School Lunch Ideas

mom2nate08

I am in need of school lunch ideas for my five year old. He will not eat vegetables, so it would be a waste to even send them with him. What are some other healthy lunch ideas that you all have? I am really trying to avoid sending too many pre-packaged items in his lunch.

robinso5

mine does sandwiches with pepperoni, pickles, mandarin oranges, rice krispy treats

robinso5

how old is he?

mom2nate08

He's five - just starting kindergarten.

dirtbikegirl5

It is hard, but you can get stuff that has fewer ingredients when it comes to packaged food to still provide healthy things. My girls like fruit and olives - one likes peeled apples, the other likes watermelon. I give them either cheesesticks or the babybel cheese and one of my daughters like yogurt. They both like organic granola bars. I give them mini-rice cakes, or gold fish.

nicolej1016

My husband and I have a 9 year old and a 7 year old. I always pack their lunches as the school lunch is usually high in fat and sodium and I doubt they would eat all of it anyway. Here is a list of things that I have packed for them. Note that I usually pack things with two small cooler packs so that everything stays cool:

Carrot Sticks
Brown Rice Cake with butter on it (or nut butter)
Yogurt
Smoothies (from Trader Joe's)
Walnuts
Turkey Sandwich on thin wheat bread (the kind that comes in a circle shape)
Granola Bars
Fruit/Cereal Bars
Dry Cereal (as a snack) - such as Cheerios, Panda Puffs, etc)
Cubes of Cheese or String Cheese
Slices of Sweet Red Bell Pepper
Leftovers from dinner in a heat-retaining Thermos (i.e. pasta with sauce)
Nutella on a soft tortilla wrap
Applesauce or other fruit sauce
Whole Wheat English Muffins with Apple Butter

faith_76

Mine usually get pb&j, water, apple sauce, something good (in their eyes), mandarin oranges, apples, fruit cups, yogurts, etc, some of it I will freeze, (yogurt, apple sauce) so it will still be cold. My oldest will sometimes bring a salad.

madtownjeremy

If you can't sneak veggies in there, at least get in a good amount of protein. All the pre-packaged crap out there is mostly made of a carb-and-chemical soup, so stay away from it and use cheap protein to fill in the gap. Yogurt, deli meat, peanut or almond butter, etc.

Too many parents default to grabbing another serving of bagged carb crap and then wonder why our kids are getting enormous.

lfcutie

Today I made my 6 year old son peanut butter (1 tablespoon) on wheat bread with banana...I have a dino shaped cutter I cut them into, pretzels, sliced apple, water.....He doens't like veggies either except carrots so for dinner I have him eat those so i make sure he eats them....I give him a v8 juice that has a serving of fruit and veggies....I have to be creative too since he didn't like even sandwiches when I packed his lunch last year....I made cheese and ham roll ups, peanut butter and graham cracker sandwiches, I would pack him healthy leftovers from dinner, bbq chicken...you can pack a hard boiled egg..make your own lunchable instead of buying one...hope this helps

happycauseIride

Bumping. There are some great ideas here. Thanks for sharing.

ptjbaker

Try smoothies. Kids will drink what they will not eat. Freeze it and it will be ready by lunch time.

mom2nate08

Thanks everyone! These are really great ideas. We're working on sneaking veggies in at home, but it's going to be more difficult in a lunch box! At least now I can add some healthy options to his lunch.

Shan790

I have lots of ideas here

http://pinterest.com/wakko/brown-baggin-it/

Some of the links have tons of ideas to choose from. Good luck. My son was always hard to make lunches for too. I find if he has to help pack it he is more likely to eat it. Giving them some control helps.