Hello! :) I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! :) I wrote THIS article last year and WOW has our thinking of packing healthy school lunches really changed and improved! :) I wrote about how we bought our lap top lunch boxes this summer HERE. And so far we have not missed one day of packing lunches! Last year I was so inconsistent about it. I made excuses, it was too much work to pack them every day, maybe cost too much to buy all that food, I felt I had to buy "special" pre-packaged foods, etc. WOW! My thought process has really changed! :) I am ALWAYS looking for ways to mix up the kids lunches, make it fun, fresh, healthy and get them to try and experience new foods. I hope you can get some ideas from my post! :) I usually just dig through my pantry and fridge and try to make it fun and fresh!
On this day the boys had: turkey sticks from Aldi's, a cheese stick, a cliff fruit stick (tucked in the spoon area), fresh grape tomatoes from a farmer stand, a peach from the same farm stand, and fresh zucchini bread.
Like I said, sorry about the quality of the pictures! :( Some days this Momma was just in a hurry, but I love to document these! :)
I took whole wheat wraps and wrapped turkey, spinach leaves, and cheese up and put a toothpick in it to hold it all together, fresh watermelon, carrot sticks, Chobani vanilla greek yogurt, and blueberry granola to mix in the yogurt. I am SO impressed that my kids love this yogurt! If we hadn't been doing the laptop lunch boxes, they might not be trying new things and eating as fresh! :)
This was kind of a hurried day and some days are always super healthy but I try my best! :) I had some pretzel bread that our local grocery store makes that is super yummy, nacho cheese to dip it in, cucumbers, carrots, applesauce, and a cliff fruit strip. (I buy cliff bars and fruit strips from sam's in bulk and its a pretty good deal)
This day the boys thought it was super fun! I made organic blueberry mini waffles, sugar free syrup, fresh grapes, dried bananas, apricots, and prunes, chobani vanilla yogurt (I buy the big tubs), and blueberry granola.
I love to put new things in there and I may "know" in the back of my head that it may not be their favorite or they "may" not like it, but you never know until you try it and if they are hungry enough at lunch, they will eat it! ha! And I think statistics say that you have to introduce a food to a child 20 times before they like it. :) I made some tuna salad, put in some ritz crackers, a cheese stick, cottage cheese, grapes, and a cliff fruit strip. Sometimes they come home and declare that they LOVED their lunch and sometimes they say they didn't like something. And that is okay! :) It is fun to try new things!
Did you know that we added up the costs and for us it is about $1000 a year for school lunches? I KNOW we are not spending NEAR that amount by packing them ourselves. Half the time we are using leftovers or fresh fruit, or baked goods that I made for pennies on the dollar. SO cheap and so much healthier! I KNOW what is going in my baby's bellies! :)
If you are looking for lunch ideas, I really like this flicker group pool HERE. There are over 9,000 ideas for laptop lunches! :) Even if you don't have a laptop lunch box, you can get ideas for your style of lunch box!
What do you think of school lunches vs. packing lunches from home? Do you pack lunches or buy hot lunches? Do you have any great ideas?
Great ideas for lunches! A couple questions - does your school have refrigerators for lunches, or how do you keep them cold? I know there has been a lot in the news lately about ice packs not keeping food cold enough by lunch time. Also, what's your recipe for the blueberry waffles? Are they good not heated up?
ReplyDeleteWe only have a hot lunch option once a week & sometimes they get it, otherwise it is packed all the way. I must give kudos to my hubby though, he does all the kids school lunch packing himself. I fill in on days he can't get it done though, but that is rare. We aim for a fruit and veggie in every lunch at least. He often does up soup as well for them to take in their thermos.
ReplyDeleteOur school does not have refrigerators for the kids. My kids use a pretty large cold pack that they stick in their bags and we haven't had any problems so far. I also just toasted the waffles first so they didn't get soggy. I hope that helps! :) My kids love them! :)
ReplyDeleteThese are some great ideas! I don't have any kids to pack lunches for, but I I think I'd love these for myself. :)
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