Lunch

This would be a side dish, but my kids have always loved baby carrots with ranch dressing for a dip.

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Send him a lunchable, because most are nutritional but yet the child will love it!

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I bought my kids a thermos that keeps food hot or cold and I will send them some spaghetti and meatballs or raviolis and I heat it in the microwave and make it really really hot so by the time they have their lunch it will be warm. I send my four year lunchables to school sometimes cause he can eat those fast and he enjoys them.

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I think pitas are a fun change from plain old sandwiches, and you can put anything in them, from apples and penut butter to grilled chicken and sprouts. The possibilites are endless. (I sound like a commercial!!)

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Vienna Sausages with cold cooked veggies. I buy the sausages that are lower fat/salt. The veggies I cook at home then just refridgerate or put in the lunch pack with an ice pack. Also, any sort of canned spaghetti, ravioli warmed before putting it in a thermos is good. My Mom did that for me when I was little. My daughter is currently stuck on PB&J. Hardboiled eggs are a good optiont too. They can be accompanied by crackers and fruit or yogurt/pudding cup. Hope this helps.

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Hey Steph...my son is 4 and isnt in school yet...but I do send him to daycare with lunchables and fruit cups and small snacks...I will chop up an apple(and squeeze a lil lemon on it to keep it from turning brown) and send him on his merry way with a Capri sun...and he's content! LOL

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Hi S.,

My daughter (almost 2), just started a mothers day out program and I have had the same problem since she doesn't like sandwiches. I have tried a few things like cheese sticks (or string cheese) she likes hummus on pita bread and I just put fruit, veggies, crackers as fill-ins. Hope some of these help. Good luck!

S.

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Congradulations on your miracle boy!

I'd pack fruit chopped to bite sized some type of juice for a beverage. For protein I make peanutbutter squares or balls.

I use which ever type-crunchy or creamy
add powdered milk and oat meal(dry rolled oats)
sweeten if you like with what you prefer. If you prefer honey realize you'll need a bit more dry ingridients. Mix completely. There's no way to get this wrong so proportions aren't needed. When you see that the mixture is quite dry I then use the crumbs of animal cookies or grahm (sorry not sure spelling) or even some oats that I whizzed in the food processor to grind it up some. I pour half of the crumbs on a cookie sheet; put the peanut mixture on top of that ;spread out then top with the remaining crumbs.
The recipe is so dry that it holds up well in warm tempurtures.

I always worried if my children would be hungry because the lunch wasn't adiquate.(sp)
There's always the celery and peanutbutter or cheese but my children didn't like celery. Cheese is another source of protein. I'm sure you could fine recipes with a search for a type of cheese ball like the peanutbutter ones.
Yougur is also good.
I figured that I would pack what I was certain they would eat and the foods that weren't their favorite I'd leave for home.
Pretzles (no fat).
L. Boynton aka mother of 9

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you can go to the store and get "lunchables" for lunches. my kids love them. they can be eaten cold or hot and have lots of things to choose from. my kids like it because they can all have something different and i don't have to cook something different for everyone (which i refuse to do!!)

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Hi S.!

My daughter is a little picky also when it comes to brown bagging it. So, we've come up with those tuna (or chicken) pouches with different types of crackers. Sometimes, she'll just want the tuna in the pouch (which is so easy). Other times, she'll want the pickles, mayo, etc., etc., etc. (whatever suits her fancy). We also buy different crackers (saltines, ritz, water crackers, etc.) or she'll want big lettuce leaves and makes wraps. I'm not sure how quickly your son can eat, but my daughter is 8 and has mastered those quick time school lunches.
We don't do too many of those lunchables (lots of sodium in those). She's also a big nut for different cheeses, cashews and apples. That's really a bizarre combination...but she likes it and it holds her over until she gets home.
Hope this helps...if I think of anything else, I will let you know! :)

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I could give him a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich or ham and chesse.Give him some fruit or applesauce.Also give him some chips.I also give him a juice box for his drink.If yo like you could give him jello or cookies.

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i know you don't want a sandwich idea, but my daughters love "uncrustables".

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Lunchables. The kids think they are the best thing since sliced bread so they will eat them. As far as sandwhiches go..make a good one. Wheat bread (toasted). Ham, low fat cheese, low fat meat & lettuce if he will eat it. But also pack good stuff...apple, plum or peach. Carrot sticks or celery sticks with peanut butter. Baked chips or trail mix. Jello and/or cheese sticks. You can even change out the bread to an egg mcmuffin.
Just some suggestions.

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Hi S.-

I've had to pack my daughter's lunch for the past couple of years and it is tricky. Until my mom told me about buying a thermos. They sell them at Wal-Mart and Target. They fit in kid's lunchboxes and suddenly a whole new world is opened for packing lunches. I make everything the night before except what I'm going to put in her thermos, which I add in the morning. Now I send cheese pizza, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, mac and cheese, tortellini with tomato sauce and the list goes on. I just warm the food in the morning, stick it in the thermos and off she goes to school. I don't think it's piping hot when she eats it but she's never complained and always enjoys the food more than sandwiches, which I only send occasionally now. Hope this helps!

J.

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If there is not microwave to heat things up I really think sandwiches are your only option. I dont think he would mind the sandwiches if they were creative - use cookie cutters and cut them into a design, or roll the bread flat, roll the ingredients into the bread and make a log, slice the log into rolled sandwiches, add a fruit cup or jello or pudding along with a bottled juice to drink and something like a fruit roll=up for fun

I have problems sending different things for my daughter as well, so when I just change to look of it she gets all excited.

Good luck!

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My daughter is almost 6. She is in Kindergarten. Last year she took her lunch for PreK as well. She should look like a blueberry because she has taken them in her lunch every day since then! I put them in a little Glad cup w/lid. She enjoys peanut butter, I vary between crunchy and smooth..sandwich, on crackers (the ones with whole grains like WW Ritz, it's not much fiber but every little bit helps) or sometimes she just likes me to put a blob in a Glad cup and then she can dip her (whole grain) Goldfish into it.

Organic baby carrots, organic applesauce, (she has a loose tooth so she can't bite an apple), they have those packaged "apple dippers" in the produce section too.

DanActive drinkables (wish these were organic)are great. I drink one about once a week too, for the good bacteria which strengthens immunity. She loves those. So does my 9 year old son. It does have sugar which I'm not crazy about but the benefits outweigh the sugar I think.

I do give her a dessert some days, but usually she understands that her drinkable is her "sugar" choice (which we say instead of dessert-- I call it what it is...protein, dairy, etc. for foods so they can understand what they are eating and can learn how to make choices)

I give her filtered water and ice in her sports cup that came with her lunch bag too.

Her class is supposed to bring a snack for morning, so I also put in some extra protein food (2% mozzerella cheese stick) and fruit/extra carrots.

After school I am a little more lax about it and bring her Ritz Bitz peanut butter crackers, trying for something with protein to help maintain a more even blood sugar level. She has no diagnosed problem with this, but I suspect it helps her mood and well-being. I sometimes bring a gatorade if it has been really hot out, and I know they have played outside.

Hope that gives you some ideas. I use the long packets of ice coolers to keep her foods cold, as they don't take up as much space as the blue boxy ones.

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Homemade "lunchables" are fun....crackers, meat(cut into cracker size pieces,pepperoni), & cheese.
you can always do tuna/chicken/egg salad & crackers to put them on *don't forget the spoon ;o)
I'll be happy to share more creative ideas as I come up with them, I'm currently working on creating a school lunch theme for my biz
Have fun

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