Packing School Lunches
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Anyone pack a lunch for their kiddos? What all do you pack? I'm going to start packing lunches for my ds in kinder, but I've never been a "lunch packer" so I don't know what to pack.
I know that he would tire easily of sandwiches so I'm looking for ideas on easy variety.
They do serve hot lunch at his school, and I've taken care of his lunch that way for the first month of school. I just don't think he's eating enough. He gets home and he's famished! When I ask him what what for lunch at school, he can recite the menu, but I have to specifically ask him, "What did you eat?" It turns out he's "not in the mood for that food." *Sigh*
So, any ideas?
Thank you so much, ladies.
My kids are in Gr. 5 & 7 and I've been packing lunches for them daily since Gr. 1. They both have severe food allergies and the school lunch program can't guarantee safe food so hot lunch isn't an option.
I typically pack a sandwich with a milk or juice box with crackers and fresh fruit or veggies. To prevent boredom, I rotate types of bread and meat, cheese, etc. Pita pockets, sandwich rolls, wheat bread, bologna, ham, turkey... I also use different sliced cheeses. I alternate fruits and veggies and different kinds of crackers and pretzels, etc.
When it starts to get colder I'll put leftovers, soup or stew in a thermos.
The odd time I get a complaint I suggest they pack their own lunch. LOL! Sometimes they will for a day or two, but then politely ask for me to pack lunches again. 
My oldest has taken her lunch every day forever.. My younger dd buys her lunch most days. I do the same as Trina except we even put in chips instead of crackers or pretzels sometimes and not only do we alternate bread/torillas/pita pockets but also sometimes make our own "lunchables" and use crackers.
Always have either fruit or yogurt and sometimes raw veggies but that depends on what she is in the mood for. At this point she makes her own lunch about 50% of the time but she is almost 14.
I also alternate drinks to whatever she is in the mood for. I sometimes even send coke/sprite or whatever. Most of the time she takes juice of some sort or gatorade.
I like the idea of the thermos of soup but my dd hates soup so I don't think that would work for us.
Also something my parents always did for me was let me look over the menu for the week on the weekend and i could choose what days i wanted to buy or bring.
We've done ravioli type things in a thermos, and another favorite is to spread a soft tortilla shell with cream cheese and place deli turkey on it, then roll it all up and cut it into four rolls. Sometimes a green onion rolled up into it is yummy, too.
I need ideas, too....I am usually at a loss!
Foods for a hot lunch in thermos:
sloppy joes, hotdog in a bit of water, beef and gravy, mashed pots and gravy, baked pot, casseroles from leftovers.
You can buy pretty much any size thermos these days. Make sure you buy one that he can open and also stay secure.
Add the bread for each sandwich and show him how to put it on the bread.
Cold lunches could be sandwiches, wraps, salads, home-made lunchables, or just a fruit, lunch meat rolled up, cheese rolled up.
If ds likes cereal, put some into a disposable bowl, cover with Saran wrap. Add a milk box, utensils, some fruit along the side.
I think the big issue on lunches is keeping the food warm or cold. Also containers that do not leak and that the child can open, without asking for help.
I wish my kids would bring their lunches...it is way more inexpensive. They used to but it's not cool anymore and the lunch lines are too long.
Like trina, mostly sandwiches and alternate stuff to go with it.
We do a starch and sweet and sometimes a fruit or veggies. My little guy loves veggies and ranch. I have been known to do meat cubes, veggies and ranch and crackers.
We have done ramen in a thermos.
The only really different idea, is we buy precooked chicken nuggets, like the frozen ones. We nuke them, toss some barbeque season on them. Then put them in the fridge and they eat them the next day, cold. I guess there is a lunchable like that (shakeups).
Wow! Thanks ladies. I have so much from which to choose. And the lunchables idea is so cool!
Trina-lol on the complaint.
Again, thank you so much. I'll be trying out these ideas in the coming days.
Brendan tends to be a picky eater so mainly he just buys his lunch on Thursday which is pizza day. lol...
He gets a sandwhich, usually PB&J or ham and cheese, chips of some sort, something sweet, some fruit (sometimes), and a juice box. Usually it ends up being the same thing everyday but he doesn't mind because he likes it.
Dd is a VERY picky eater and I have been packing lunches forever it seems. She will buy maybe 4 times a month.
She usually gets one main thing and then several sides such as chips, crackers, pickles, veggies like green peppers, carrots, cauliflower (raw) with ranch dressing, cookies etc. Usually a juice box or the newer flavored water bags. Her main thing usually rotates between chicken salad with ritz crackers, trail bologna, regular bologna cut up (she doesn't like sandwhiches??) peanut butter with ritz crackers.
Emily takes a cold lunch most days. Once in a while, I give her money to buy pizza. On the days she takes a lunch, it's a sandwich with either turkey, chicken, or ham lunch meat, with a slice of Provolone or cheddar cheese. Then with that, she gets either fresh fruit, a Dole fruit bowl, or applesauce. I also pack a granola bar, too. She takes bottled water to school.
Once in a great while, we have goldfish crackers and I'll put those in. After her confirmation last year, we had a lot of fresh fruit leftover, so I was making little fruit salads in a ziploc bag the night before. She loved that.
DD gets pb&j everyday (that's what she wants) plus crackers, pretzels, yogurt, applesauce, raw carrots....not all at the same time though
ds gets either a pb&j or cold cut sandwich with the same snacks as dd.
I work in the school cafeteria sometimes and to be honest, most of those kids don't eat anything. Those parents are just throwing their money away, literally! I never understand the parents who just pay for those meals for their kids for the whole year. I wonder if they notice how starving their kids must be when they get home. I wonder if the kids tell them that the food is gross and they don't want to eat it.
I hate making the kids lunch box lunches everyday, but it's better than them not eating all day.
It seems like sometimes kids don't always eat their bag lunches either, though. Kids will tell me that they don't like something in their lunch and I tell them that they should tell their parents that they don't like it.
You are right about kids not liking hot lunches. At one kindergarten table, on Thursday, I think, we had chili, and hardly anyone at that table ate it! I know other kids liked it, but that particular group of kids threw a lot of it out.
DS is four and just started school this year. I usually do 1 fruit, 1 veggie, 1 sandwich, 1 yogurt, 1 snack and two drinks.
For fruit we do red grapes, apple slices, sliced strawberries, kiwi or orange slices.
Veggies, usually zuchinni, carrots or cucumber with some type of dip, I mostly use vegan mayo, hummus or Baba ghanoush.
Sandwich is tough for us as we are vegetarian and our school is nut free. I will use sunflower butter and jam or dairy free cream cheese with jam. Sometimes I will mix up the bread, sometimes mini pitas, bagels or english muffins. At home I make a tofu "egg" or tofu "chicken" but I find uncooked tofu can upset your stomach so I haven't tried it in his school lunch. I really need sandwich ideas!
I also put in a soy yogurt.
I was putting in a few ozs of juice and filling his juice box up with water and another juice box with soy milk. I switched the juice for straight water and he's not drinking the water but all of the milk; I've talked with other moms and they are just sending water as they feel like their kids are filling up on milk and not eating enough. I'll try just water next week, maybe send milk once a week.
For his snack I put in three mini M&Ms (they're just tiny), two small heart shaped ginger cookies, a few raisins, some shelled sunflower seeds and one very small heart shaped Rice Krispie square.
I always do a heart themed lunch. I use a heart shaped cookie cutter for his sandwich (he doesn't eat his crust anyway), he has two heart shaped cookies, and his heart shaped Rice Krispie square. Then I draw a heart on a piece of paper and everyday I put a different note inside the heart. I always ask him if he got his note and he says yes. Then I ask him "What did it say?", he always smiles and says "It said I love you".
My daughter is picky too, she doesn't like sandwiches, but she doesn't like most of the stuff they sell at lunch, so I'll pack a cheese slice or stick, yogurt, applesauce, a veggie, like salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and some ranch, and usually a treat, like a cookie, or a package of them, rice krispie treat, ritz bitz. If I don't pack a cheese I'll try to pack a slice of ham. I've also sent in a slice of pizza. I just really try to send in a protein, veggie, fruit and starch. And usually I'll send in a treat too. Just go with what your kid likes, and they usually don't mind the repetition. And as far as coming home famished, I think that's normal, mine is always so hungry when she gets home. Good luck.
We have considered sending our kids with home lunches. We currently pay over $100 for school lunch. I really would like to go to the school during lunch and see how much my kids are actually eating.
I'm sure you could eat with your kids. Parents come all the time and eat with kids, where I work.
Well, I sent him with his first lunch yesterday.
I packed a hot dog, a yogurt tube thing, a container with juice, and as a treat, a chips and pretzel mix. The box was empty when he brought it home! I was so happy.
This morning, I only packed a yogurt tube and some juice because he buys pizza for lunch on Wednesdays as a fundraiser. It was empty when I checked it.
So we'll see about tomorrow.
Glad it's going well! Dawn, I wonder if I could actually eat with them. I'll have to check into that. Good idea.
My post was a bit confusing, I meant to put $100/month.
I work in a school cafeteria too at a junior high school. Lunch is not like I remember it that is for sure! On one side we have hard and soft tacos, refried beans, (which the kids never touch) corn, or they can get nachos with meat on top. We also have a liquid cheese machine and those kids pile the cheese on top, I don't know how they eat it without getting sick. Then we have big pretzels that the can get. Also pepperoni pizza everyday. Then on the other side we have hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, nuggets, deli sandwiches, pb&j, salads, (chef, grilled chicken) then there is the main line, which has different items everyday, hotdogs, ravioli, pasta bar, corndogs, beefy mac, sweet and sour meatballs, mashed potatos, etc. Also we have canned fruit, pudding, fresh fruit, veggie sticks,everyday. They also have milk, and juice in cartons,bottled water, bottled juice drinks, bottled tea. Ice cream sandwiches, and cookies, and chips. Too much food, too many choices, sometimes we have so much left depending on what they eat in a given day and whatever is left goes in the trash...
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