School Lunches... Let's share ideas!!

Scully

I'm sure I'm not the only mom here who would love to exchange ideas for kids' school lunches.

I don't know about anyone else, but my daughters' school (junior kindergarden - Grade 8) has a nut-free policy that requires compliance for the good of the kids who have severe allergies to nuts. Pre-packaged foods have to be carefully examined for even traces of nuts. Frankly I'm too lazy to read all the labels, so I end up making a lot of the snacks that my kids take to school. Also, the school is pretty strict about No Sharing/Trading, just in case kids with allergies were to come in contact with something they shouldn't have.

The school also strongly encourages "litter-free" lunches, so pre-packaged drinks are a no-no too. That's fine with me, since it's less expensive to make up a jug of lemonade or iced tea or (horrors!) Kool-Aid, and send that to school in re-usable containers.

What kinds of things do your children enjoy taking to school for their lunches??

Mine like:

slices of deli ham or chicken (I roll them up to make them look "fancy")
slices or cubes of different kinds of cheese
sliced hard boiled eggs
popcorn
carrot sticks
sliced cucumbers
cherry tomatoes
various kinds of crackers
dried fruit (apricots, pineapple, papaya, banana chips)
homemade Rice Krispies Squares (with chocolate chips, raisins, or graham cracker chunks)
homemade brownies or cupcakes
graham crackers with a small container of frosting

Feel free to add your own ideas!!

Love, Scully

Jennie

I like to bring, peanut butter and bannana sandwiches, gouda cheese and crackers, funyuns, bugles, pringles, apple slices, grapes, chocolate chip cookies, Hostess cupcakes, and brownies.

Shakita

Scully:

You sound like a great Mom!

After having four kids that refused to eat all the healthy snacks packed for them....they used to tell me they threw them in the garbage!!!....I just succumbed and gave them cookies and chips with their sandwiches. I know that would be considered wimpish, but I always worried about them starving if they did not eat lunch! And, when they didn't throw them out, they would trade with other kids to get the junk they wanted. Kids will always find a way!

But.....I do try to pack those individual fruit cups or the individual fatfree pudding cups....they will eat those!

Mrs. Shakita

Special K

Hey scully,

Can you pack my lunch for me??? Your lunches sound like an adventure in fine dining. finger foods munchy and crunchy juicy squirty. yum yum.

Seriously,

It is my older kids responsibilty to pack their own lunch and have their beds made before they go to school. And since I drive the older two to school, it is there job to have the van warmed up and ready to go throughout the winter.

My youngest, I pack for,.. he likes the typical kid food of today. Somedays, I make him up chicken nuggets in the oven and he takes those and some plum dip.

Salami sandwich,

juice or milk

and only one suggary treat in his lunchbox , which he gets to choose.

those cheese stick things that you pull down in strips and make funny characters.

I let him buy lunch one day a week

Garlic fingers and donair sauce dip.

He's a real dippy kind of guy.

He also tends to do the bulk of his eating from the time he gets home until bedtime. So that is when I have veggies and again (dip) . lots of fruit. milk.. and big bottle of water. He doesn't seem to get enough to drink at school. Tooo busy with his friends and socializing.

We have a kid, in the neighourhood, that starts at his school next year who is severely allergic to peanuts and all nuts..and nut oils. So the crunch will come next year when the school asks all parents to not use peanut butter etc to school.

special k

Valis

Trail mix is good. Especially GORP..good ole raisins and peanuts...

Chex cereal mixed w/seasoning and other stuff..*LOL*..

.Tortilla wrap ups...kind of like sandwiches...you can roll them up and put all kinds of cheese, or meats, or veggies...my fave is cream cheese and peppers and black olives.,

pita sandwiches are always a bit of a novelty and change too.

pigs in a blanket..yummy!

buffallo wings with celery and carrot sticks and ranch dressing

Also, Kraft is making individual packets of mac n cheese...you could cook one in the microwave ahead of time pretty easy and you don't have to make a whole batch.

Individual Dinty Moore cans of soup and other side dishes are good too.

I'll try and think of some more...

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

simplesally

I love tortilla wrap up sandwiches!! Turkey, cream cheese and tomatoes.........yummy.

I used to love:

banana or zucchini bread with butter on it
Thermos full of hot soup instead of a sandwich
Thermos full of hot chocolate for my drink
cucumber and butter or cream cheese sandwiches

simplesally

On that above page......the one embedded in my post, I forgot to tell you to scroll down, there is a really great recipe for "sandwich bars" and you can make them ahead of time and freeze them!!!!!! It is a great lunchbox idea web page.

Euphemism

First, no cursing... now, school lunches!

HELP! HELP! We're turning into PLN!

(j/k I'm sure this is actually an interesting topic to those who have kids. As for me and my household, however, we will go find more obscene pictures of DrWtsn.)

Scully

Hey Valis

I do tortilla wraps too!! (I just knew you were a mom like me!) My kids love 'em when I take the tortilla and spread some ranch or creamy caesar salad dressing on it, a slice or two of smoked chicken or ham, then a handful of shredded lettuce (I buy the salad-in-a-bag for this purpose) and then top it off with some shredded cheese before rolling it up.

Other stuff my kids reminded me (while we were grocery shopping today) that they enjoy taking in their lunches:

pickles
nachos with a small container of Cheez Whiz and another of salsa (this is how I sneak in extra veggies)
cottage cheese with crushed pineapple (sprinkle cinnamon on top)
yogurt
pudding (I freeze it so it helps keep the rest of the lunch cool until lunch time, plus it's so yummy when frozen)

It's so nice to see Jennie posting and sharing what she likes to take for lunch!! You're lucky, Jennie, my girls would love to take peanut butter and banana sandwiches to school, but they aren't allowed.

Love, Scully

School Lunches... Let's share ideas!!

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