a picky eater and almost always takes the same lunch. Usually she takes spaghettios or ramen noodle soup in a small insulated bowl, a snack size ziploc of baby carrot or grapes, a snack size bag of chips, a kid size yogurt, and a box milk. She also takes a small toasted bagel or crackers with peanut butter for her snack in the classroom. If we have leftovers from the night before that she likes I have even sent those. Her favorite is when I send leftover spaghetti, a garlic bread stick, and a small salad. The insulated bowl has been wonderful and I highly recommend it!
My ds isn't a "meal" person so he takes snacks for his lunch. It can be done nutritionally and I warn his teachers at the beginning of the year that his lunches look a little strange. Here is an example of the stuff I send in his lunches - fruit (strawberries, grapes, apples, raisins, etc), applesauce, raw veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, bell pepper slices, etc), small cottage cheese, small toasted bagel, a slice of cheddar cheese, crackers, pretzels, box milk or box oj, graham crackers with peanut butter, dry cereal in a baggie, a piece of lunchmeat (ham specifically) rolled up and placed in a baggie because he won't eat a sandwich at all, once in a while I send an Oreo cookie or a cup of pudding in my dk's lunches, but that's a treat that they only get about once a week.
I have found that it is cheaper to buy a box of store brand snack size baggies and buy the regular size food items and divide them up myself than buy the prepackaged lunch size items. I can also control the amount of an item that I send with my children. A prepackaged snack size bag of chips or cookies has more in them that I want my children to have.
Ditto Trina. I pack a sandwich with deli meat and cheese (sometimes PB &J), some fruit, and pretzels. For drink I usually pack water or juice in a sports bottle. I never buy anything prepackaged b/c it is way overpriced. Same with juice boxes, Capri-Sun, etc. If I do pack something like pudding or cookies then they are made from scratch. For variety I'll make a sandwich as a tortilla wrap or in pita bread. I also have a thermos I use for leftover spaghetti, chili, soup, that sort of thing. My boys usually eat a good lunch, but they are starved after school too. That's very normal. I would however get rid of the chips and cookies and pack some healthier alternatives. Don't feel bad about not buying Lunchables. They are overpriced and have almost no nutritional value and are made with lots of salt and preservatives.
Ditto Trina and Pam. PB and honey will be less likely to make the bread soggy if you stir them up together before spreading. I don't send leftovers very often because my dks don't have access to anyway to warm them up and the thermoses I've gotten have only kept things lukewarm. I will send frozen generic Go-gurts, a sandwich, or crackers, meat, and cheese with at least one fruit or veggie, string cheese or cheese cubes (if no yogurt) and pretzels or popcorn. They get milk at school or I'll send juice or water in their thermos with a few ice cubes.
I'd really try to push some form of protein because, while ALL kids come home hungry, this will stick with him a little longer. It sounds like he is getting plenty of carbohydrates to go with it. Fruits or veggies will also give him some fiber so he'll feel full longer.
Sack lunches were a stress for me until I decided on a formula for each day. Main item (sandwich, go-gurt) + fruit and/or veggie + snack (usually some kind of carb or cheese) = a kid that can make it all day without feeling famished
My dd is also 5 yrs old. She is one kid that i know that isn't that hungry when she gets home from school.
I pack her a pb&j sandwich
snack usually is : carrot sticks, pretzels, raisins, apple, or gold fish crackers. And either a bottle of water or a juice box.
Her cafeteria was serving hotdogs and french fries and fruit on Wed. so as a treat i let her buy the lunch. She came home and said they switched it to pancakes, and FRENCH FRIES! EEEW! She ate the pancakes and a couple french fries she said. I will NEVER let her buy lunch again. The other kids were saying that the lunch always smells funny.
Someone here said that the hot lunches were better for you....i would disagree with that. Have you ever seen what they have at school for lunch? it can't be good for you.
Why does your ds's pb and honey sandwich get soggy? Does his drink end up on top of it? I remember my pb& j sandwiches getting soggy because my juice box would end up on top of it. If that is the case, maybe you can keep sending him the sandwich and he can buy a milk at school. Just a suggestion. if you keep sending him snack food, give him heathy stuff...apple sauce, carrot or celery sticks, yogurt.
My mom used to put spaghetti-o's in a thermos for me. I loved it. I don't know if they sell those Thermos's anymore though.
Good luck, i know it is hard to figure out what they will eat at school, and what will keep them full till the end of the day.
They still make thermos's that you could put spaghettios into. I see kids where I work with soup or other hot dishes in thermos's. Sometimes I have to open them!
I use a metal thermos. If you "preheat" the thermos with boiling water for a minute, the food will stay hotter.
You also might try making the sandwich in the morning on frozen bread, by the time it's lunch time the bread will have thawed and it will not be soggy.
My oldest is not a big sandwich eater, so she'll take a salad w/pita bread and a little container of hummus and fruit. Or a few slices of cheddar cheese w/pita bread and fruit.
If he takes peanut butter and honey, toast the bread and put the peanut butter on both sides of the toast (it will keep the honey from soaking into the bread). Make PB&J's the same way.
Yumsters Yogurt-it is about $2 for six, so it would last all week.
I always look to get whatever fresh fruit is on sale. Or you can put apples sauce, if you buy the individual cups of store brand it is about 1.25 and there are six of those too.
I put in pre-cut carrots, but if you are really trying to save money get the big carrots and skin them and chop them up yourself. Mine also love celery. I put some ranch in a small tupperware container for dipping.
I do the thermos too, if we have soup I pack the leftovers the next day.
Mine love cheese, any kind, but they really like string cheese in their lunch. They aren't too expensive if you ONLY use them for lunches. There are about 12 in a pack for around 3.50, so they will last 2 weeks.
Dried fruit is excellent and not expensive at all.
If you go to the grocery store with $10 you can get them a lot of healthy good food that will pack a week or two of lunches.
One more thing that i just discovered and it is working GREAT! Capri Sun makes 100% juice now, the problem was I was buying the pack and they were drinking it before I had a chance to pack it in their lunch, I found that if I stick the entire box in the freezer they can't just grab one to drink and when I put them in there lunch they keep the food cool and thaw by lunch.
We have peanut butter free schools, so that's never an option for us.
My kids all take different things.
Nicole loves mac and cheese in a thermos. Kayla loves sandwiches. Meghan likes bagels with cream cheese.
I often send Meghan with a bag of snacks, and they can be more nutritional than a sandwich. She has a bunch of small containers, and they would typically have pickles, cheese, crackers, cream cheese to spread, grapes, melon, popcorn, pretzels, veggies etc. Each day is different, but I find she eats much more this way.
For snacks they all take fruit, veggies, crackers, popcorn, and once in a while cookies.
They all have a big bottle of water, and N and K take a small container of juice.
Emily and Chrissy are both in a class that has a microwave, so I tend to send them leftovers.
Could you pack his PB and Honey in a little container, and 2 slices of bread? This will keep the bread from getting soggy, and he (or a teacher can help) can spread it on at lunch time. Also, you can pack little cheese bites, crackers, veggies and low fat dip, baked tortilla chips and salsa, all more nutritious than Lunchables. The other ideas, like bagels are great. If he REALLY likes his PB and honey, you can do it on a bagel, to avoid sogginess as well. Wheat germ can be mixed into stuff like that for a nutrient boost. Ultimately, send him with things he likes, be creative, and have a healthy snack when he gets home.
The ds take cold lunch 4 days a week and hot one day, the 2 ds alternate weeks picking which days they can have hot lunch (they like hot lunch but at $1.75 and $1.50 a day times 5 it adds up really quick). I would switch it around, have him eat hot lunch a few times a week, go over the lunch menu calender and see if there are meals that he wont object to. Maybe burrito or pizza day.
I also use the old standby of PB&J but the guys like tuna if I put in enough relish and egg salad too. They all pretty much would prefer no bologna but turkey and that sort is ok.
I also keep single serve yogurt containers and recycle them for Jello w/ bananas or carrot or some other fruit or veggie. I use no cal jello from walmart it usually runs like 3 for $1. That way if the containers dont make it home, I havent lost my tupperware. I havent had any complaints about it unjelling or anything, I wouldnt do this in June however .
Cold burritos work great too, I just go ahead and bake them and then pack them when they are cold w/ doritos, they think it is the best lunch ever.
Those flat thermos work great for leftover spagetti or anything noodled, I dont use them for soup, they seem to want to leak.
Thanks for all the good ideas. I just really red my message and it does sound like I give him only junk food. He always gets carrot sticks or brocoli(sp), cheese slices, string cheese, go-gurt, ect. I was just trying to find something new for the main part of his lunch. (other than the sandwich) I didn't even know there were such things as an insulated bowl. Thats how new I am to this whole school lunch thing. Can I just get one at Walmart?
I totally allow Russell to have hot lunch and I know there is a reason we qualify for reduced lunches but he REFUSES to eat there! And as someone pointed out, they may not be the same everywhere but here they are NASTY,GROSS, DISCUSTING, PUTRID. Every bad synonym you can think of. I went there the first couple of weeks of school to help Russell adjust to school and this one day they had what they said was spagettii and the smell about made me sick!! I had to wait in the hall for him it was so bad. He tells me that he feels so sorry for the kids that have to eat the school lunch cuz it is that bad.
Anyway thank you for the ideas, I'll be getting one of those bowls. He would LOVE to have leftover enchiladas for lunch!!
|
Members
