Okay - I need your help!!! What kind of sack lunches do you provide for your school age kids? Cooking and preparing food is not a strength of mine so please pass along your tips for lunches (including drinks, treats, and snacks) that will appeal to a 6 year old and hold up for a few hours in an insulated lunch bag!
I already have typed up a bunch of little messages for Big D so that he has one each day (I hope to encourage him to read them - he does not think he needs to read at all), but I am seriously lacking for ideas on the food front. All your tips will help! Thanks!
9 comments:
Hhhmmm... good question. I would probably make sure there is either a fruit or vegetable in there: cut up apples, carrots, grapes, or cherry tomatoes. for the drink I would get a capri sun or fill a water bottle with some sort of juice (or water). And for a snack... I fully support fruit snacks or granola bars or fishies. What fun!!
I always do a drink (usually a capri-sun. I try to do %100 juice but sometimes that is a little expensive, I have to make 4 lunches a day)
A sandwich
A fruit or veggie (grapes and carrots are my kids favs)
some kind of cracker or granola bar
something sweet for dessert
Good luck -- I am not sure how much my kids actually eat but I like to think they eat it all :)
We pack a sandwich (but only a half), a drink (juice, water or milk money), a fruit or veggie, crackers or chips, and a small treat for dessert (yogurt is a favoite around here) and I throw in other things once in awhile like string cheese, boiled eggs or applesauce.
Homemade lunchables and kabobs (Ham, Cheese cubes, and grapes)are a fun twist, just remember to cut the pokey end off the stick!
My kids pack their own lunch, the only thing I help Jake with is the sandwich and then I check everyone's lunch to make sure those teenagers grabbed the nutritional stuff. My sister has a check list for her girls and little bins for them to pick things out of that are okay for lunch. I love that my kids feel like they have a choice when it comes to their lunch because they eat it better that way.
Also, as a new first grader mom, be aware that a lot of trading goes on during lunch time and let Dallin know what is okay to trade and what is not.
Sorry to be so long winded!
Janalee
My kids like anything in a tortilla wrap . (Creme cheese and Jam,lunch meats, PBJ, cheese, sometimes even fluff and peanutbutter.
They also like the little cheese that comes in a wheel and has a cow on it. Bonne bel - I think? There are two kinds in the deli section. One you comes wrapped in red wax and the other is a wheel and the little triangles you can take out. They like theses with triscuits, wheatables, and other crackers.
Also - my kids LOVE left over homemade pizza. (I wrap it in saran wrap.) They beg for this.
Fruit roll ups and treats are always a fun sugar boost. I have also been known to put an occasional Kiss or Hug in the bag.
Hope this helps.
For sandwiches that doesn't get soggy or squished, my kids like the "costco" style rolls with ham and cheese, chips, grapes, carrots and ranch, Capri Sun and a little bag of M&Ms or pudding cup.
I keep easy items on hand. My kids make their own lunches even in 1st grade. They do a lot of pb&j sandwiches with different variations. (lots of jellies/jams, honey, honey & banana) Sometimes they bring salame & cheese or turkey & cheese wraps with a pickle (no bread). They have crackers like goldfish. They always have fruit; an apple, grapes, applesauce, or a fruit cup. They can bring pudding too usually. And they bring a fruit snack for a recess snack. I only let them bring candy on their birthdays and the week after Halloween. Oh, and for a drink, it's anything 100% juice or chocolate milk. This is what has worked for us, but every child is different so experiment. I made a rule of no swapping lunch items without it being planned and ok'ed with me first. Good luck!
I always make sure there is fruit and water. Other than that I let the kids pick the other stuff. It is usually a sandwich or left overs. I do make sure that all the stuff they can pack they can open on their own. I see so many kids try to help each other and to me that is just germ fast instead of lunch time. We also use the school lunches. They are cheeper and very healthy her in TX.
I read this great book about helping children be more responsible and it had good ideas for lunches and snacks. After reading it, I customized it when I was a nanny... and it worked like a charm!
On the bottom shelf of their fridge, I had 4 small tupperware containers... each with a number on it (#1-4). Each container had a different thing for their lunch:
One had individual bags of veggies or fruit.
Another had dairy (yogurt, cheese sticks, etc)
One had snacks (granola, pudding, etc)
The last one has juice boxes.
The night before, the kids made their sandwich and made sure their ice pack was in the freezer. Before they left for school in the morning, they grabbed their lunchbox and their icepack. They went to the fridge, grabbed the sandwich they packed, and took one item from each of the 4 containers. This gave them a choice, but still made sure they had healthy choices.
Something else I've used as a nanny is the "snack box". When I went grocery shopping, "my kids" helped me choose snack items (goldfish, granola bars, fruit roll-ups, cookies, etc). I kept a box in the pantry with all the snack items in it. Once they emptied out their backpacks, and their lunchboxes, they were allowed to get 2 items from the snackbox. I kept the box up high to ensure it was only used for "snacks" and not for "treats".
Hope that gives you some suggestions.
Hey M... I found this great website on yahoo today. It describes some pretty common snacks that you should stay away from, and gives better substitutes.
http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22107/41996-top-snacks-avoid
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