School Lunch Ideas/tips

We do bento box things, the covered plates that have different sections in it, and fill it with different cheeses (sticks, cheddar, american, asagio, feta, blue, irish, fontina), meats (deli, summer sausage, sopresetta, salami), hummus or whole beans (red, kidney, black, nav), fruits, veggies (raw celery or carrots, corn kernels, cut up cooked sweet potato, parsnip chips (cut in thin disks, toss in seasoning and oil, bake 350 for 30-45 mins) and some type of bread (water crackers, table crackers, pita chips, bagel chips, croutons, hunks of french bread, croissants).

My son also has a peanut allergy and we also hardly do chips and sandwhich lunches!

I'd half fill a small plastic juice bottle and place it in the freezer. Juice bottles are much thicker than water bottles and I've not had one burst in the freezer. It will keep the lunch cool and if your child wants something to drink, its right there. Just have them bring the bottles home to be reused day after day.

We used toasted cheese sandwiches, cold chicken, left overs my kids liked from last nights dinner or the night before.

Good luck to you and yours.

Buy a small, index card sized plastic ice pack. It won't sweat and it will keep things cold. Besides the normal sandwiches, my son likes (already peeled) boiled eggs, roll ups and leftovers. For special treats, I will cook up 6 pizza rolls and wrap them in foil.

My kids buy hot lunch now but back in the day I would freeze those go-gurts, heat bean and cheese (or any flavor) in micro and wrap in foil, no sugar added applesauce cups and puddings, baggies with goldfish and cheeze its, cheese slices with ham slices (kids make their own rollups). You can also get 2 cans of buiscuts, roll them out flat, on one rolled out buiscut layer with lunch meat and cheese, put another rolled out buscuit over, do this will all of them, bake at 450 until brown on top. These are good cold too and will be good in kids lunches.

http://www.5dollardinners.com/ is doing lunch this week -- TONS of ideas!

I bought some kids ice packs for lunch boxes at Target (near the school supply section in the back of the store, by the lunch boxes and containers). I would send yogurt, cheese & crackers, tortilla wraps, pasta, veggies & dip, fruit.

Well my twins love their PB&J I don't know what I would do if one was allergic because its almost an everday thing they want PB&J. I tell them they will one day turn into a PB&J sandwich. However to mix things up a bit I have done turkey wraps or if your's like ham you could do that. My kids also like the canned chicken believe it or not and I will add sweet relish, mayo and lemon pepper-just a little bit. Then there is always soup but make sure you get a container that is made specifically for keeping things hot or cold for best results. There is also lunchables you can do as well. Sometimes I do my own I include the crackers, cheese, and peices of the meat but my kids are so darn picky. One of them likes ham whereas the other one does not. They both like turkey but only one likes it as a wrap only. I'm always trying to toss up something different for them but it seems like they are wanting the PB&J anyways over anything else. I think I was the same way and I got to a point where I couldn't stand a PB&J sandwich but then one day I was actually able to eat them again. I cannot eat them over and over like that-ugh!

We start full day kindergarten too and I've got some picky eaters.

We are doing PB sandwiches, Jelly sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, cold pizza, crackers & cheese, yogurt, applesauce, grapes, raisins. I may try putting some nuggets in a thermos and maybe it'll keep warm enough (have to test it out).

Good luck!