HELP for School Lunches

[Beignet]

Okay, I'll drop with the bomb first:

I spent $700 last year on school catered lunch.



This is where I need your help!

With all of you frugal moms and dads out there please give me some lunch box ideas.

This is what I've started with:

- Stove top popped pop corn in a baggie
- buying blocks of cheddar cheese and cutting them into cubes myself
-a thermos with a hearty canned soup
-Sunday nights I will make a can of tuna and a small bowl of egg salad and then on the times out we're running late - perfect lunch box sammy of all PG&J.

If you have any ideas to add to my very limited menu I would appreciate you suggestions!

Gearing up for another school year!

Beignet

[lucille]

Our kids take their lunch to school just about every day. It initially was less about money and more about the abysmal quality of the food at our school district.

A great place to start for lunch box ideas is to google bento. There are a couple of websites and blogs that show ideas for lunch ingredients and how to package them.

We put non raw seafood type sushi in lunches sometimes. We get the crab ones from the grocery store. I get things like ham or precooked turkey and cut it into cubes or slices and do the same with cheese. Then make a lunch with meat, cheese, crackers, some raw veggies and pickles all in one plastic container. I buy big packs of deli meat at Sam's Club and make sandwiches out of it or roll it up to put in bento type lunches.

If I do make sandwiches I try to go all out and make subs with all the stuff on them or use different breads and make sure to put all the things on them, lettuce, sauces etc.
I either buy yougurt in packs or use small plastic containers and put yogurt with fresh fruit in them. Sometimes I add granola in a container to lunches or we make a big batch of brownies then individually wrap them to go in lunches. You can make brownies and things like that and freeze them individually wrapped to save time.

[Beignet]

thank you Lucille,

Any more suggetions?

Beignet

[hermione]

Our mom packed our lunches from grade school through my sophomore year in high school (until she got sick) and they were the envy of all our classmates.

Most of the time, our lunches would be leftovers from dinner the night before. My mom was Taiwanese/Chinese so we had a lot of stir fry, chow mein, friend rice, pot stickers, etc., but most of the time it was rice with stir fried vegetables. But we also had spaghetti, lasagne, sandwiches (my favorite was ham with sweet egg and cucumber), etc.

Do your children have access to a fridge at school (and even better, a microwave as well)? If so, you could pack them pretty much anything. If not, things that don't go bad to easily. If there's no fridge at school, I'd avoid meats, but anything that'll fit in a tupperware or rubbermaid container.

[DistilledRose]

I would highly recommend hard boiled eggs. Kids seem to really enjoy peeling them and you can make a bunch in advance. Making your own veggie sticks are good too, especially things like carrots.
Dried fruits store well, you can make dried apple rings really easily.... just core the apples and then slice them, then hang them from a string somewhere warm or sunny to dry.

[Beignet]

No, he doesn't have access to a microwave.

The school issues it own lunch box that is color coded for his grade.

I'll have to freeze bottled water or a juice pack to keep everything else cold.

Leftovers are a great idea.

I decided today to let him get catered for Fridays at it is Dominoes pizza day and I am thinking about do the Chic-filet ; Chick fil-a (sp?) day as well. $6.00 a day!!!!!!!!

so I'm only down to 3 days. PB&J, Tuna and turkey if it's in house or another retread of the others.

He does LOVE the pioneer woman's Ranch Dressing and I can always include this with carrot sticks other veggies.


More ideas if you have them . . . . .



Beignet

[purplefdu]

We do alot of crackers/cheese, trail mix/chex mix, and leftovers for my husband's lunch. even when he didn't have access to a fridge and microwave (he used to drive parts for a Ford dealer) we made sure to try and find something that wasn't horrid for lunch. We made alot of rice crispies treats ahead of time as well.

I really think he bento boxes would be a great idea, especially for kids and they have thousands of ideas.

[jdp]

I'll be watching this thread intently. I have the pickiest eater ever starting kindergarten. I'm sure he wouldn't touch a school lunch with a 12' pole. I'm actually hoping seeing peanut butter sandwiches, Annie's and chicken nuggets in his lunch every day might make him broaden his food horizons lol.

He used to be such a good eater

[blueberry]

Try packing salads with all of your kids' favorite veggies, and pack dressing and cheese on the side. Or, graham crackers with peanut butter and dried fruit like raisins is great as well. Fresh fruit not in a sauce or with sugar stays well w/o being refrigerated or heated, and packing canned chicken or if you have a cold lunchbox then crabsticks are good (especially with the salads). If your kids don't like salad, then pack them the salad and meat and cheese along with a tortilla that they can put it in with a sauce. It'll be like a subway wrap.

[redsoxmaniac]

I used to go bring my kids lunch occassionally at the cafeteria when they were small and we'd eat together (which they liked once in a while...when they were small ...DO NOT do this once they are in 4th grade or they will hate you!) What I found is that there isn't a lot of time for these kids to eat because they want to go out and play. Most of the trays of bought food was half eaten (if that) and the kids that brought lunch mainly picked. So think about this when you make a lunch unless you have an extra hungry kid. If you pack a full sandwich wrap each half so if they want they can eat it later. Pack things that are easy to snack on like grapes. Make peanutbutter crackers or peanut butter and graham crackers. Finger food is great...Don't make they thing too big or overwhelming. Better to have 3 or 4 small choices in there than one big choice. Kids love crunch so things like carrots and cucumbers are good picks. Pack a little ranch dressing in a snack baggie to dip. Kids are nibblers at school they are talking and wanting to play. Forget that they need a nutritious lunch. Just make sure that on a daily basis their food groups balance out. Mine are now off to college and they still love if I pack them a lunch for the plane ride