Looking for Ideas for Packed Lunches

Hi Leilani... you have a "Hawaiian" name!

Well,here in Hawaii, we make "bento box" lunches. It's origins are from Japan... but modernized for today's world and Moms.

Here are some GREAT links:
http://www.laptoplunches.com/
http://www.lunchboxes.com/bento.html
http://lunchinabox.net/
http://www.naturemoms.com/blog/2007/04/16/laptop-lunches/

Good luck!
Susan

Remember the McD's salad shakers? My kids & I still use them all the time. We found them at the 99 cent store. Pick a bag of your favorite already chopped salad, add cucumbers, any other veges you want. Favorite add ins include pre-cooked chicken, chopped & frozen (thaws by lunchtime), bacon bits, toasted sunflower & almond seeds, chopped "chicken dinos". I usually keep the tomatoes as the last ingredient. You can add to change the flavors like mandarin oranges or crunchy noodles. Add a Thomas's whole-wheat bagel - it has 10g of protein!!!
I also freeze PB & J's by the 1/2 dozens so they are ready to go.
Personally, I like the Lean Ole burritos from costco

Just make sure to keep "hot foods hot" and "cold foods cold." Freeze bottles of water, use for icepack and drink. Am a big fan of thermos - soup, chili, stew. Trick is fill thermos with boiling water first, then empty and add food. It won't cool down.

Have brownbagged my entire adult life, including college. Save tons of money.

SH posted great sites...at lunchinabox, go to their links page, and you'll find many more links to many more ideas.

This one lists a bunch of lunch ideas:

http://www.geocities.com/ficbot/lunchbox/entree.htm

sushi with chicken instead of fish.... great at room temp..

I make the asian rice, then make rice balls by covering them with seaweed with pieces of chicken inside or whatever meat you prefer...

We love rollups. Tortillas with creamcheese, lunchmeat, and veggies rolled up. The cream cheese makes them super rich. No heating necessary.

If you're looking for ready made lunches, you can find them, but there will lots of salt, fat and other junk. My assumption is that you want healthier choices that taste good. Buy Tongol tuna and dress it up with dill weed, or dijonaisse dressing; try veggie slices that taste more like lunch meat but are hight protein zero fat (Yves makes a great one). Add bell pepper slices for a vegetable and low-fat chips. Take yogurt and put organic trail mix in it for a filling snack. Leftovers can make great additions to salads (salmon, even taco filing). You can carry all of these in a insulated sack (I have a big one for under $10.00 from Target) with a cold pack. Good luck!

Have you tryed looking into Kraft Kitchen.com they have alot of different ideas fixing lunches. I have tryed them for my kids,and for my selftheir great.

We've been testing tons of healthy, affordable and portable lunch recipes for the past 2 weeks. Check out the website as we will be posting more everyday for the next month or so!-www.weelicious.com

We have just recently discovered making wraps. We make tuna wraps with tons of veggies (lettuce, tomato, sprouts, avocado, shredded carrots) and a sprinkle of cheese. Very good.

Pasta salads with chicken or tuna or turkey chunks are good. As well as are quinoa salads. I also like salad items wrapped in a rice spring roll wrapper with dressing (peanut is good, but others are good too).

The nice thing about these kinds of meals are that you make one round for everyone. If the kids like those things, then they can have some too. Anything that I can do for everyone at once means its quick and easy for me.