Luch Box, Help Please

My daughter (10) loves those frozen PB&J sandwiches called uncrustables, they are perfect in an insulated bag, thawed out by lunch time, and helped keep everything else cold before lunch. She switches off between yogurt, jello and pudding, and we always through in a banana or grapes. She likes to buy her own milk at school though, so she can go through the lunch line with her friends.

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Hi Lina,
I tend to stay away from already packed food for my little one's, due to the harmful additives in them. My kids loves P&J, tuna, wraps with lunch meat and so on. I use to pack my daughter a turkey sandwich, sliced apples & grapes,bag of chips and juicy juice. She loved it. I hoped this helped you.

C.

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I had the best luck w/variety of finger foods,keep it simple,(sand.fruit,crackers,etc.)
T.

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My kids are older and like to make their own lunches, but I supply the "fixins". Some things that they love are raisins and those PB&J crackers from Ausitn-- purple package. My kids take a whole apple but you can keep pre cut apples from browning in a few different ways: Toss with Lemon juice, Pineapple juice or a product called Fruit Fresh ( it has ascorbic acid aka Vitamin C in it) Another dippie sauce is honey mustard. They love it on pretzels and even carrots :/ Well kids like to make up odd things to eat , I let them as long as it isn't too "gross". They enjoy the small control in their lives making their own lunches gives them. Our rules are 1 drink, 2 snacks - one a fruit or veggie , and if you need more ,make another sandwich. Oh and they are *supposed* to eat their sandwich first, before the snacks.

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Hi Lina,

There is an excellent book called "Feed Me - I'm Yours" that has awesome and healthy foods to prepare for little ones. I love it!! You can buy it on Amazon.com. For my extremely picky 3 year old daughter - I cut up fruit, give her those little yogurt drinks, macaroni and cheese, dora soup and PB & J sandwiches in her lunch. I bought a little thermos at Walmart to keep the hot food warm. I also buy fruit cups and those 100 calorie snack packs. Sometimes she will eat cheese and crackers for lunch - I buy the whole grain crackers and yogurt covered raisins. She does not like veggies (of course) so I buy the Juicy Juice Harvest Fresh juice which has fruit and veggies in it - the daily serving of vegetales as if she ate them. The book will give you lots of ideas!! Good Luck!

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Have you thought about lunchables.or How about pb$j sandwich cut up apples put a banana in there or drie cereal cheese crackers, cuprisun drinks they have fruit cups you could put in there lunch box. I hope this helps

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Hi Mom-

This is what I have found works for my daughter:

When I make sandwiches, I use whole wheat or whole grain Pita bread (they make them in all sizes to make it easier to make small sandwiches for little ones), which is easier for her to eat than normal bread. I make everything from PB&J to cream cheese and shredded carrot sandwiches. I also do cheese and meat sandwiches with mayonaise.

I cut up fresh fruit, or use grapes or other small berry like fruit and put them in one of those to-go bowls with a lid. These are easy for her to eat and she loves the fresh fruit!

String cheese sticks are always a winner. Sometimes I'll pack a string cheese stick, crackers (Earth's Best are organic and packed full of vitamins and minerals), and fruit, instead of a sandwich and fruit.

Sometimes I will pack frozen peas (they are thawed and ready to eat by lunch time) instead of fruit.

Mott's makes flavored (with real fruit), no sugar added apple sauces that are a good fruit substitute as well.

The trick is variety, so she doesn't get bored, and keeping things small and easy to eat. I pack her lunches in a soft sided cooler bag with an icepack so things stay fresh. I add a plastic spoon or spork (you can get reusable ones pretty inexpensively in packs of 5 at the grocery store) for those things that are better eaten with a utensil instead of her fingers.

My daughter just turned 2 in March and she seems to be handling the lunch thing at school pretty well...especially after I switched to Pita bread!

Hope these ideas help!

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My son loves leftover chicken breast with mixed veggies...I heat it up in the morning and by lunch time it's still warm enough for him to eat...he also loves deli meats, like turkey breast, balogna or ham rolled up - I usually give him about 4 slices...with apple...cheese and crackers are good too and you can never fail with PB&J...get a fun cookie cutter and cut it into a shape!!

Good luck

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I work full time now, so I do not have a lot of time to make the creative stuff. Wish I was still a SAHM. I buy the uncrustables PB&J. I also buy the individual packaged ranch dressing and caramel dips. I do not ussually put fruit and veggies in lunch on the same day. I also puy prepackaged fruit cups. As far as cracker snacks we but the 100 calorie packs. One of my daughters favorites is gogurt. We put them in the freezer and put them in her lunch box frozen. We also freeze juice boxes. I pay attention to the ones that are actually juice. We also always use an plastic icee to help keep everything cold. I really worry about spoiling. I feel like the pre-packaged stuff is designed to sit on the grocery store shelf. The already sliced apples also have something on them that keep them from turning brown. I peal oranges the night before to put on her lunch. There is a lot of great stuff out there. When I did not work pamered chef has a 6 pack of small cutters. We used them to cut meat and cheese and make our own lunchables. If you do it after you are done cleaning up dinner and she wants a snack you can let her eat the cuttings as her snack. Include her always helps her be excited about lunch. If you make PB&J sandwiches the night before, put a small amount of peanut butter on both sides of the bread. The jelly on the bread with no barrier makes it soggy.

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Just an idea, check my website and look at the cookbooks that Pampered Chef has for the quick easy meals. They have tons of recipes. Also, check the main site under the recipe search, put in items that your kid likes and it will pull up some for you to look at.
My website: www.pamperedchef.biz/katbranch
Main Company website for recipe search: www.pamperedchef.com

Hope you find some things to help you out.

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you can visit Kraft's website probalby www.kraft.com they have a whole section that is nothig but lunch box ideas, all kraft products, but it should give you some ideas for keeping food bordom at bay.

A.

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My son is not in preschool yet, but he is a pretty good eater. First of all, thank goodness for cute miniature coolies to put in the lunchbox. I would maybe chop up some celery and carrots with either lite ranch or natural peanut butter. Grapes, cheese chunks or any cut up fruits would work. I would avoid the canned fruit because it is loaded with more sugar than nutrients. You can find plenty of healthy yet tastey whole wheat or grain crackers to go with it. I used to love peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches cut out with cookie cutter shapes. I found a cute recipe for toddler trail mix online: granola, peanuts, raisins, dried fruit, cereal rings, carob or yogurt chips and roasted soy nuts. I am not sure if your child is a big meat eater, but if you don't have anything against deli meat, you could roll them up and slice them up into little bite sized pieces. If she like yogurt, throw one of those into her bag, or get a large tub for the week and put it in a travel container for her. I hope this is what you were looking for. Good luck.

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Hi Liina:

I do some of the usual pb & j, cheese slices on bread and I also buy those wraps and make cheese and ham or turkey for my daughter. Snack wise I usually do sliced apples or a fruit cup, pudding or a nutri bar. I make this stuff called monkey munch (some people call it puppy chow or mud buddies) its on the back onthe Chex cereal box) and I put that in there too. I like that because it will last about 2 weeks so its cheap. Hope this helps....

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I stay away from the PB&J's due to the nut allergy issue.
What I have done are

"Rollups" We roll the Meat & Cheese seperately and layout in th Sandwich Holder. You can also roll them together. We do this without bread but you can do it with bread.

Make Your own lunchables - Crackers, Meat & Cheese - Cut up with a cookie cutter (the mini ones) fruit and veggie

Leftovers from Dinner if they really like it - If it needs to be reheated I nuke in just before we leave then wrap the container with TinFoil.

Special Treat: Fruit & Veggie Lunch - Cut up Pieces with special dipping sauces.

There are many websites - Kraft, FamilyFun are just two of them

Also findout what rules the school has if any.

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Lina,

Hi. I would suggest an insulated bag/box. I always try to put a sandwich (PB&J or turkey & cheese) w/grapes, watermelon, strawberries, or banana, yogurt & a few chips or pretzels. Applesauce is good too. If you buy a drink sports cup, you can put juice, water or whatever in it & throw it in the freezer first thing in the morning for 30 minutes or so. That will keep everything chilled in her box & be nice & cold but not frozen when she drinks it.

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Lina - I have 2 girls, ages 7 and 9. We have been using the Laptop Lunch system for a couple of years and we love it. You can go to Laptoplunches.com and check them out. I love them because the girls can see everything I have packed all at once. The containers are just the right size for the portions and there is no waste, nothing to throw away. A bonus is that the water bottles do not leak, like most do! The kits are a little expensive, but they last really well. Our containers go through the dishwasher every night (for 2 years now). The kit also comes with a book of ideas for lunches. As a preschooler, your daughter may need help opening the containers with the lids, as they are tight, but that is par for the course with all preschoolers. Here's a typical lunch that I pack in ours - cut up fruit in one large compartment, cut up veggies in second large compartment, cut up lunch meat, cheese and a pickle in one small compartment, other small compartment holds ranch dressing in little lidded container and a treat- such as dried fruit or a small cookie, cracker. hope this helps - M.

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We have a corn allergy here in our house. My 4 year old can't eat anything with corn, corn syrup, corn starch or corn flour in it. So - we get creative, too.

She loves celery with natural peanut butter and raisins (ants on a log) - which travels and stays nicely in a snack sized ziploc bag! Carrot and apple slices are also a big hit!

You can pack granola too - which is nice for a topper for a yogurt cup or applesauce.

My daughter's preschool won't allow her to have whole grapes - hers have to be sliced because they are a choking hazard.

Freezing a small water bottle helps keep the lunches cool - much like whatever else has said.

Good luck!

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Search "Laptop Lunchbox." It's a lunchbox made for kids, but they have some great lunch ideas on the website.

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Hi Lina...My girls are teenagers now yet my 13 yr old still loves mini carrot slices in one snack bag and some lite ranch dressing in another.(you can get the generic snack bags at the $1 store so no lost tupperwear)Also I buy seedless grapes when on sale and put them in the snack bags. (perfect size for their little appetites)Then I freeze them. She likes them frozen for an after school snack and they also double as an ice pack when sending to school in her lunch bag. They hold up well when frozen...and one more...instead of buying sweet cookies I have fun making the marshmellow/cereal treats with her and they also keep well in those small bags. As time has gone by I've always pushed for homemade lunches instead of buying at school. Unfortunately you'll learn that the lunches at school are high in calories and not as good as when you help mom make them...good luck...M. C.

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