Lunch Box Menus

I saw a cute cute, pin where the mom had a ... spreadsheet almost... the child had 4 things to pick from for a protein, 4 things to pick from for a dairy, for a fruit/veggie, and a sweet if you choose. and then she had everything individually bagged up already, even the fridge stuff, and the child could just choose that morning ( or the night before which works better for me). So that didnt' really answer your question but it's another option for your child.

personally, my ds would and almost has eaten the same school lunch every day from kinder to third. dd enjoys more variety.

one of my rules for them was to bring home their uneaten food, that way I could see if DD wasn't eating her crust and might want to switch to crackers instead of sandwhich, or if the pea pods weren't touched I knew not to pack them the next day.

five really is old enough for him to pick from a small menu like I mentioned above, just think how much more excited he will be to eat things he has helped choose.

I also feel that you can balance out the rest of his meals, so strawberries for lunch, one day but with breakfast the next, and blueberries for lunch, see?

anyhow, good luck, I hope his school year is fantastic!

What does your son normally eat for lunch? There is a way to pack pretty much anything these days.

Allrecipes has a menu planning program. Foodonthetable.com also has a meal planner. There are also several apps for meal planning.

But, honestly, you don't need one. Just pack what your son will eat. If you think he will get tired of a specific fruit, strawberries for instance, then freeze them for use during the following week. If he likes sandwiches then pack one, add a veggie, a fruit, cheese or yogurt and you are good to go.

I pack pretty much the same thing everyday. My rule is to not throw away food but to bring it back home. I can tell when my kids are getting tired of something if it comes back home. Or most the time they scarf it down the minute they get in the car. I pack a turkey and cheese sandwich or peanut butter and honey, whatever kind of fruit we have(seasonally), my son loves applesauce so he gets one of those almost daily. Two of kids love yogurt so I'll pack a yogurt tube(organic or chobani), a cheese stick, and some kind of crackers, pirate's booty or a granola bar. They get water or tea if I have made some. I know they will eat this and want this daily. My middle child is the only one who likes leftovers for lunch so she'll get that sometimes. Invest in quality containers and a thermos.

I pack pretty much the same thing everyday except the main meal. It's yogurt, fruit(grapes, watermelon, strawberries, melon or apples) in one of those containers that comes with a ice pack attached, string cheese, crackers, water and either turkey cheese sandwich or a thermos containing either chicken nuggets, fish sticks, Mac and cheese or hot dog. Yes the main meal is not very healthy but I agree with the other post that said pack what they absolutely like. Besides everything else p ack is pretty healthy.
This covers lunch and snack time.

Hope this helps.....sticking to a familiar menu has made it easy to shop and the kids know what to expect !

Depends on the kid. My kids are different. My son likes variety from day to day. He might eat the same 2 things, but on alternate days, not back-to-back. Daughter could eat the same thing for 2 weeks straight, but when she finally does burn out, she wants something different. Then she will eat THAT for days on end. She is not nearly as adventurous with food as our son is, either.

What is your son like? Do you typically make him a pb & j for lunch 3 days a week? Or is lunch every single day of the week? Let that be your guide.

Only pack foods he loves because most of the kids, by the time they get to Christmas, have figured out if they toss their lunch they can eat off their friends trays. They hardly ever eat what's packed for them.

So only pack foods he loves completely of expect him to be starving when he gets home. Kids don't like to stand out so they do what they have to do to be like everyone else.

We alternate and purchase accordingly. I make a weekly menu, once a week. Go to the store twice a week (Saturday for nearly everything, Wednesday for more produce and milk---don't want to buy too much milk and have no room in the fridge at first, and don't want to buy ALL the produce and some go bad mid-week. Whatever meat is on sale at the deli (chicken, turkey, roast beef, ham, etc): I buy it by the slice instead of the pound. On the weekly menu, I've planned what we'll be eating (basically, it's not set in stone but it's my guideline) and I'll buy enough lunchmeat to cover a lunchmeat sandwich 2 days/week. 1 day a week we'll have cucumber and feta sandwiches, another day peanut butter and jelly/jam/honey/whatever preserves we've got on hand (we get fig and blackberry that my mom makes a couple times a year). Another day can be purchased at school or work for something different or hot, or could be a lunch in a thermos (leftover soup, gumbo, jambalaya, pastalaya, sausage & peppers wrapped in flat bread (heated, then wrapped in foil), tuna casserole, pasta salad, etc). At home on weekends they eat hot lunches. An entree and a serving of fruit or veggie sticks with a little container or hummus or dip they help me make is all they need for lunch at this age, it's not like they eat a ton. OR as a treat sometimes, I'll surprise them with a little container of jello or pudding, which is fine, and they end up eating the rest of their sandwich when they get home (they get full, or run out of time, when there's too much in the lunchbox). I did get compliments a couple times last year from my son's kindergarten teacher on packing great lunches, a nice variety (yet easy to plan), and on the fact that my son actually eats ALL of it. I think we should feed our kids "normal" food, there's no such thing as "kid" food in our menu.
For fruits: you can buy a container of fruit that your family will eat in a few days, then mid-week purchase some more like I do, or you can clean them, slice them up, and put powdered sugar on them to help them keep a little longer. Some dried fruits are great options if she'll eat them; we love raisins, dried cranberries, banana chips, trail mix type fruits. Or some things are great frozen too: I like frozen grapes when they're still slushy inside better than just normal temp!
But when it all comes down to it, you'll figure it out as you go. I like what one mom already told you: lunch doesn't have to be "perfect" and you don't have to stress it so much, you're in more control of breakfast, dinner, and after school snacks so focus on those. 2 out of 3 of my guys are great eaters (the youngest is coming along and getting better), so I have a lot of freedom in packing their lunches. If your child is picky, choose your battle, and make the lunch that you're not there to "enforce" eating rules easy on both of you.

Here are some suggestions and they have some other blog posts with good school lunch ideas:
http://blogs.goddardschool.com/blog/2012/08/20/healthful-...

It took us a couple of weeks to really get a good lunch packed. At first I packed too much or too many things. I found out that there are many foods that my son likes that he doesn't necessarily like to eat for lunch at school. (Loves ham sandwiches, but not for lunch at school.) Last year he had either a gogert or spaghettio's and meat balls, a serving of fruit (I take a can of fruit and split it into 3 or 4 separate containers) and a small brownie or a couple of cookies. Sometimes he drinks milk, but sometimes he takes a juice box. I thought he would always buy milk at school, but he said he doesn't like waiting in line to get milk.

If you are able to send fresh fruit each day, great! Canned fruit is also very healthy, so don't worry too much if it doesn't work out to do it all the time.

Lunch is a bit trickier for many of us, but breakfast and dinner (and an afternoon snack?) are much more in your control. Don't worry too much about lunch!

Also, some kids do like variety, but most kids at this age really are ok with the same thing or couple of things every single day. Adults are often perplexed by this, but it really is true. I couldn't do it now, but for 12 years I ate pb&j every, single day. My parents loved it!

http://weelicious.com/school-lunches/
Also check out her Facebook page. She posts pictures of her daily school or camp lunches for her two kids.