s/o suggestions for packed lunches

[h]

I have to send a lunch and two snacks to school with each of my two kids five days a week. Packing two lunches and four snacks every morning before work is a lot of work, so it needs to be easy stuff. After the discussions in other threads about too many carbs, the evils of pizza and deli meat, etc., I am feeling like I should be doing a better job with their lunches. Any main course suggestions? They are 5 and 2.5, reasonably decent eaters but beyond the age where they will literally eat anything I put in front of them, and can't take anything with nuts or peanuts.

Right now they generally take frozen turkey meatballs one day a week (they love these), turkey and cheese on WW one day, pasta with marinara one day, roast chicken drumsticks one day (we buy a rotisserie chicken once a week and use the breast meat for dinners and send the drumsticks to school with the kids), and whatever we can come up with the last day (sometimes dinner leftovers or quesadillas, sometimes something like frozen chicken nuggets or fish sticks if we're desperate). We used to have good, healthy leftovers for them to take more often, but pregnancy food aversions have resulted in me cooking a lot less and relying on convenience foods more.

What over easy main course like things do you guys send in packed lunches?

[atouchofklasse]

Just chiming in to say I think what you're doing right now is fine!

[CloudBee]

Do they like hummus or avocado? You can even make "black bean hummus". The avocado could be turned into a simple and healthy guac.

If they would eat any of the above, you could either send a small sectioned off tupperware container or get them each a child sized bento box.

Put the hummus or guac in one compartment, then fill the others with items to dip. Veggie sticks in a few compartments, and maybe a whole grain cracker or sliced whole wheat bread in another.

Some other compartments could be filled with clementine slices, halved grapes, raisins, sunbutter, dried cranberries or other dried fruit, freeze dried peas or corn (Whole Foods has this, as does Amazon, so good), dates, sesame sticks, etc.

You can also cut up string cheese sticks, or send cubed cheese. Black or kidney beans in one compartment might be a hit. Especially if you lightly season them with a smidge of salt or multi-purpose spice, toss, and leave in the fridge for the week in a small container.

So much of what can go into a bento box can be prepped on Sunday night and tossed into the fridge for the week. Most of those whole foods won't go bad in 5 days.

I pinned this picture on Pinterest for inspiration.

i-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/ohdeedoh/2011-toddlerbuffet.jpg

This pineapple shaped bento box sells on Amazon for $7.99. The reviews are great. I actually bought it already... though I'm only 20 weeks pregnant. It was one of those random items I fell in love with when I saw it, and didn't want to forget about it when the time came to feed the kiddo finger foods. The lid snaps on really securely. The stem snaps off separately, and one of the people commenting says they freeze yogurt in it overnight so it's defrosted yet chilled by lunch.

www.amazon.com/Dr-Sears-Nibble-Yellow-Months/dp/B002V92XRQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351980762&sr=8-1&keywords=pineapple+bento

[DarcyLongfellow]

I think what you're doing sounds awesome.

If you're finding your current routine overwhelming, are your kids opposed to repetition? I think most kids that age are okay with eating the same thing all week, or at least the same couple of things rotated.

Or just different sandwiches -- I see nothing wrong with sending a sandwich every day. I use whole wheat bread and I send either turkey and cheese or PB&J (you could substitute sunbutter) for my DD. If I'm out of lunch meat and DD doesn't want peanut butter, I'll also use cut up chicken breast. You could also do hummus and veggies (either plain to dip or on a sandwich).

Roll ups can mix things up a bit too -- the same stuff as a sandwich, only put it on a (whole wheat) tortilla and roll it up.

[Deleted]

Ditto that what you're doing now sounds great! Good variety, good protein sources. If your kids are eating their lunches, I don't that you need to change anything.

[h]

Thanks so much for the suggestions and reassurance! I bought whole grain English muffins for "pizzas" and hummus and pitas at the store yesterday to try out this week. They will definitely eat anything that resembles pizza. Hummus has been hit or miss with them in the past, but DS1 agreed to give it a try. I also got black beans to send with quesadillas for DS2 (DS1 won't eat them). I will try a turkey and cheese roll-up on tortilla to mix things up, too.

They have never tried sunbutter, but I may give it a shot at some point. I think DS2 would like it--he likes PB and most spreads. I am kind of worried that it would freak day care out though since it is hard to tell whether something it sunbutter or a nut butter.

I do feel like they eat a fairly reasonable diet--they eat a ton of lean protein, yogurt, milk, and cheese and a pretty good amount of fruits and veggies. But they also eat their fair share of carby, snacky stuff (not Cheetos or anything, but stuff like cereal bars, Wheat Thins and Laughing Cow cheese, Goldfish, WW minibagels and cream cheese, veggie straws, Pirate's Booty, etc.), sweet treats (I bake a fair amount), and the occassional processed frozen chicken nugget kind of meal. I have always thought we had a pretty healthy approach to food, with mostly healthy stuff and nothing off limits. Then I saw people on here concerned about deli meat, sodium levels, carbs, banana bread, etc., and I started to wonder if I was the modern day equivalent of the moms who fed their kids Happy Meals for lunch every day when I was a kid. I think the fact that pregnancy has made me slack off on cooking and lunch prep a little plays into it as well.

In any event, I think I just need to remind myself that a lot of the food posts on here are focused on kids much younger than mine, so it stands to reason that my kids are going to eat differently. My 5 year old is basically like feeding a teenager--for breakfast today he had a scrambled egg, a WW frozen waffle, a giant dish of strawberries, and an Applegate Farms sausage, then said he was still hungry and had another egg and a slice of watermelon. (And the kid is tall and skinny--you would think he barely ate.)

I miss the days of feeding a young toddler, when they ate basically anything I offered and a few bites of avocado and some shredded chicken constituted a meal...

[Deleted]

Nov 5, 2012 11:17:18 GMT -5 h said:

I miss the days of feeding a young toddler, when they ate basically anything I offered and a few bites of avocado and some shredded chicken constituted a meal...

LOL, I can't wait until DS is a little bit older and my food preparation efforts don't feel like an exercise in futility. Right now I feel like I do SO MUCH food-wise for such little reward.

-Go to farmer's market to buy local, organic food
-Cut it up and cook it, without salt
-Feed to DS, where 3/4 ends up on the floor for the dog and the 1/4 that he does eat comes right out the other end in pretty much the exact same shape it went in. So I'm not sure how much his body is actually digesting the food.

I can't wait to make him the same things I make me. Like for lunch today, I could make us both a roast beef sandwich with veggie chips and a piece of fruit. Instead, I have to make sure I made extra squash and shredded chicken from last night. And I know my precious organic squash and free-range chicken will end up on the floor :-(

[barefootcontessa]

I think you are doing fine. Give your pregnant, working mother self a break! Those bento boxes are cute and all, but seem like too much work for every day. But then I let my son buy school lunch when he wants, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

[h]

Nov 5, 2012 18:24:18 GMT -5 barefootcontessa said:

I think you are doing fine. Give your pregnant, working mother self a break! Those bento boxes are cute and all, but seem like too much work for every day. But then I let my son buy school lunch when he wants, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

Thanks! I am actually feeling fine about things now. Frankly last week's food freak out was largely a symptom of a larger freak out stemming primarily from a totally crappy week at work and a severe lack of sleep.

I would be happy to let me kids buy lunch if the school offered it, so no judgment from me there. It's a small Montessori school with no lunch plan, and it tends to be pretty crunchy (when I asked my son what the other kids were eating for lunch he claimed most of it was stuff he had never seen before and couldn't identify). I think all the other moms are sending bulgar and kefir, while my kid is showing up with a turkey sandwich, a clementine, and a Yo-Kids Squeezer. Oh well. Such is life.