What are some good and healthy lunches i can pack my son for school?

Question

Well as we all know school is just around the corner. This will be my sons first year of all day school!!! What are some lunch ideas i can use? snacks, drinks..anything that would be a fun lunch, not the same ol' sandwich everyday. Thanks for all your tips and fun/great advice in advance!!!

Answer 1

I like to pack my soon-to-be third grader some fresh fruit with his lunch instead of chips or cookies.

The night before I will back some chicken nuggets (lightly breaded chicken breast strips) with some dipping sauce. They don't have to be eaten hot.

When I'm really short on time I always have a few low or no-sugar fruit cups on hand to toss into his bag.

I have also packed chicken quesadillas made with low-fat cheese for him.

He really enjoys the variety and it's much better than the over salted snacks and boring sandwiches.

have fun with it!!

Answer 2

Ah this sounds like us a year ago :)

But we ended up doing one sandwich (two pieces of bread) and a healthy fruitbar or cereal bar. We also put in a little pot of cut up fruit or tomatoes etc.

Our best laid plans were scuppered when he started bringing home the majority of his carefully prepared feast - we asked him why he wasn't eating his nice dinner, and it turned out that they are allowed in the playground to play when they have finished their lunch, and he was abandoning his time consuming dinner in favour of having more playtime with his friends.

Stick to something small, easily eaten and good for him. Sandwiches can be varied by contents and cut-up fruit is eaten quicker then whole pieces - and watch the candy, our sons school has a healthy eating policy which forbids them from having sweets and chocolate etc, they send home a polite note  in their lunch box, telling the parents off for sending it!

Answer 3

You can use wraps from tortillas in different colors for any kind of sandwich -- PBJ, tuna or chicken or ham salad, lunchmeat and cheese, etc. You can get some cookie cutters to make sandwich shapes.

You can send a fruit or lettuce-based salad in a little gladware (or the Dollar Tree equivalent) container with a tiny gladware of dressing on the side or send carrot and celery sticks to dip in ranch.

You can put a hot dog (a low-fat, all meat or organic one is pretty healthy actually) or two in a thermos and send buns with fast food packages of ketchup, mustard and relish.

Thermos containers are great because you can send soup or chili in the winter, leftover casserole or roast or whatever you had for dinner that he likes, you can blend him a smoothie in the morning with ice (or skip the ice if you use frozen fruit), a mix of berries, orange, really whatever you have on hand, a banana, and a dash of milk or some juice and a scoop of powdered milk. Just put a note in the lunchbox (if he can read it) reminding him to shake up the thermos before he opens it.  If you use orange juice, frozen berries, a banana and a scoop of powdered milk he gets a full day of vitamin C, potassium and calcium in 1 1/2 cups of smoothie, plus antioxidants from the berries. That will launch him into the afternoon very nicely.

You can save a lot of money by getting big bags of chips (baked ones if he will eat them) and other snack foods and packaging them yourself in ziplocs.  I also make up two packages at a time of instant pudding and scoop it into gladware containers rather than buying the individual pudding packs. I put it in the freezer for 15 minutes in the a.m. so it will stay super cold by lunch or add an ice pack.

I have three kids and the hot lunch is going to be $2.25 each this year. Even just getting milk to go with their sack lunch will be $0.50 so I am definitely looking for ways to save money and pack more nutritiously as the quality of school lunch, which was never great anyway, is definitely declining and my teenage son has gastric problems which make him need a high fiber diet so I add Benefiber and/or wheat germ to a lot of his food -- sorry if that was all TMI.

You can make more nutritious and less sodium-filled lunchable type things by packaging your own crackers, cheese slices, and lunchmeat for him to put together.  

Answer 4

my kids like to take things like (not all at once of course but a mix of these things) I try to do a meat, dairy, fruit/veggie and snack in each lunch.

tuna and crackers

cheese/cheese sticks

yogurt

raw carrots/celery/cucumbers

pepperoni or other rolled up lunch meat

fruit cups, apples, banana, grapes, kiwi, plums

sandwhiches (PB&J, balogna, turkey, chicken, ham, tuna) sometimes lunchables.

snack type stuff....

peanuts, chips, cheese nips, gold fish, animal crackers, raisins, pretzels

sometimes I will cook a whole chicken and separate it into little baggies because my kids like to eat cold chicken as well.

Answer 5

You can make pita wraps some days instead of sandwiches. Also, you can get  a lunchbox that holds cool in and pack things like fruit salad or pasta salad, or regular salad! They sell easy to eat portable yogurts. Fruit snacks are a good things because they are kinda like candy but not as bad for you. You can also buy milk in containers and juice in containers that he can take. Snack crackers come in individual serving sizes, and every once in a while you could pop a candy bar or cupcake in there for a treat!

Answer 6

I make veggie wraps for my kids, they get vegetable juice, fruit juices, I make them veggie burgers and have insulated bags to keep them warm.  I find it funny because most of their friends want to trade their junk for the foods my kids eat.

Answer 7

Yeah I know the same old sandwich thing everyday thing can get annoying. But you can mix it up sometimes.

If it's at the last minute-the good thing to do is grab some bread and throw something on a sandwich. But you can make it fun and healthy. You can pack a Capri-Sun or Kool-Aid, yummy and perfect-size for a kindergartner. And you can pack some fruit. And possibly some low-fat chips or either pudding cups, goldifsh, Macoroni and Cheese Crackers, anything like that is good.  But most of the time, with a kid around the ages of 4-7 years old, it's about the apperance. If you pack an apple, slice them and make them into fun shapes. If you make a sandwich take your knife and cut a smiley face. And make sure everything is easy to get to. For example, your kindergarten age son may have trouble biting into a hard apple or rough toppings on bread. So keep it simple, but fun.

Another cute thing to do is if you run out of things to pack or something like that, make sure you have Lunchables. Lunchables can save you time. And all you have to do is throw a drink in there. I don't reccomend the pizza's unless you're child's school allows students to use microwaves. But if you get the pizza, you can ask your child's teacher to warm some of his lunches. Easy-Macs Macoroni's are great too but I wouldn't recomended them until he gets a little older. The child has to pour water, warm it, stir it, add cheese, that might be a lot for him.

And some days, just have fun. Don't pack a lunch. Instead, grab a Mcdonald's happy meal like with apple dippers, chicken nuggets, and a water or milk and take it out to the school and eat lunch with him. And remember, if you're completely ran out, there always is a school cafetiria.

I wish your son a happy school year!

Answer 8

It gets boring packing lunches everyday, but compared to what's offered at my children's cafeteria it pays off in the end! We always  have on hand drink boxes, fruit snacks and some sort of breakfast bar. Cheese sticks are good too.  You don't want anything too complicated! I have found that this website has some cute ideas.

Answer 9

Fruit,veggies (carrot and celery and capsicum) and a little treat that i have made is always in there (cake, muffin, slice etc)

then my son has either peanut butter and cheese or a stras and cheese. Same thing all the same lol

My daughter has

thermos: soup, spaghetti,noodles,

Sushi ( I make it)

Salad sandwhich, vegemite and cheese, ham and cheese, stras etc

Other ideas, pita wraps, mountain bread, leftovers (roast meat sandwiches ) dry biscuits and dips,

As for drinks at our school it is water only allowed in their drink bottles, sometimes she has a milk carton.

Answer 10

fingers of carrot and cucumber (put in a small plastic bag)

sliced fruits (apple, pear, banana)

small box of raisins

cow and gate make a pot of fruit puree, it looks a bit like yoghurt and does not need to go in the fridge

my son will probably have a beaker of squash, as it keeps fairly fresh. they get water, but sometimes its good to have a change

cook some pasta, rinse in cold water and add your kids favourite veggies. tuna and sweetcorn goes down well in our house

do the same with couscous. add small slices of tomato and cucumber