Hi, all! Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween!
I need a little help -- My son takes lunch to school every day, and he is TIRED of sandwiches. I am having trouble coming up with something to send that:
a) is not a sandwich
b) doesn't have to be reheated
c) has nutritional value
I am at a loss! Can anyone give me some suggestions??
MANY MANY THANKS!
I need a little help -- My son takes lunch to school every day, and he is TIRED of sandwiches. I am having trouble coming up with something to send that:
a) is not a sandwich
b) doesn't have to be reheated
c) has nutritional value
I am at a loss! Can anyone give me some suggestions??
MANY MANY THANKS!
35 comments:
Onigiri (look them up, they're awesome), hardboiled eggs, wraps (basically a sandwich made on a tortilla and rolled up).
I always liked crackers and cheese as well (like lunchables, but homemade).
This is what I used to make my kids for lunch when they were little - snacks. I had lidded divided containers to keep the bits and pieces separate:
- carrot and celery sticks, with a little container of Caesar dressing for dip
- small slices of meat (ham, salami, pepperoni) and cheese, and crackers to make "sandwiches"
- gherkin pickles (they won't even LOOK at them now, but they loved them when they were kids, lol) and olives (for the one that liked them)
- quartered oranges or chunky homemade applesauce
- cookies
There were never any leftovers :)
I like Piper's idea for wraps too - I wish I'd thought of it when mine were younger, lol!
Do wraps count as sandwiches? How about chicken nuggets (my son would try to eat them frozen if I'd let him!), Gogurt type tubes (freeze them overnight), cheese sticks & fruit?
I have a daughter who is sick of sandwiches too!
Wraps are always fun. We do yogurt, trail mix, cut up veggies with dressing for a dip (home made can be yummy and better for nutrition), fruit (we cut the apple in the morning and wrap a rubber band to hold it together without browning til lunch). Bento lunches are the "in" thing right now. You can look them up on google to find many different ideas.
If you get a good thermos, you can send warm things and they should stay warm until lunch. Just heat up some leftover spaghetti in the morning and it should be warm come lunch- or any other food that you want.
Good luck! Getting creative with lunch is not my forte. In fact, I have started letting (making) my kids make their own lunches. They seem to eat better when they get to decide what to eat.
my mom used to send hot things (soup, stew, etc) in a thermos... if she heated up hot it in the morning it would still be warm by lunch time! same with cold things like milk and other cold drinks with ice.
wraps and pitas can make "sandwiches" a little more exciting.
My 11 year old likes the seperated containers. I think it is a bento box. Usually granola or dried fruit, peanut or almond butter, carrot sticks or celery sticks and a yogurt. He usually mixes the granola into the yogurt. The only problem I have is he tends to throw away the spoon.
My son used to like kashi waffles with peanut butter and banana slices. It was a sandwich but so much more. Wraps are great. Also pita with hummus or pimento cheese. Happy lunch packing!
My 5 1/2 year old does not like sandwiches either. I have gotten her to eat them if they are different shapes but that only lasts a couple of days.
I sent her with pumpkin muffins and french toast sticks today. I have also done various meat in a baggie and crackers. And I do more "snacks" for her.
Her 7 year old sister, would take the same type of sandwich every day.
Our kids hardly ever take a sandwich. Things we do put in the lunchbox... applesauce, yogurt, crackers, fruit, veggies, hard boiled egg, muffins, slices of bread I make (pumpkin, banana, etc.). My kids love cheese slices. We buy blocks of different cheeses so they don't get sick of one kind. Sometimes we do ham roll-ups (cream cheese inside). Meat and crackers "lunchables" style is a favorite too
They choose three to four things for lunch, with one little dessert, like fruit snacks or a granola bar, plus a drink. We use ice packs to keep the refrigerated stuff cold.
I would probably still make sandwiches just put the filling in a wrap or pita bread and make out its not really a sandwich IYKWIM. My two like cheese and biscuits too which I guess would work in a lunch box
Most of them have been mentioned above, but my daughter doesn't care for sandwiches either, mainly because the bread gets "smushed." She doesn't mind chicken salad on mini croissants, or half a bagel with cream cheese (and sometimes ham slices), or a wrap of some sort. We've also sent chicken nuggets or meatballs (eaten cold). She also likes pasta salad in a small container. Have fun experimenting with new things!
Wraps with a box full of grated cheese, chopped up ham, cucumber etc so he could make is own - its helped with my youngest when he stopped eating sandwiches. I've also sent in pizza that I cooked on the morning and wrapped in foil however that didnt go down too well!
Have you heard of bento boxes? I found a fun blog that gives lots of picture ideas for lunches.
http://www.anotherlunch.com/
She uses a bento box, but you wouldn't even have to get one to use the ideas. She uses lots of cookie cutters to make cute lunches, but you wouldn't have to do that!
Also, Tea Rose home is giving away a bento box this week in case you want to give it a shot!
Lynette beat me to it. I was going to suggest you look at the bento box sites for ideas.
Amy Hemmert @ Laptop Lunches has great ideas. She also has a FB page of the same name.
Another bento box suggestion. I know people who go all out and buy the super eco-friendly boxes too, I just bought a tupperware-like thing from amazon. 4 of them for $14 and they have 3 sections. I also bought some silicone cupcake liners to reuse and put in the main section when I have a dip or a 4th food to keep separate. I have a bunch of the liners, if you go this route let me know and I'll give you a few.
A friend's son took apple slices and peanut butter to scoop for years. You can even get pre-cut apple pieces.
I finally had to give in and buy hot lunches for my boys. They just wouldn't eat anything from home....
Good luck girl!!!
My mom used to send us with hot dogs she would warm and put in our "milk thermos". Then she would put the buns in a sandwich bag and add to go packs of ketchup and mustard. It was great! No one else ever had it!
I agree, wraps are great. I also send crackers, pepperoni & cheese in a bag - sort of like a "make your own lunchable." I've also found that if I switch up the bread for the sandwich, it feels like something different. Like, sometimes I'll put the same ham & cheese on a hamburger bun, or in a pita pocket, and it seems like something different and interesting. As interesting as ham & cheese can be, anyway. ;)
Cooked fish sticks can be eaten room temperature. My girls love, love their egg molds:
http://justbento.com/handbook/bento-decoration-techniques/fun-japanese-egg-molds.
Crackers and cheese and greek salad cut into big chucks (think finger size) without the tomatoe or dressing - mostly because they don't like them.
Will they eat Hummus? That and some veggie sticks. Fruit and some Nutella? I love nutella on animal crackers, my guilty pleasure, it is good on apples too. You can find it with the peanut butter but it is peanut free.
I sometimes send homemade hot pockets. I make them when I make bread and freeze them. Pop them into my daughter's lunch box and they're thawed by lunch time. They taste great cold. Roll out some bread dough, cut it into about 8 rectangles, put meat, cheese, veggies, whatever, inside, wrap the sides into thirds, then the open ends. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
I have the same problem with my son... his fav thing for his lunchbox is a pig in a blanket. I make whole wheat dough and use all beef hot dogs, and he likes hot dogs at room temperature. blech! It works though!
Get a Thermos soup container for him! The soup/hot food possibilities are endless! My kids' food is always still warm at lunch time.
How about mini pasta bakes? I cook some pasta then pop it in muffin tins with chopped ham, grated cheese and beaten eggs and then baked in the oven. They are great, tasty hot or cold and my kids love a couple of them for dinner or one for lunch in their box.
Hope this helps.
I send a lot of cold quinoa salads and cold pasta salads (generous additions of feta cheese is the key to success with these!), along with the usual fruit and veggie sides, cheese strings, dilled cottage cheese, cheese bread, etc.
We do meat roll ups, string cheese or strips of cheese with meat wrapped around with a tooth pick...it's the tooth pick that makes it fun. My son also really loves getting soup or mac and cheese in a thermos.
Hummus and pita bread. My girls love it!
I have been looking for delicious lunch ideas for all the family too. I stumbled across this site and has 30 days of lunch box ideas.
http://www.familyfreshcooking.com/2011/09/16/project-lunch-box-30-day-challenge/
The inspiration given by this site if just amazing!
We use lots of the ideas already listed here, and my son also likes leftovers in this cute thermos: http://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Foogo-Leak-Proof-Stainless-10-Ounce/dp/B0025Y6742/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1320761107&sr=8-6 Good luck!
A kid at Max's school has a tortilla spread with PB and a whole banana wrap every day for lunch.
Meat roll up...turkey, cream cheese and string cheese...roll it up!
Another thing we like is cooked cheese ravioli, no sauce, served cold. Great finger food, particularly if you use mini versions. Think of the refrigerated pasta section in the grocery store.
Good luck!
New reader, and have loved the previous ideas!
Quesadillas are good too- you can cut them up into slices like a pizza and even use some of the same fillings, but the cheese won't stick to whatever you wrap it in since the tortilla encases it all.
http://funkylunch.com/gallery.htm
Soup in a Thermos, pizza wrapped in foil (after you heat it, wrap it, if he has lunch before probably about 12:30, it should stay warm)
My husband is a food editor, and he packs my son's lunch every day and blogs about it. He recently was featured on Martha Stewart. When I'm lucky, I get the leftovers! His blog is www.lunchboxblues.com. (P.S. I made my son Angry Bird plushies using your patterns for Christmas. Thanks!)
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