Lunch/ School Food Ideas for lunchbox

Vuyokazi - posted on 07/04/2010

i don' stress much abt luches i give them what they used to..sometines peanut butter in a bread or jam.or greated polony and chese..or spread cheeses in abread my kids love bread ..and they prefer to eat bread..at school or mashed potatoes at night..with meat..or spaghetii they love soft food so i give

Amy - posted on 06/11/2010

I make fake Lunchables - crackers, turkey, cheese and apple sauce. Also, get a small thermos and send chili and soup.

Chopped up apples with cinnamon are also a hit.

Tia - posted on 06/11/2010

My kids love fruits and veggies...I will send fruit cups along with a spoon--allowing them to choose the type of fruit cup they would want to eat for lunch that week. Also, I typically send those itty carrot sticks--they like to 'crunch' on them and 'tiny tim tomatoes.' They also now make those sliced apple packets with a bit of caremel in with them--you can simply pull the serving size bag out of the fridge and toss into the lunch bag. I tend to pack more than enough hoping that the kids will eat till their full! :)

Chrissie - posted on 06/11/2010

My son is super picky. I do PB&J a lot. I usually cut it with a large cookie cutter like Melissa suggested. I send yogurt or organic go-gurts. The go-gurts are best frozen. Cheese & crackers is also a big hit. He always gets fruit (berries or natural applesauce) and either a 100% fruit juice or organic chocolate milk. My son doesn't get bored, so I just keep packing the same things : )

Lisa - posted on 06/09/2010

Companys coming has a recipe book called School days lunches. It has awesome ideas in it!! also here is a link to another great cookbook for kids
http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Cooking-Ki...

Angie - posted on 06/09/2010

My middle child like peanut butter sandwiches and a salad. My youngest likes boiled eggs, any fruit or vegetable especially tomatoes and leftovers. My oldest is in high school so he comes home every day.

Angie - posted on 06/09/2010

I have older kids who take lunches and I have found those Dananino's are a perfect size. They are small enough that they aren't the whole meal but sweet enough that they think that is the treat. (Although my oldest won't take them to school anymore, lol... he is too old, lol) In the past I sent cucumber sandwiches... just french bread or sourdough bread with cream cheese and cucumbers on it. We have also sent Envirokids Crispy Rice bars, they come in different 'flavors' (they are like a rice krispie treat only organic and made with fruit or peanut butter).... Cut fruit is always good. For a long time I used to put spinach leaves, croutons, bell peppers (cut up), onion (cut up) and bacon bits in a snack bag and I have these little tupperware bowls about the size of a 1/4 cup and I put ranch dressing in it. So they had salad... if you do that make sure to put the onions in a separate bag, lol, they will make the other stuff over run with the onion taste.
You could send brocolli, my oldest loves that.... carrots... celery with peanut butter and raisins (ants on a log). Watermelon when in season is a great thing to send with them. You could also send pickle wraps if he likes pickles.. I had one son that loves pickles so I would take a slice of deli meat put a lil cream cheese on it and put a dill spear (you can cut the spear in half to get the smaller size) in it and then roll it up! They fit good in snack bags and if your kid likes pickles they love those!
Other than that I send sandwiches, I have sent cold chicken (fried chicken) or cold pizza. I just asked my oldest son and he said his favorite is my macaroni salad, lol.. and thinking about it they will eat every last bit that gets sent of that and usually complain that I don't send more. If you can keep his lunch cold or if they have a fridge it is super yummy. It has a lot of mayo in it though so they don't get it very often. It is super easy, you bake chicken breasts and cut into bite sizes, then chop up some celery and cook up one bag of macaroni, drain and run cool water on it, let drain for a minute. Then put macaroni, chicken and celery into large bowl, add mayo (probably a few scoops with a wooden spoon), stir in some Dill Weed. Stir thoroughly and put in fridge. Let it cool then eat. We usually do this as a dinner but I make enough to send to school with them the next day. Send in a tupperware bowl with a plastic fork.
Ok, so now that I have given you a novel, I'm sorry, lol... I tend to get pretty wordy. I hope this helped give you a few ideas! Out where I live it costs 3.25/day for one lunch, I have two kids in school so $32.50/wk for us to pay for their lunches. So, they have gotten used to bag lunch, lol. Plus this way you know what they are eating and can control it.
Hope this helped some!!! :)

Melissa - posted on 06/08/2010

Sounds alot like my son. I used to pack mine rolled sandwiche meat and crackers with a snack he liked and would cut out shapes in cheese for him. Sometime mine would have chicken nuggets that had been cooked but cooled and tater tots. You can also try and make little cracker sanwhiches for him. I found that my child would eat sandwiches if I cut the crust off the bread and used cookie cutters to make shapes out of the sandwiches. You might try toasting the bread it could be the crunchyness he likes. I also would put one new thing in my sons lunch box everyday to see if he woudl try it. Sometimes he would and sometimes not or he would trade with someone else lol. Good luck and don't worry if you have to stick with the same lunch everyday for a bit he'll ask to have something else eventually.