So this year, I have decided to make lunches for the kids. We have always qualified for reduced lunch before, which is wonderful because it was only 40 cents a lunch. But now that I have to, sorry, get to pay full price, it would cost me over $20 a week! Ouch!
I hate making lunches. I don't make them with love, I grumble the whole time! I don't know why. I hate making them when the kids are home, too. I just don't like doing lunch. Well, I like "doing" lunch when it means going to out eat with my sisters! LOL
Anyway, enough rambling. I am in need of help. I can do all the sides fine...fruit, veges, cheese crackers, granola bars, frozen pudding, etc. I need help with the main course.
I can't do PBJ every day. I would have a mutiny on my hands. This is what I have come up with:
- PBJ
- Tuna fish
- Grilled chicken
- Sliced ham/turkey
- Egg salad
- Bologna (yuck!)
- ...
11 comments :
cold pasta salad, chicken salad sandwich, we like cold pizza, thats all i can think of
I always had a cold lunch growing up. My mom made them to a certain point, but we were required to help. We always had to sack the chips, put the jello/pudding and spoons in the brown bags. We even had to make sandwiches sometimes. My tip would be have your boys help. They are old enough to put a few things in the bags while you make the sandwiches, or even have one of them on sandwich duty. We had a lot of deli meat sandwiches, but we also had left over roast beef sandwiches on Mondays when we'd had a roast the previous day.
Also we would sometimes have a chef salad with nuts, raisins, cheese, croutons even egg or deli meat. The salad dressing was on the side.
A thermos of soup maybe or like a chicken wrap kind of thing with tortillas? ...my boys don't do soup they are the type that is perfectly happy to have pbj everyday.
I had peanut butter and honey almost every time. Still do! Now that's what Trin wants every day at home. I don't have many other ideas. But I like to buy the gogurts and freeze them, then by the time lunch hits, they're thawed out enough, and they keep the other food cold in the sack. Bailee even likes dry cereal in a baggie. And strawberries are always a hit, but you have to re-stock those like every week!
My friend makes rolled up quesedillas for her kids and puts them in tin foil to keep them warm. I always had sandwiches every day so that's all I have as far as suggestions.
Jackson usually has PB&J because he doesn't like to take meat on bread at school, but he will eat meat on other things so we make wraps -ham and cream cheese (like pinwheels); pbj; turkey, provolone; cream cheese and jam (I know sounds weird but that's what my MIL used to eat and taught us)- anything we could put on bread we put on a tortilla or on crackers. I figure even if I put in the sides and crackers, meat, and cheese like a lunchable he's getting all the nourishment that would come from a sandwich. Oh yeah, cold pizza, stuffed breadsticks, ham and cheese rolls, or finger food leftovers totally make his day.
The problem is that lunches mostly consist of sandwiches, chips, drink things like that. The key I've found is not in reinventing the wheel, but changing the shape of it. Mix up the breads - pita pockets, wheat and white on the same sandwich, croissants, even a plain pb&j is more fun rolled into a soft tortilla shell. Make your own "lunchables" with cheeses and meats. Anything eaten with a toothpick is a hit. Chunks of cheese, fruit, veggies. Shish-ka-bobs with toothpicks are fun in lunches. A thermos is great in the winter for soups, hot dogs, mac and cheese, even ramen noodles. Salads are fun as well. Taco Salad with the doritos chips and 1000 Island Dressing is yummy cold. The best advice I have is to involve the kids that are eating the lunches. Let them help, let them choose, ownership is huge in getting them to eat. P.S. Friend request sent.
One more thing - don't show your hand all at once. Introduce one new thing each week as a surprise. One week do chips, another week a special dessert, do broccoli and cucumbers one week, carrots and tomatoes another. Same thing with fruits, mix it up. I know your kids are older but cookie cutters are my best friend. Shaped food tastes so much better! :)
We always made our own lunches growing up. After dinner and before the dishes were done, we would all make our own lunches for the next day and stick them in the fridge overnight. I don't remember what we put in them exactly, but I remember it being our own responsibility...
OK - so I keep thinking of things so I'll keep commenting. Try wrapping things in lettuce and creating lettuce wraps in place of sandwiches. Tuna fish, chicken salad and egg salad are yummy this way. Tuna fish on crackers is a good thing as well. OK, I'm done now. Hope you have some good ideas.
I was a PB&J everyday kind of girl during my school days, but the best memory I have of my school lunches (which my dad fixed for us each morning) was the meaninful hand-written notes my dad would write on our napkins on "big" days - test days, big game, need a hug kind of days!
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