Lunch Ideas - Daly City,CA

When my kids are tired of sandwiches I'll send leftovers with them or like you mentioned canned pastas and soup. Sometimes they take salads. My youngest in lieu of bread likes to make wraps. They all have to take at least one fresh fruit (apples, oranges, bananas, kiwi , etc) and a veggie (carrots, celery with peanut butter, broccoli, etc...)

And I agree with everyone else about the blue ice packs- you can get them in soft or hard cases.

I think string cheese is fine, esp if he has an insulated type lunch bag. Other ideas could be small containers of hummus and pita and sliced veggies (Costco sells these boxes of several small one serving size hummus containers). Or grilled chicken in a wrap, or a fruit and cheese platter...And maybe more variety with types of sandwiches. IE chicken salad, egg salad, tuna, pb&j, ham and cheese, roast beef, turkey etc. Different types of cheese or bread? I don't know how adventurous your son is...

Look to LaptopLunches.com for inspiration. They have a chart of the food groups and how much a serving is, and lots of pictures of their own and their fans' lunches- they are bento style lunches with each thing in their own compartment, and they are all about healthy. I don't have a bento box, but I do use silicone or paper baking cups in a Tupperware sandwich keeper to pack stuff, and some little stainless steel condiment cups I got at Wal Mart. Most of the time my son wants pbj and I get sick of making it! A favorite alternative is carrot chips and peanut butter honey dip (mix2 Tb or so of peanut butter, and just enough honey to make it smooth and dipable). He also likes having salami and crackers (like a home-made lunchable) which I usually pack with a fruit salad or sugar snap peas. As for the string cheese, if you are packing in a paper bag it might get too warm without an ice pack or something, but an insulated bag inside the classroom should be cool enough for 4 hours. I sometimes use those reusable ice cubes to keep yougurt and cheese cold on a hot day.

When I was in Europe, it was normal to see cheese, yogurt and butter left out at room temp, even in warmer countries like Italy. However, being the paranoid American mom that I am, I have my son pack one of those small blue ice thingys with his lunch to keep it cool. My other son, however, makes himself a smoothie in the morning, with fruit and yogurt, and it sits in his backpack til lunch. It's hasn't hurt him yet!

If you have a good insulated lunch bag, thermos, small Tupperware containers and ice packs you can pack almost anything.

The suggestions you’ve received below are great.

My kids like leftovers so we use the thermos a lot. They have taken chicken stir fry, pasta with meat sauce and veggies, soup, homemade mac & cheese, BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, etc. Warm quesadilla or tacos wrapped in foil, BBQ chicken wraps with lettuce & cheese or turkey wraps made with spinach lettuce, cream cheese and craisins.

For snacks they like fruit, veggies, hummus w/ pita bread or crackers, yogurt, trail mix, cliff bar, breakfast bars, cheese, pretzels, hard boiled eggs, tortilla chips w/ guacamole and dried fruit.

Today I packed them leftover dinner from last night. Pasta with alfredo sauce & parmesan, yellow squash, sweet bread & cantaloupe in a separate small container. For snack I gave them Odwalla bars.

*Lunchable packs. Expensive but they have crackers, cheese, dessert.
*carrot sticks
*cheese and crackers
*PB&J
*I always put a blue ice pack in their insulated lunch bags (you can buy both at grocery stores)
*fruit roll ups
*fruit snacks (the little pebble kind in small packages)sala
*hard boiled eggs
*leftovers in tupperware w/ice pack a must
*salami slices and crackers
*mini bread slices (found in deli) w/hummus spread in separate mini tupperware
*leftover pizza wrapped in foil
*pita pocket sandwiches (homemade but you wrap ingredients separately in foil or tupperware & assemble at school
*pudding cups
*mini juice boxes

lunchables. There is actually an off brand of lunchables now that is about .50 cents cheaper. Add some fun desserts like grapes, apples, pudding, jello.

Just answering the string cheese question... and this will work for any other cold item you may want to pack. Get a lunch sized insulated bag for him and put in a small re-freezable cold pack to keep it cold for the four hours until lunch time. You could also choose one items you are sending that is freezable, and use that as a cold pack. That item would mostly melt by the time he has lunch, and keep the other items cold in the process.

I like Marlene's ideas- Insulated lunch box with a few cooling blocks will help with keeping various food items at a reasonable temperature.

Baby Bells (cheese) , crackers and grapes/carrot sticks, celery sticks with salad dressing, bean and cheese burritos, Nacho chips, mini oranges, fruit salad, veggie salad, home made vegetarian chow mein, rice and veggies pilaf cooked together in chicken broth, mini cream cheese/cucumber and tomatoe finger sandwiches, try this site for some more options

http://www.lunchboxwinners.com/recipes.html?gclid=CNXejJ3...

NP