I blogged about some Time Saving Lunch Tips earlier this year, but am getting a little anxious about packing school lunches for Ryan once he starts Kindergarten next week. It recently occurred to me that he won't have a fridge to store his lunch, like Mike does at work. I need to either figure out how to keep fresh fruit and turkey sandwiches cold for him all morning or come up with a few new creative lunch box items to send with him every day.
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The lunches I'm used to making for Mike are boring and predictable: sandwich, chips or pretzels, apple, homemade dessert. Thank goodness he doesn't need a lot of variety! But I know how quickly kids get bored and am hoping to mix things up for Ryan right from the start.
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Of course, then my mom stressed me out further by reminding me of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" where all the poor little girl wanted was PB&J on Wonder bread and her mom always sent her with leftovers, like moussaka, which the cute little blond girls called, "Moose Caca." So now I guess my goal is to give Ryan variety without assisting him in being a freak.
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For creative options for filling foods, I got these ideas from friends:
- yogurt tubes stuck in the freezer stay cold for a couple of hours and defrost by lunchtime, even keeping nearby foods cold, too
- frozen cheese sticks will also stay cold and defrost by lunchtime, also acting like an ice pack
- if cheese sticks are out of your budget, consider buying a large block of cheese, slicing and portioning it, then wrap several slices and freeze to stick in lunch boxes in the morning with some crackers
- if your school isn't nut-free, homemade trail mix with almonds/peanuts, raisins/cranberries, chocolate chips /M&Ms and something with whole grains like Cheerios.
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To keep foods cold (in addition to the above items being frozen) I've heard the idea of freezing juice boxes as an ice pack or stuffing a sports bottle from home with ice and a little water to thaw out all morning.
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Lunch box surprises are also highly recommended. Notes on a napkin, sandwiches cut out with a heart, star or dinosaur cookie cutter, stickers, a fortune cookie or a lollipop...kids love surprises. I like the idea of doing things sporadically, but it also might be fun to make it a habit of including surprises on Fridays to end the week on a high note. But then I need to remember every Friday...why do I always try to put that kind of "Mom pressure" on myself?
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Do you have any other helpful lunch box ideas? 
Monday, August 10, 2009
School Lunch Ideas
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6 comments:
I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but I can't remember a single lunch my mom made me. I know that she did, but my memory just doesn't stretch back that far. The fact that you are going to pack his lunch and he'll know that you love him is enough in my opinion!
That said, what about mini containers for dip? And then throw in crunchy carrots or strawberries?
Great list!
You can also make homemade trail-mix without nuts, filled with dried fruit and other things (I have a nut-free recipe on my blog).
I've heard about people freezing sandwiches, but I'm not sure how that would go over.
I've made our lunches for years -- mine for as long back as I can remember. I've used a thermos for a cold pasta salad, and used an insulated lunch box which kept things nice a cool.
Happy lunch-making :)
I just had a dream the other night that I went to Kindergarten orientation and they told me that school lunches would cost $528 a month! I wisely decided that was too much and vowed to pack Elliot's lunch (I'm glad that was just a dream! ;)
I'd really like to pack her lunch, but I'm a bit worried that after she spends an hour in the school age room at Tutor Time, rides the van to school, gets dropped off at her class, picked up in the van, and then another hour at Tutor Time, it's just too many opportunities for her to lose her lunchbox. So I'm still not sure about that...
I've used those little blue ice re-freezable things in my insulated lunch box on field visits, and it's stayed very cold for hours. Look for them near the ice chests at WalMart.
Food ideas: turkey dogs, bagels, tortilla roll-ups, cherry tomatoes, yogurt with granola, graham crackers with nutella, peeled hard-boiled eggs...(Elliot would probably like the moussaka too, come to think of it.)
Having lived on the Backward Barbarian (ha! hardly!) side of the pond for a number of years now, I've gained plenty of first-hand knowledge of how we Americans put more things 'on ice' than we really need to. Fresh fruit does NOT need to be kept refrigerated if it's in an air-conditioned building, juice boxes to NOT need to be cold, and cheeses here (in the specialty cheese stores) are kept in big blocks ON THE SHELF until they're cut, and even then are only in the half-refrigerated open cases .... cheese sandwiches made in the morning are PERFECTLY SAFE at lunchtime if wrapped and in a temp-controlled building.
I've had to come up with these ideas for LC, too, because he also won't have access to a fridge. Luckily, 9 years of personal experience (as well as the life-long experiences of all my European friends) have taught me that many more foods are fine at room-temperature than we Yanks are accustomed to.
Happy School Days, Ryan!
xoxoxoxox
One of my daughter's favourite snacks was popcorn (even if it had been made the night before and refrigerated) I had to use larger bags though because once her friends spied it she didn't get much
walmart also has the reusable ice things in shapes for kids instead of just the blue block thing. they have baseballs and flowers for sure. they are very cute. dd's friend loved her pink flower so much she tried to steal it. i need to tell her mom about them.
my kids would love the popcorn idea but i wonder why you need to refrigerate it?
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