School Lunches - Gardner,MA

My son likes to take a thermos with left overs(loves pasta).I make big pots of soup and he likes that.And sometimes I let him take canned spagettios. We found a great thermos at Walmart for 15 dollars that fits in his lunch box.It's metal.Has a black cap.Pasta salads are also a favorite. I add ham sometimes or just broccoli(his favorite veggie)Hope this helps.T.

My son is 5 also, he just completed his first year of Kingergarten. I know what you mean about the peanut butter thing! Its awful! My son cant even bring a snack with peanut product in the class! It is hard with school lunches, its hard to keep them fun and different! My son likes salads, he likes grilled chicken salads, southwest salads (he loves to put corn and beans in it), fruit salads,egg and ham salads, he likes to be the one who decideds what kind of salad we make, he creates the salads so he gets excited about them. I also send his with bagels and different kinds of cream cheeses. He also brings sandwiches, and he occasionally buys lunch. Good luck to you! I hope i may have helped. Good luck with your son going to school! I hope he is excited!

Hello

First off I'd like to commend you for the lunch variety search. I'm the same way. My son just graduated from Kindergarten in June. And I"ve had so much fun getting different fun lunches in for him.

I think that the peanut butter thing is a shame. If my kid couldn't bring pb&j to school for a lunch - I'd switch schools. Kids who have allergies KNOW not to eat what they're allergic to. And the school's have no trade/no share rules - even school lunches offer it - even at my son's school where nut allergies run rabid. And thankfully, my very best girlfriend, who has 3 kids - 1 w/nut allergy - agrees with me. what are they gonna do next? no milk allowed b/c of kids who are lactose intolerant????

Ok onto lunches --- seeing as how you can't bring in peanut butter. Try cream cheese & jelly or cream cheese & fruit on toast or plain bread. The cream cheese will provide your child with the protein he needs (like from peanut butter). Also, a huge hit w/my son was bagels! I bought the mini bagels, & didn't toast them - just plain with some cream cheese on them. I'd pack along orange juice (i try to 'be green' so i use reusable drink containers), sliced up fruit, celery sticks (I put either ranch dressing in a little tupperware cup, or pnut butter or cream cheese for dipping). And then I'll throw in some nilla wafers or cinnamon graham crackers or teddy grahams.

OK so I not only do this for my son, but for my husband too - he likes variety - but i'll lean more towards my son's meals since that's our topic. Just think of his/her favorites & go from there. How can I get this into his lunch, keep it cold or warm, etc & make it as easy as you can for him/her. That's the most important thing.

As far as sandwiches go - whatever lunch meats & cheeses he/she likes. And then I used cookie cutters to cut out shapes for the sandwiches (I gave my dog the scraps - he loves his meat & cheese too!) But around the holidays I used cookie cutters according to the holiday - a pumpkin for halloween, a turkey for thanksgiving, a tree for christmas, an egg or bunny for easter, a heart for v-day, a clover for st. pat's day, a star for the 4th of july, etc. spring time was flowers, winter was snowman, fall was leaves, etc. You can get really creative.

I did alot of fruits & veggies - strawberries, blueberries, greapes, sliced kiwi, or watermelon. Even canned pineapple slices or chunks (just drain & put in little container or baggie), mandarin oragnes (again from the can - just put into a container).

Veggies - I did alot of 'ants on a log" celery rib filled with peanut butter topped with raisins OR filled with cream cheese & topped w/black olives. Or just give some ranch dressing for dip. Same with carrot sticks - with ranch.

One time I sent in cheese, pepperoni & crackers for my son. HE LOVED IT!!! And some olives & pickles (sliced small).

Um let's see what else. Oh! I've gotten the thermos & sent him with chicken nuggets (ketchup in a sm. container). They stayed pretty warm for him he said until his lunch time. I've also put in warm mac&cheese (if i made it for lunch for my youngest - i'd put a serving aside& store it in my oldest's thermos & heated it up the next morning before school for him). You could do simple soups like ramen noodle or ring o noodle - but I wouldn't recommend it until the child's in 1st or 2nd grade (a bit messy when they first try to do it!)

premake chicken & cheese quesadillas - cut into slices & fold or bend into thermos. Anything you can fit in a thermos to stay warm - really works.

I've also done deviled eggs for my son - perfect cold treat (he loves those) and stuffed mushrooms, heated & in a thermos (another of his favs). Oh yea, instead of bread you can use pita pockets, or wraps! I did those as well. I've send in pasta salad, regular salad (again all in containers) & it's all worked out well. Sometimes, with the salad I'd put stick some heated chicken strips in his thermos so he could put it on top when it was time to eat the salad. Also, I make my own calzones (another food eaten hot or cold) - my sons fav is cheese & pepperoni!

I did lots of oj, apple juice, cran-apple juice, cranberry juice, grape juice, milk, choc milk, strbry milk, tropicana fruit punch & water for drinks - sometimes lemonade. but i tried to stay away from real sugary - prepacked juices - it's convenient but it's not healthy.

I did goldfish, cheeze its, teddy grahams, pretzel sticks, graham crackers, nilla wafers, oyster crackers, dry cereal mixes (he loves to much on frosted flakes w/no milk or honey nut cheerios).

Yogurts, apple sauces (they've got apple sauces in all sorts of new fruit versions - pear sauce, pomegranate, etc - SO GOOD!) -- and we save the little containers for recycling - we use them for paints when the kids paint or to hold things in or even to use at the beach when building castles & things, also great for when your setting out ingredients when cooking they hold the small amounts perfectly & you don't have to wash a huge bowl! -- ok, sorry, getting off track here!

I'd also pop plain popcorn for him & send it in a baggie. For treats near holidays I'd send a brownie, choc chip cookie, rice krispie treat, cupcake, whatever.

You could also send hard boiled eggs (still good cold!). Um, ok I think I hit everything that I could think of - my minds a little boggled right now - I'm in the process of packing my camper - camping this weekend! woohoo!!!

Check out family fun magazine (familyfun.com) or parenting, parents, um, any mom sources really & they've got lots of great ideas - my fav. is family fun.

But I hope I was able to help atleast a little bit.
Good luck & let me know how you made out
C. B.

my son's school is completely nut-free so i know how you are feeling. what we use when he needs to go on fields trips etc and cannot buy school lunch which he like to do is we use soy nut butter-made completely from soy beans so it is "legal" peanut butter so to speak. it tastes like natural peanut butter and i would suggest starting your child with it now dont tell them what it is until after they have developed a taste for it. basically substitute it when he/she asks for a pbj or fluffernutter, then by the time school starts they wont know the difference. my son now knows which is which. he knows which is school pnut butter and home pnut butter and he has been eating the soynut butter for 4 years now.
i hope this helps.
p.s. if the school is nut free you might want to send a note to the teacher explaining that your child has a sandwich that looks like a pbj but is in fact a sbj.

Hi, I'm interested in seeing what others post as I'm also always on the lookout for new ideas for lunches. In particular I have one child who doesn't like dairy which eliminates yogurt, cheese, all those easy things. But I send a little container with ham/turkey and then a baggie of crackers so they can make their own little sandwiches. Or a ham/turkey sandwich on bread, sometimes I'll put it on a hot dog roll to be different. Or a bagel. And I send mini bagels with jelly along with soup in a thermos. Fruit, applesauce. Hope this helps. I'll be looking at your other responses, too... thanks!

Just make sure your school allows snacks if it is a half day program your child will be attending. My town got rid of snack time and the kids do not need a snack. This started the year my son ,who is a huge eater, was in kindergarten. Many were not thrilled about this including myself.
Hopefully that will help you out.
L.

I just posted this to another group..just some ideas
(Oh instead of PB&J you can use almond butter, soy butter, all kinds..if nuts are allowed at all) PS My son is allergic to peanuts..it is really out there and ocme kids can die form being aorund them ..he is not like that tho)

Try fresh cut turkey or shredded turkey or chicken (not Bologna or the old style of lunch meat) cheese sandwiches cut into cute shapes (any sandwiches can be cut up with cookie cutters) tuna, fish sticks, ham & cheese. Cut any kind of meat into cubes for easy pickup and give them the cheese cubes too.

Cheese pieces, squares or cheese sticks (to go with the turkey/chicken)

Carrot sticks or bunny luvs, peas, celery (if they like it) cukes, tomatoes (cherry) mini baby corm is cool, green beans, Edamame aka soy beans..hey, who are they to know!

Yogurt in all forms (drinks, cups, squeeze)

Fruit:All forms cut up watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, apples, peaches, nectarines, grapes, bananas, apple sauce, raisins, blueberries, strawberries

If they like salad dressing give them that to dip their veggies in

Mac n cheese,Pasta salad-cold

Juice boxes come in so many flavors not just Apple (mango, peach..white grape) water too!

Muffins : blueberry, banana, brand..any kind

Mini Bagels as well as big ones cut up (blueberry) cream cheese

No spaghetti, messier then you know what!

Mini burgers, turkey hot dogs, those mini baby food dogs in a jar..my son still loves the turkey ones! lol

Also look into Rachel Ray and the like for suggestions

There is a soy nut butter that looks/feels/tastes like peanut butter. It is called "I.M.Healthy". I got it at a health food store, but someone told me that Stop&Shop also carries it. It looks and smells so much like peanut butter that you need to label it so the school doesn't think it is peanut butter. It's more like a natural peanut butter where the oils separate, so if that is going to offend your child, make sure you stir up the jar good before they see it. Only difference I would say is that - although it is not at all bad - there is an aftertaste with soy nut butter that you just don't have with peanut butter - but it is not a bad aftertaste, just unexpected.

My daughter started K last year, and I made her lunches 3x/week. She isn't crazy about sandwiches, and no longer likes PB&J! I would make my own version of Lunchables, send her a couple of pieces of rolled up lunch meat and cheese, and some whole grain crackers to put them on. Bagels and cream cheese were always a hit, as were leftover quesadillas. she likes me to send cut up fruit w/ a toothpick and yogurt to dip it in.
also, would your child eat soy nut butter? I used to send that to my daughter's preschool (w/ jelly, sandwich)when we couldn't send pnut butter.
Good luck,
L.

S.,

In the camping section at target is a great little thermos. It can be used for either hot of cold food. I put yogurt, fruit in cold. Guacamole with the pit works well too. In a zip lock snack bag I send along granola with dried fruit to sprinkle on top or walnuts. I make a steamy pot of soup and send it with my guys. It does not stay scalding hot but it is warmer enough for those cold winter days.

You've gotten lots of great ideas!

I try my best to use our own containers so our son isn't throwing out a ton of trash each day. In the beginning, he was usually pretty good about bringing them all back. If not the first day, then by the second day. Now, it's a habit and he's great about bringing back the containers consistently. Plus, then you have a better idea of what your child is consuming...or NOT consuming each day.

We don't have the option of heating up meals for lunches at school any more, so I stick to the cold lunch options. After reading everyone else's ideas, I should branch out with the use of a thermos!

Alternatives to sandwiches in our house...
1) Hummus and pita bread (our son LOVES hummus!). You can either cut up a large pita into wedges or provide mini pitas. There's a great multi-grain pita out these days that seems to stay fresh much longer than the whole wheat or white versions.
2) Turkey ham (much cheaper) or any lunch meat--roll individual slices so it's easier to handle. Add cheese rolls or mozzarella cheese sticks.
3) Hard-boiled eggs (our son just likes the whites) with camping salt container.
4) Roll-up sandwiches--cut in half, break toothpick in half as well, to make it easier to handle each half without huge toothpicks hanging out. Our son loved a dill pickle slice in the center of his roll-up.
5) Crackers and cheese sandwiches (packed separately and put together at school so crackers don't get soggy)

Veggies
1) Carrots and celery are our biggest hits...with Ken's Buttermilk Ranch
2) Cukes or a small salad with Ranch dressing in a separate container also works well

Fruits (ANY your kid likes)
1) Granny Smith apples last well through bangs of the day
--To prevent any apples from turning brown--splash a bit of lemon juice in container, close, shake to cover the fruit, then pour out excess. It makes the apples a little tangy, but they don't turn brown.
--The tangier the better in some of our son's classes...the boys would race to get the apples I sent for parties. Go figure!
2) Skip bananas, unless your child doesn't mind eating them with bruises
3) Grapes, grapes, grapes
4) Any canned fruits during winter months (pineapple in pineapple juice, mandarin oranges in pear juice, etc)

Snacks
1) Pretzels (sourdough nuggets or skinny ones)
2) Goldfish/raisins/River Queen Cajun Peanuts (oops, scratch the peanuts)
3) Graham crackers or Teddy Grahams

Desserts
I don't usually pack this...every once in a while I'll throw in a chocolate kiss, cookie, or mini-muffin if we have them around.

Have fun! I loved all the cookie cutter ideas. I'm not that creative, plus I want my child to learn to like crusts. But there were a lot of fun ideas people sent to you!

My son is starting kindergarten in a couple weeks. I at this time have no idea if the school allows peanut butter or not. Of course the only sandwich he will eat is PB&J and he does not like deli meats. I found a speed racer hot/cold food thermos at Target and plan to use that to send things like fruit/yogurt, pasta (he doesn't like sauce so no worry about a mess there), cut up chicken, hot dogs and anything else we may have left over from dinner. I also found another thermos that has a slide out built into the top which when slid can be used as a handle to make it easier to open and the slide out has a hide-a-spoon so I am hoping that will be good for either soup or maybe even oatmeal in the winter. Also don't be afraid to serve breakfast for lunch - if your child likes eggs, pancakes with fruit, french toast etc. Be creative.

I sometimes give my son (now in second grade) the cheese sticks that are individually wrapped. 2 of these with the small containers of fruit are a good lunch for him.
sometimes I give a baggy of baby carrots and salad dressing in a small tupperware containor, ( one that you don't mind if they forget it.)
My son has a great appetite for fruits and vegatables, so he eats well, so if your child does this may be something to substitute some days.