New healthy ideas for school lunches

[Deleted]

Daycare got a new menu and I'm really disappointed in how crappy it is. I am canceling the service (its optional and $70 a month) and now I need ideas for healthy lunches. DD will be 3 in November.

If I give grapes, they will be cut up. lol.

(school is peanut free. Is almond butter a tasty sub?)

[Brie]

Almond butter is delicious.

[lauralala]

Aug 28, 2012 9:50:46 GMT -5 @iheartcosmos said:

(school is peanut free. Is almond butter a tasty sub?)

I also like Sunbutter.

What does she normally eat for lunch at home? A normal Saturday lunch at my house (DS will be 3 in December) is turkey and cheese roll ups with some sort of fruit. I sometimes make sandwiches, but he takes them apart and rarely eats the bread.

A few more of our favorites:
Bagel thins with cream cheese (and sometimes a little jelly)
Yogurt, fruit, and granola
Hummus on a pita
Cheese quesadillas (he will eat them cold as well as hot)
And there are always pretzels, cheese sticks, bananas, and pouches (fruit/veggie) around to round out a meal so that there is enough food.

[ssmjlm]

Have you checked weelicious? She's a bit over the top mommy blogger wise, but I think her recipes are pretty good.

I also pinned this veggie pizza recipe that the blogger makes for her child: www.allthingsgd.com/2011/04/veggie-pizza.html

[SusanBAnthony]

We are vegetarian, so take the into consideration.

Tortilla Roll ups, cut into pinwheels, with hummus or nut butter&jam.
Leftover pasta, or really leftover anything. My kids will eat room temp food fine.
A big tray of various stuff cut up (cheese, rice cakes, fresh veggies, etc) with hummus or some dip that I make to dip
Yogurt and granola
Cold quesadilla, or nut butter instead of cheese, cut into wedges
A dish of rice or quinoa or barley, with beans and salsa (again they will eat this cold no problem)
Veggie burgers cut into chunks, with ketchup to dip

Usually all with either carrot sticks, sliced cucumbers, or microwaved frozen peas (I microwave the nit before, they eat them cold). D also loves sautéed okra, of all the random things, so we will be doing more of that as well.

[dragonfly08]

Almond butter is tasty, if that is allowed. DDs school was totally nut free, not just peanuts (which aren't nuts anyway, technically), so we couldn't even send that. Sunflower seed butter was an alternative that she really liked.

Other lunches my kids enjoy include some combo of the following (there's a carb, protein, and fruit in every lunch) -
* bagels with cream cheese
* apple slices with some sort of dip
* yogurt
* fruit skewers (I cut the pointy tip off but they love eating stuff off sticks)
* homemade muffins
* homemade granola bars
* quesadillas
* chicken nuggets (my kids will eat them lukewarm, so if they go into the thermos hot in the AM they're good by lunchtime)
* pretzels
* cheese sticks
* hand pies, whatever fillings your kids like (mine like ham and cheese, or pizza fillings)
* homemade waffles, especially savory ones
* pinwheels (wrap whatever you like in a tortilla, roll, cut into bite size pieces...we do ham and cheese, PB&J so you could sub sunflower seed butter, flavored cream cheese)
* homemade lunchables (I got a few Glad containers with multiple compartments and put the various pieces in them...crackers, sauce, cheese for pizza as an example)
* tuna salad and crackers or bread slices

[CloudBee]

Can you do a bento box and give her a bunch of small portions to choose from?

-quarter of a granola bar
-raw veggies (carrots, snap peas, etc.)
-a couple pretzels
-hummus
-sun butter or almond butter to dip the pretzels and/or veggies in
-cubes of leftover meat from the night before
-any type of leftover from dinner that is good when eaten cold
-black beans
-berries
-grapes
-cubes of cheese
-small portion of cold pasta that can be served cold like pesto
-dried fruits like raisins, cranberries, cherries, dates (yum!), etc.
-yogurt
-guacamole (again for dipping)
-lightly salted edamame is great cold and has protein
-some kids like cold corn
-small portion of cubed ham
-eggs (hard boiled, or even scrambled)

I love this picture and have it pinned on Pinterest:

[CloudBee]

Here are some toddler bento boxes!

Shaped line a pineapple with slots for dip:
www.amazon.com/Dr-Sears-Nibble-Yellow-Months/dp/B002V92XRQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346168426&sr=8-1&keywords=toddler+bento+box

Fewer slots:
www.amazon.com/Gerber-Graduates-Mealtime-Organizer-Colors/dp/B006U480FM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1346168426&sr=8-3&keywords=toddler+bento+box

Two sections, but you could also use silicone muffin liners to create additional sections: www.amazon.com/LunchBots-Duo-Stainless-Container-Orange/dp/B001OIX5H2/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1346168426&sr=8-13&keywords=toddler+bento+box

I really like this one, too: www.amazon.com/Skip-Hop-Bento-Mealtime-Black/dp/B0047EBM9I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346168683&sr=8-1&keywords=skip+bento

[mmmomof2]

I would think almond butter would not be allowed. Supposedly Sun Butter is OK, but I didn't like the nutrition content vs the actual nut butters.

We do a lot of home made "lunchables". Cut up meat, cheese, fruit, and some sort of crackers or bread. Easy peasy. Also DD really likes to dip stuff. So I've been serving celery, carrots, and cucumbers and almond butter. If almond butter is a no go I would try chicken/tuna salad or egg salad. Although our school banned eggs also. Boo!

[Deleted]

Thanks everyone.

[Deleted]

Aug 28, 2012 10:39:15 GMT -5 CloudBee said:

Can you do a bento box and give her a bunch of small portions to choose from?

-quarter of a granola bar
-raw veggies (carrots, snap peas, etc.)
-a couple pretzels
-hummus
-sun butter or almond butter to dip the pretzels and/or veggies in
-cubes of leftover meat from the night before
-any type of leftover from dinner that is good when eaten cold
-black beans
-berries
-grapes
-cubes of cheese
-small portion of cold pasta that can be served cold like pesto
-dried fruits like raisins, cranberries, cherries, dates (yum!), etc.
-yogurt
-guacamole (again for dipping)
-lightly salted edamame is great cold and has protein
-some kids like cold corn
-small portion of cubed ham
-eggs (hard boiled, or even scrambled)

I love this picture and have it pinned on Pinterest:

that is so adorable.

[Deleted]

Aug 28, 2012 10:48:09 GMT -5 mmmomof2 said:

I would think almond butter would not be allowed. Supposedly Sun Butter is OK, but I didn't like the nutrition content vs the actual nut butters.

We do a lot of home made "lunchables". Cut up meat, cheese, fruit, and some sort of crackers or bread. Easy peasy. Also DD really likes to dip stuff. So I've been serving celery, carrots, and cucumbers and almond butter. If almond butter is a no go I would try chicken/tuna salad or egg salad. Although our school banned eggs also. Boo!

almonds are allowed, DD eats almonds in her cereal all the time.

They banned eggs! OMG DD would die. She eats eggs all the time.

[csquared]

Almond butter is also not allowed at our school, but we can send sun butter or soy butter. We use a metal planetbox lunchbox and keep it in the fridge the night before. That plus an ice pack keeps it cold till lunch time and it keeps all the food separated. We do sandwiches on a wheat sandwich thin - sometimes just cheese, sometimes ham and cheese - sometimes with hummus, sometimes without. She loves cucumbers or carrot sticks, so gets those regularly (with hummus to dip into), cheese and crackers, always some kind of fruit of her choosing (berries, cut up apple, pear, plum, peach). Sometimes she likes plain greek yogurt with berries. Applesauce pouches. Leftovers heated up in a thermos always works too - her school won't heat up food, but they do provide plates and utensils.

[Deleted]

luckily they will heat up food and they have a fridge. So I am not really limited by the types of food.

[dragonfly08]

I just gave my kids something "new" for lunch...it was all about dipping. I served three kinds of dips (yogurt, cookie dough, pesto) and a plate full of things including cut up muffins, bread, fruit salad, pita chips, peanut butter oatmeal bars (basically a hodge podge of stuff I had in the kitchen! Come to think of it, I should have thrown some baby carrots on the plate and will next time.). They loved it. You could do something like that on a smaller scale in a school lunch, especially if you had a divided container/bento box for the various pieces.

[ijack]

we do a lot of tortilla roll-ups (ham&cheese, pb, etc) because for some reason my girls eat those so much better than normal sandwiches. E loves chicken and rice with any sauce on it. Yogurt and granola is another of her favorites.

[darnkatz]

This is what I had on rotation for my DD last year at school.

- Sunbutter (or sometimes cream cheese) and jam sandwich, cubed cheese, cut up fruit, carrots or cucumber with hummus/ranch/or tzatziki, Kashi or bunny crackers or a mini squash muffin, water.

- Quinoa pasta with black olives/bell pepper/mozzarella/Italian or Greek dressing/red onion/salami, cut up fruit, Kashi or bunny crackers or a mini squash muffin, water.

- Black beans and cilantro lime brown rice, cubed cheese, cut up fruit, carrot or cucumber with hummus/ranch/or tzatziki, Kashi or bunny crackers or a mini squash muffin, water.


If we happened to be out of fruit, I sent dried fruit (usually cranberries, raisins, banana chips or mango) with pumpkin or sunflower seeds.

[af1212]

Here is a link to bento box lunches organized by season: www.laptoplunches.com/bento-menus-season/Allseasons/

[thoseareradishes]

I like to mix plain yogurt (I use full fat greek) with seasonings to use as a dip. I use a seasoning blend from Penzey's Spices, so it is more savory, but something like pumpkin pie spice might be good for a little kid.

[karinothing]

Pottery barn has some cute bento boxes

www.potterybarnkids.com/products/spencer-bento-box-containers/ - MM version

www.potterybarnkids.com/products/planet-lunch-box-pink-dot-chocolate-owl/?pkey=cshop-all-lunch-bags - non MM version

[IIOY]

Ditto sun nut butter, which is delicious.

Also, ditto weelicious. Some of the recipes are ridiculous and my kids wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole, but many are great and - best of all - simple. Several of the snacks have worked well for us, which is saying something since my son is the world's pickiest eater.

[Deleted]

Aug 28, 2012 19:06:31 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Pottery barn has some cute bento boxes

www.potterybarnkids.com/products/spencer-bento-box-containers/ - MM version

www.potterybarnkids.com/products/planet-lunch-box-pink-dot-chocolate-owl/?pkey=cshop-all-lunch-bags - non MM version

Thanks! I just ordered the MM bento box with this lunch bag (they are meant to go together)

(stock photo)

Personalized, of course

[Deleted]

PS-- 15% off PBK code- TDD9-9KCT-7SRS

Ends today (Aug 29)

[karinothing]

I sort of what to buy the robot bag, even though DS is no where close to needing to bring his lunch to school ha ha