There are certain fears you have as a mother.
There is the fear of street crossing, park playing, bones breaking. There is the fear of strangulation by window blinds. Swallowing swimming water. Breathing while sleeping. There is watching bad movies, making good friends, making the most of each moment. Falling off beds, falling down stairs, falling in love.
There are also lesser known fears which arrive with the territory of motherhood. These are they which somehow remain unregulated by the government, do not have the well-intentioned support of non-profit organizations, nor do they find their way on Oprah or the front pages of the New York Times. And yet.
They are real. And they are terrifying.
There is the fear that (at eleven minutes to midnight) your dentist will spot you cruising the aisles of WalMart with four children in pajama's, two gallons of ice cream, and eight bags of Peanut M&M's. There is the fear that, when tucked into the silver folding chairs of their Sunday School class, your twins will proceed to burp, twice mention the term "underwear," and sing a song about being "buck naked". You worry that your girls will mold into the purple leather couch during their 6-hour Mary Kate & Ashley Movie Marathon on a particularly lazy, snowy Saturday. That your boys will never learn to throw their dirty jeans, dirty socks or dirty kleenex's into appropriate receptacles. That the second-round of pet-store fishes will die, that the fresh-baked cupcakes will fall face-first into the gravelly school parking lot, that the science fair project will take over the kitchen table, five long weekends, and your thin veil of sanity.
Yes, my fellow mothers. There is much for us to fear.
(cream cheese & jelly sandwiches, fresh pear, popcorn and m&m's)
Yet, in my mind, there is no fear more persistent or consistent that the one that occurs every morning at 7 a.m. when it's time to pack up school lunches. The task is terrifyingly complex. Andrew doesn't like peanut butter. Becca won't eat tuna. The twins aren't allowed anything which induces burping or buck-nakedness. "Weird Stuff" is waaaay too embarrassing for the middle-schooler to unpack in the lunchroom, "Nasty Stuff" (like applesauce and carrot sticks) get tossed into the trash by my uber-picky carnivore.
(hot dog & cheese picks, whole apple, homemade cheerio-cranberry-peanut-mini.gummy.bear trail mix)
It's a conundrum, I tell you--packing up the perfect balance of healthy, edible treats approved by both mother and children--and it happens five mornings a week. Somehow, right about mid-school year, the task arrives with even more sludgelike drudgery than usual. It becomes uncreative, uninspired, unedible. (Oh, okay. INedible.) After all, we've been making school lunches every day for six months straight and it starting to be the downright doldrums.
(hard boiled eggs with a salt-pepper-and.pinch.of.cayenne rub, blood orange, yogurt)
Which is why I've decided it's time to pep up our school lunch routine.
(melted-cheese quesadilla roll-ups, cheese & salt sprinkled bell pepper flowers slices, lightly toasted cinnamon-sugar tortilla triangles.)
Determined to pack quick, healthy, colorful, kid-friendly offerings, I've been keeping a list of our favorite "fun" lunches and figured it was about time I share.
(tomato-basil pasta salad, a full-sized carrot...those baby ones are soooo 1999, graham crackers with homemade buttercream frosting)
After all, we mom's have enough to be afraid of.
(Like having the school lunch-ladies bear witness to the meal your kids packed all by themselves...)
Good thing I know where to find the dentist around midnight.
How do you keep the Brown Bag Blues away?
Leave a comment and let me know all about your best brown-bag lunch secrets. (Or your worst mommy fear.) Your comment will automatically enter you in a random drawing for one of these GORGEOUS Let's Do Lunch Bags.
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129 comments:
I pack bentos! For my husband and myself though; no kids yet.
I fear that my kids will have a mother who makes her kids pack their lunch, which they forget to do every day. So they have to scrounge for change and end up eating potato chips and Dr. Pepper or Nachos for lunch every day.
Oh, wait. That was my childhood. Hopefully I can send my kids off to school in a couple years with something yummy and healthy!
Themes can be fun. Every once in a while I'll pick a color and pack my daughter's lunch full of it. For instance, orange: carrots, cheddar cheese triangles, Goldfish crackers, not-so-red cherry tomatoes.
Or fun shapes: try cutting sandwiches/cheese slices/meat slices/fruit slices with small cookie cutters. Great for holidays (like hearts for Valentine's day).
I tend to pack a lot of leftovers for lunch. I also like packing dried fruit, which is easy to snack on throughout the day. Little tangerines are fun too!
My biggest fear is that my kids throw away the food I give them to take to school to eat. I worked in a lunch room for two year several years ago and witnessed several children who would throw away food just because they did not want it or like it. I try my hardest to pack healthy foods that my kids like in order to avoid this.
Your lunches are great! I wish my parents had packed me creative, tasty lunches like that when I was in school.
I usually just have leftovers for my lunches because I only have me and my boyfriend to cook for, so we have a lot of leftovers. Or once in a while I'll do something like a salad.
Oh, and those lunch bags are super cool. I have several cute lunch bags that cheer me up.
I'm a leftovers for lunch girl too. My husband on the other hand has been eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day Monday thru Friday for longer than I have known him. Lucky for me my daughter hasn't entered school age yet. But, this just added another fear to ALL the things I fear as a mother!
My siblings and I were just so picky about our lunches that my mom got fed up and told us to pack our own.
oooh well there was the time I accidentally sent along the newborn's used diaper to school in the lunch bag.
Not recommended.
I ask my daughter in the morning what kind of sandwich and what kind of fruit she wants, hoping she will still want those things when lunch time comes around.
And the fear thing, I just have too many and I am finding it only gets worse as they get older. Bring on the gray hairs, I have a great hair stylist.
Neither of mine will eat sandwiches. So I always make extra little pizzas when we have them and freeze them for packed lunches.
My fear is that they will become bored of them like they have grown to dislike everything else they've been given for lunch!
My fear is what happend to my hubby when he was a kid. On a school trip with his packed lunch and drink, his mum had decided to not buy a single bottle of coke but to decant it from a large bottle (large bottles are cheaper!) into a small previously used (and recycled) bottle. When he got to the school trip and went to have his lunch he discovered that the recycled bottle had leaked coke all over his Jam sandwiches, the teachers wern't very sympathetic and he had to have coke soaked sandwiches for lunch, Yuck!!
what great lunch ideas..just in time too..3 weeks into school and i'm already running out of ideas!!
worst fear is something that i never thought would happen. my son hid a weeks worth of lunch under his bed, in the cupboard and a drawer..and i didn't even know until much later when everything was something a scientist would be proud of!! aaaaggghhh.
I dont yet have any kiddies, but for myself I currently pack a nectarine, a small container of diced fruit in syrup, crackers with some avocado to spread on them :)
Rose
I like the idea of kicked up ramen noodles, but I never want them at lunch!
My boys take hot lunch most of the time, but I do pack my lunch nearly every day (I teach). I eat a lot of leftovers (had a microwave in my room). I love to do salads and wrap sandwiches.
I only have an 18 month old so far, but lunch is still scary to me! Black bean burritos with red peppers and cream cheese are my only secret weapon so far... love your ideas!
I usually pack my husband leftovers and then pull from the "snack" cupboard. Chips, fruit snacks, wheat thins--all kinds of mostly healthy goodies. I sure wish my mom had packed me lunches like yours. I had to pack my own and so usually I had a bagel. That's all I would remember to grab on my way out the door. I was always starving by the time I got home.
This is soooo timely for me. I'm struggling big time with what to pack for my youngest two. They're super-picky at school and it's very hard to pack them nutritious lunches they'll eat.
Lately we've been doing a lot of ramen noodle "insta-lunches". It's okay, but way too high in sodium and not a lot of protein. You've inspired me to try harder.
love your ideas! I always cut my daughter's sandwiches into shapes with cookie cutters. Because let's face it, eating a PB&J in the shape of a turkey is so much more exciting. Thank goodness she is easily amused!
My son is the worst with sandwiches, but will eat pierogies for breakfast lunch and dinner, so my fear is that he will soon turn into one :) I packed him a box of raisins in his lunch at the beginning of the year and that same box of raisins still resides in his lunch box. It has become a battle of the wills with the raisins, him refusing to eat them and me refusing to remove them. vicious cycle :)
Definitely a leftovers packer here. My daughter is picky so she prefers that I send her last nights dinner again to wondering whether or not cafeteria food will be edible. We live by our Thermos that keeps lunch hot from when I pack it in the morning until her lunch. It means she can have spaghetti, enchiladas, dim sum (!), Mac & Cheese or whatever else she would like for the day. Unfortunately, as great as some of the more "creative" lunch ideas look, I know she won't eat them. But I'd love to pack bento boxes of goodness for myself.
Soup! Armed with a spoon and straw, and a side of bagel/pita chips or nachos, and cut-up fruit, the contents of my kids lunch boxes are guaranteed to come home empty, and their bodies well-nourished.
LOVE your ideas-Thanks!
My daughter is sooo picky, she is also a vegetarian...So I, a very hip and savvy mom....made an entire list of foods for her to pick from and I do kind of a cool thing....she picks one thing off of each list and then make meals....like this, say I have a sandwich list, a side dish, a fruit, a beverage, and a snacky thing(totally bonus stuff, like candy)
She gets to pick one from each list and WALA! Lunch is served man.....lol
It really works, she rarely ever eats the same thing twice and her friends think I am the coolest mom ever...My daughter can't say that to me...because... you know she is like a teenager, or some junk...(LOL)
I have been doing this for about 8 years and my older daughter loved it to....So there ya go!!
My babe is only 9 months so I haven't had to deal with that yet but how cute are those bags! Perfect! I am trying to get her to not be a picky eater but each kid is an individual so you never know... I just hope she isn't like me as a child!
my daughter is only 21 months, so it will be a while before I have to pack her a lunch.
my worst fear right now is that people will find out I let her have potato chips (occasionally!)... she mostly eats fruits and veggies, so I think it's ok, but it kinda makes me feel like a bad mom sometimes...
My kiddies aren't old enough yet to need sack lunches, but I find normal at-home lunch time just as daunting! I try to match colors in the food and use shapes to make for a happy lunch time.
And I LOVE those lunch bags!
I don't have kids yet so I don't have any great stories or fears on that front, but when I was in school the ladies who monitored the lunch room would always try to steal a bite of what I was eating. I think it was shrimp cheese ball in primary school and cream cheese and black olive sandwiches in middle school.
Loving the creative lunches, but the end of your post hit home. My middle school daughter said last night she doesn't want to pack lunch from home any more because her lunch box is too ugly. I pulled it out of the cupboard and even my ultra practical husband said it was time for an update. What 12 year-old red headed gal wants to take a navy blue lunch box to school that looks like it belongs to her six year-old brother. Going to have to find ourselves one of those super cute bags!
Ah, yes, packing lunches every morning starts at 6:15 am. I prefer to make them something homemade~but to be honest, I keep a small stash of "Lunchables" in my fridge for those days that I just need a break. My kids love those things....and I also have a little note, "I love you" or "You are a good friend", something to cheer their day. Love your blog!!
I make my kids pack their own lunches and then they are ever dissapointed. Are they well rounded, nutrious, no but I can make up for that when they get home.
Sadly, I don't have any lunch time secrets...which is why I love this post!! And those lunch bags are absolutely adorable! Worst mommy fear? That my daughter won't be able to live a full and independent life. There, I said it.
We keep it easy with pb&j but load it with different veggies.
Brooke, you are amazing! I don't have any fun lunch ideas, but I have a whole bunch of worst mommy fears. The one I worry about most is broken bones or blood. I know myself enough to know that I just don't do either of those well! Two phrases find their way into my conversations with kids EVERY day: "Be Quiet!" and "Be Careful!"
My oldest is starting kindergarten next year, so I need some good lunch bags tricks! One thing that I remember from brown bagging it in school was that my mom froze juice boxes and used that as an ice pack in the bag to keep refrigerator stuff cold. The lunch bags are adorable!
My fear is that they will be kidnapped! But also that I will just think it is easier to send them with money so I don't have to pack a lunch. But it is so important to give them great food and not just whatever processed stuff they are selling!
I pack the Sarah Lee mini wheat bagels with Nutella. Kids love it but we too get tired of the same old same old snacks. Thank goodness my kids eat lunch at home so I only have to pack snacks.
I am having trouble with this lately for sure!!! My son is quite a picky eater and I love to make stuff at home. A lot of baking. But he'd rather have things that are from a store. So lately I've just given in a bit and given him stuff that's not that healthy!!!! This have give me some great new ideas!! Thanks!
I am afraid my kids will grow up a and be just like me. Ah!
I had my daughter make a list of sandwiches, sides, and sweet treats that she would like in her lunch. She agreed that if it's on the list and it's in her lunch she has to eat it!! So far, so good!
my brown bag lunches are very dull lately, maybe i'll steal some of your ideas!
Those lunch bags are really cute. I work midnights and could use some brightening during my lunch hour, for sure.
fun ideas and cute bags!
i don't have great ideas, but when i was in elementary school, my mom would get up early to heat up some tomato soup and then pack it in my smurf thermos. it stayed nice and warm till lunch, and i ate it by pouring it into the thermos lid. it was so nice to have a warm "cold lunch." haven't tried it yet for my kids - i need to buy a thermos. :)
I haven't made any lunches for my boys, we hot lunch it here. Altho nowadays it's all prepackaged, not fresh-made like when we were kids. My worst mommy-fear is forgetting or not knowing about some school project. Unfortunately both have happened. Usually another mom saves my bacon at the last minute with a question about the project and late that nite we're finishing it up!
My best brown bag lunch secret is to have each child pack their own. Seriously!! That way, everybody gets what they want. And it is completely deleted off my list of "mommy fears."
My kids love a blueberry or cranberry orange muffin instead of a sandwich. Those little easy-peel clementines are also a big hit!
I love the bags! I don't have kids but I pack my own lunch every day to take to work. Usually leftovers- but I do have trouble finding a variety of healthy but satisfying afternoon snacks.
These bags are so cute. My lunch would look awesome in them. My favorite brown bag lunch is a sandwich. But in order to keep the the whole thing from getting mushy, I pack all the components separately and then heat everything in the toaster over at the office. Because I need my cold cuts warm and my bread nice and toasty (yes, I am a little OCD when it comes to my sammies).
Luckily, I don't have to pack lunches yet, but I fear that I will give up on my ideas of healthy and tasty lunch fare in order to get the boys out the door in the morning. In that case, I might as well give them prepackaged calories.
My kids aren't old enough to need sack lunches yet, but I used to love the notes from my mom either on or in my sack lunches. I definitely plan on continuing that with my kids!
WOW! I'm am TOTALLY amazed by your incredible ideas! Black olive sandwiches?! Black Bean, Red Pepper and Cream Cheese Burritoes? Bento Boxes?! You brilliant gals. Thanks so very much for sharing.
I'm likewise lurrrving the fantastic stories...lunches hidden under the bed, tomato soup in a Smurf thermos, Coke-soaked sandwiches. Isn't it incredible that anyone actually survives childhood?!
Feeling your fears, too. You lovely mommy's. Bless you for loving your babies so much.
Hugs to you all!
I was devastated when my 1st grader came home from her first day of school, after having her first "at school lunch" experience to hear that she "had to sit all by herself." What!? Why!? "I had a peanut butter sandwich. I had to sit at the Peanut Table! And all of my friends were at the normal table!" Ugh! I tried for the first month or so to do great lunches sans peanut butter, but then I gave up. Hot lunch it is!
I am afraid that by NOT giving my kids EVERY kind of lesson (swimming lessons, horseback riding lessons, gymnastics, piano, guitar...etc.) I am denying them a talent they may be a natural at.
My children LOVE cheesy roll ups. And orange slices with blackberries.
I'm a big fan of dinner leftovers for lunch, but I know kids won't go for that! I gave my nephew a Star Wars thermos, water bottle, and lunch bag for this new school year and it has been a lifesaver! He loves bringing hot soup and mac and cheese, and frozen Gogurts. Plus, helping with making his own lunch makes him more likely to eat it!
We do a lot of leftovers, but I always try to make sure there is lots of snacks and some sort of treat to make the meal less boring. Love the ideas you have come up with... have to work those into our rotation.
I love to buy fresh vegetables and chop them immediately and store them in a Tupperware container so that lunch packaging goes much faster. These bags are really cute! I'd love to win.
My boys are in middle schood and high school. I pack for the middle schooler, who knew that a raisin bread, panini with peanut butter and jelly is a GIRLY sandwich!
Love the bags and I am seriously being crushed by the sack lunch....everyday!
My little ones love goldfish and tiny little squares of cheese to make itty-bitty goldfish sandwiches. Also salted tomatoes and peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Oh, or bacon, apple and peanut butter sandwiches...yum.
As I am currently expecting my first child I don't do brown bags for her yet but I do pack one for my husband and I every morning. It's still frustrating but I've found that every once in a while you just have to throw your worries out the window and have some junk in your lunch. And I like to pack a "grazers" lunch sometimes. Which is like just a lunch of finger foods. grapes, crackers, cheese, etc. Thanks!
one of my greatest mommy fears is that there will be a house fire and I won't be able to get my kids out...
one of my worries is that I am not doing the best I can do as a mother...there is always another mom who seems to have it all together & I just fall short. I know my kids don't know I am inadequate but some days I just do.
I try to pack my lunch (no babies yet, except for my husband) the night before, but it's hard to commit to something that far in advance. My greatest fear is that my kids will be as picky as I was!
My tip is if you want to eat Special K for lunch four times a week, do it. It may not be particularly well balanced, but in the long run it's not going to kill you.
I'm not even a parent yet, but I am always worried that when they are in their 20s my children will wind up in therapy for things I said and did that profoundly affected them that I never even thought twice about or intended as hurtful. Maybe a Let's Do Lunch bag will help take my mind off my own paranoia?
My fear is that as a working mom, I'll miss out on all the fun they experience throughout the day!
Thanks for this post! I'm always looking for ideas on lunches!! (healthy food that is)
I try not to overkill with leftovers. We get tired of them easily. I try to make enough for dinner and maybe lunch the next day. If it makes more than that I try to freeze it so it doesn't go to waste and can be lunch another day down the road.
My oldest is in kindergarten right now and I have been dreading 1st grade for a long time because I think she is the pickiest eater in the world. I feel very lucky that a few months ago she decided she could eat peanut butter sandwiches. So now I just have to figure out if she will eat peanut butter sandwiches every day for the whole school year.
My worst mommy fear? That things I do hurt my kids. Which I know is probably unavoidable but I still hate to think about it.
My best lunch secret - pack it the night before! It's ready to go and you won't forget it - especially if its in the fridge in front of the cream for your coffee.
When I was a child a loooong time ago, I was shy and actually embarrassed that I had wheat bread and everyone else had white, and that my mom would pack pan dulce(mexican sweet bread-which I loved and still do!) and everyone would ask "What's that?" I never wanted to take it again...so silly!
my kids love craisins, and raisins, those little bags/boxes are the best!
Anything in a tortilla wrap works for my boy. and grapes. any kind of grape.
We don't have lunch bag blues here! I keep it fun by using nifty containers and food "accessories" to keep the presentation appealing and kid friendly and fully accessible (like no little packages for clumbsy fingers to struggle to open).
Check out my blog for photo-inspiration. :) Packing my kids' lunches is my hobby. lol :)
anotherlunch.blogspot.com
We love the laptop lunchs for the kids and usually pack a lot leftovers.
leftovers..I know...orginial - but hey everyone loves them!
The oldest kids are pretty satisfied with the same old lunches day in and out, but my youngest is in a "nut free classroom" and won't touch lunchmeat. Her favorites are pasta salad, cereal (with a little milk container), or white rice w/ soy sauce. And yogurt. Kelly
Bentos are always fun. There's so many ways to be creative!
my worst fear as a mom is losing my kids. i can't imagine living without them.
I love your blog, you make me laugh! My little girl will be entering kindergarden next year, and she is already asking me to pack her a lunch, she is so excited. I like snacks and lunches the kids can help me with... last night we made smores in the oven. They loved them... alright, I ate most of them, but they definately had fun making them!
I LOVE This post and the 77 posts with suggestions for school lunch. I only have one daughter in school and she is a veggitarian who hates peanuts and bananas. What's left in the world besides cold cheese sandwiches? Thanks for all the suggestions. A cute bag would be ideal but I feel like a winner already with the suggestions!
My greatest fear is texting and IMs and kidnapping. I fear them getting their heart broken by mean girls or a boy. I fear that they will struggle with their weight like me.
Lunches scare the crap out of me too. I loved when my Dad did them, hated when Mom packed them. By 5th grade I packed my own and by 8th grade I bought everyday. I LOVED your ideas.
The best lunch my Dad ever packed was when he packed ingredients and I had to assemble my own lunch. Like chef salad ingredients in baggies with dressing in a tiny tupperware.
One day (I think it was Valentines Day) he put a real china plate and cloth napkin in my lunch along with a rose and a Valentine from him and my Mom. I acted like it was dumb and dorky but I was really happy inside.
I am one of those Mom's who hates waste... so I usually only send things I KNOW will get eaten. That would be a PB&J sandwich, bag of fruit snacks, carrot sticks (I am soooo 1999 like that) and goldfish crackers. Oh, yeah... and a yogurt. Gotta have those Probiotics!
My kiddos pack their own lunches the night before. It has totally changed our frazzled mornings into something more friendly. (I also reserve final judgment as to what can be included in their lunch.)
My daughter eats pretty much the same thing (or a slight variation) every lunch: a turkey sandwich or a jelly sandwich, grapes or apple slices, goldfish or pretzels, cheese stick or baby carrots, juice, some sort of dessert. Though lately she has been wanting to eat the school lunch, so we do that sometimes as well.
The thought of packing lunches in the near future scares me...I have a hard enough time figuring out lunches to have the kiddos eat at home. Great ideas from you and the comments!
I ate a pb and honey sandwich every day for lunch from 3rd through 12th grade. I'm not sure what I'll do once my daughter is in school. I think she may be following in my footsteps...9 times out of 10 she wants pbjs.
Brooke, thank you for the amazing lunch ideas! They look fabulous!
Packed lunches are the worst! Especially since my kid's school doesn't allow peanut products!
I hate to say it, but my kids want PB&J... every day. I try to get them to take other things I know they like... like turkey with bbq sauce or even PB&P(ickles)... my son's favorite, but he won't take it in his lunch. I finally found two nice lunch-sized thermoses and started sending mac&cheese, chicken noodle or tomato soup or noodles with butter. They love that and I feel better that they are taking something ELSE once in a while.
Letting my kids help pack their lunch, pick out the cookie cutter for their sandwich or cheese slices and picking which fun ice pack to put in definitely helps them get excited at lunch time! I also pack all of the lunches the night before. There is no way I could get them done in the morning before school. Too crazy!
I actually just pack lunch for myself, but it is hard to not get bored. I mostly just pack leftovers. Thanks for the ideas.
I love http://www.gogreenlunchbox.com/
The compartments make any lunch more fun and you get to leave them a fun note or reminder :)
Oh, I fear so much! I worry about what they eat every day, especially that they're not getting the proper nutrients, since they're both such picky little eaters! I've learned that offering them the same food once they've refused it over and over really does get them to try it! I've also learned that encouraging kids to taste a food before they say they don't like it is so helpful. And always give them the option to spit it out if they really don't like it!
It is difficult to get creative, but I browse AllRecipes.com and often ask the recipe exchange for advice on lunch ideas.
My kids are soooo in a lunch rut! However, while accompanying my 7th grader back to school to pick up a forgotten textbook this afternoon, his Lang Arts teacher passed us in the hall and remarked that he had shared about his delicious lunch today (leftover chicken & pasta dish warmed & sent in a thermos)! Will wonders never cease? ;) Love these adorable-looking lunch bags!
Cut sandwiches into cute shapes!
i have no brown bag lunch secrets but need some fast! My two boys are 18 mo. So that means no PB&J's yet. Any ideas for me?????
I have been wanting one these lunch bags - mine is pretty ragged looking since I pack my lunch for work every day. I love turkey & have a turkey sandwich pretty much every day :)
Tomatoes and cottage cheese. Divine! My 13 year old begs for it every day in the fall--when the tomatoes are fresh off the vine.
Great ideas and cute pictures!
Other ideas:
- pesto and rice
- red pepper sticks/ carrot sticks/ cucumber sticks with a humous dip
- salad leaves with a little pot of dressing for your child to pour over
- homemade flapjacks
- dried apricots/ other fruit
xxx
This was inspired! I love all the ideas and how they are fun and healthy. I'll definitely be filing these away for later!
My fear is that, if/when I have children, they will be allergic to peanuts and/or gluten, and I won't be able to comfort them (or, let's face it, myself) with the one thing that always makes everything better: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
My four year old is extremely picky and would only eat almond butter and jelly sandwiches for every meal if we'd let him...but we let him choose what he wants for lunch and then we get to choose dinner. My twin girls who are 2 are not as picky but we eat a lot of applesauce, strawberries, blueberries, string cheese, quesadillas, turkey, grilled chicken, clementines, eggs, carrots, waffles w/ almond butter...just to name a few :)
We have been recently making "hulk" smoothies for breakfast and they LOVE them! I blend a banana, juice, blueberries, strawberries, plain vanilla yogurt, ice, and 2 BIG handfulls of baby spinach! So I don't feel so bad about what they eat during the day if they have this yummy smoothie in the morning.
*whispering* I pack Uncrustables. Right from the freezer directly to their lunchbags.
Oh, the shame.
Your ideas are great...I tend to pack the same old thing on most days. I definately need a cure from my brown bag blues :).
I'm lucky my little one is in pre-school. I can get away with fun shaped sandwiches and animals made out of veggies...but you've given me a lot to fret about...err think about for the future!!
That is the one thing I dread in the morning - packing the lunches!
Especially when they forget that they packed & it comes back home uneaten - GRRR! :)
Aislinn
little love notes and i sometimes bake buns in heart or mickey mouse shapes for sandwiches. My daughter also loves it when I skewer her fruit (nipping the sharp end of at the stick so it's not a potential weapon at school!)
Those lunch bags are super cute!
I pack bento lunches for my husband & daughter every night. Usually it includes dinner's leftovers. We have a lot of little cutsie cutters, like flowers, hearts and puppies to cut veggies into edible excitement. I keep a staple of prepacked bento size stuff in the freezer - cooked chicken, rice, veggies, yogurt. I rarely buy prepackaged anything to keep it super exciting when there is one in there. I also have Mija help pack her own lunch.
I wish I packed those kind of lunches for my husband! But unfortunately, he usually gets the exact same type of sandwich, string cheese, pudding, and fruit. I think these lunch bags are adorable though!
lunch foods we do: turkey sand, apple, cutie(clementine orange), cut up veggies, gogurt, chips, triskets and cheese slices, nuts, sunchips, jerky, pickles, ritz crackerfuls, granola bars, and every once in a while a dessert. The kids love it when we have left-over homemade breadsticks, rolls, or pizza to add to thier lunch. Fun post - thanks!
I miss those days, my girls are in college and my high school son does not take lunch in. I used to make ham and cheese roll ups, cinnamon apples, baby carrots with a little dip on the side, shish-ka-bob fruit or veggies, turkey and laughing cow cheese on whole wheat, ah those were the days. I would love that lunch bag for my work snacks.
My kids love their Laptop Lunchboxes! I love not having to waste plastic baggies. My 2-year-old son's favorite meal includes hummus and crackers, mango slices, sun chips, and vanilla milk. My 4-year-old daughter will eat any sandwich that is cut with a crown-shaped cutter, but also loves Arnold's small round flat bread. For non-daycare meals they both love yogurt, cashews, thin apple slices, and red peppers/carrots. That is even a go-to dinner for us sometimes!
For me, it's often about packaging...and packaging 3 of something, so there's enough to share with a gaggle of girls (or at least a trio), keeps an otherwise blah lunch fun and appealing.
cutting a sandwich into fun shapes still works with my kids!
colesammom@gmail.com
For my 3yo, the contents of her lunchbox are pretty consistent: 1 string cheese stick, 1 yogurt (preferably pink), 1 small container of fruit (whatever looks good), and a small container of leftovers from dinner the night before.
I absolutely ADORED your post and will be mentioning it in my blog this evening! It is something that has SO been on my mind the last 2 weeks... these lunches are just getting GRUELING for me this part of the year... to the point where I almost sent them to get HOT lunch (gasp)! So this is a huge fear for me - but also - your ideas gave me hope! And I love the colorful display! One thing I do to help them eat their packed lunch - is let them pick a few fun items to add. And every little bit I add sweet notes - Just so they have something from Mommy that I love them!
Kymmie
www.marrinersmusings.blogspot.com
I have 4 kids and lunchtime can get really old. Here are some things I do to jazz up lunches:
- tortilla rollups - turkey, mayo, cheese and spinach rolled around a pickle spear
- mini pitas (Trader Joe's) - put one piece of pepperoni and some shredded mozz. in each, with a small container of sauce.
-leftover chili in a thermos, with chips (they love this).
-different sandwich fillings - egg salad, tuna with pickle, chicken salad, etc.
Those are a few things that make it not so boring, but I loved your suggestions too. Thanks so much!
I gave my daughter some money for a cooked lunch and she forgot that she had a cooked lunch and couldn't find her lunch box. She was so shy that she didn't ask her teacher or any of the lunch ladies for help and ended up eating nothing! So, I fear that my children won't eat anything!!
I just discovered your blog... LOVE IT! No younglings for me to worry about, but I need to start taking my lunch more. We're going to be moving into an office that isn't close to anywhere (ugh) so I need to start making lunch.
My problem is that what I'm hungry for in the morning is never what I'm hungry for at lunchtime.
I love the ideas on here and really wish I had something useful to add!
I'm so stealing a couple of those.
The teacher's helper in my DD's class 'inspects' every kids lunch. And how do I know this ? She told me.
*EEK* Nothing like a little added pressure.
I do pack a healthy, well balanced lunch, albeit boring most of the time, I actually feel sorry for my DD. But you know picks w/ lunch meat and cheese is an awesome idea, especially for those days when I run out of bread and crackers, LOL
Such a true story! Lately I've been giving up and packing non-healthies like pb& j on white bread, a side of chips, and cookies! Oh no!!
Thanks to you and all your great readers for some new ideas. Thermoses with soup sound good. So does cereal for lunch.
My girls love string cheese. The orange and white swirly kind is their favorite. I also like to freeze gogurt tubes and put them in their lunches like freezer packs. Bottled water is a great alternative to juice or milk. My kids don't really dig wheat bread but they like pumpernickle. I tried pb&j rolled up in a tortilla, but they came home with, "what was that gross and disgusting thing in my lunch? I never want it again!". Lunchables are a lifesaver if we have little to choose from at home (my littlest one doesn't want to wait in the lunch line and have to sit away from her friends that pack lunches). Smuckers Uncrustables work for this too (they can thaw in the lunchbox. We try to limit these things though because of all the processed ickiness.
That story about the raisin box has happened to us too! :) A bagel and cream cheese works instead of a sandwich (add lunch meats for protein). The girls like tuna at home but say it looks like puke in their lunchboxes. :( Frozen grapes are fun. My girlies even like frozen peas!
Although I'm not a mommy yet...I loved when my mom cut my sandwiches into shapes! I loved her turkey roll ups where she'd just roll a piece of turkey with mayo and stick it with a toothpick. I ESPECIALLY loved her notes she would write in my bag, that was the best :)
Bento Box style. Rice molds, fun shaped cheese, anything with a smile on it. Of course, my kids are tiny, and preferences do change!
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Lo, how I need your help! I don't know anything to pack yet! Loved the ideas - thank you!
We had the brown bags growing up too. My mom got us some stamps with our names on them. "This lunch belongs to..." And then we would decorate our lunch bags with all the stamps.
Sometimes we would find a little card in our bag with a note from our mom and a quarter with it to go buy something from the student store. It was great!
I'm usually an adventurous eater, but my newly pregnant body has suddenly decided to make me a bit pickier about what I eat. I'm trying to balance getting proper nutrition for the little one with a very small appetite. It seems like I'm already dealing with the brown bag fears long before elementary school! The combinations you've shown have actually got me a bit excited to come up wtih some interesting combos for myself in small portions. Thanks for the inspiration!
hey! i love this post! My Hen friends and i talk about school lunches all the time... it's the bane of my existence! There are some great idea's in the comments! And I love the lunch bags... makes me wish I worked in an office and took a lunch break (oh, wait... It's my KIDS who make me wish that!) I kid.
slipping little notes inside.. its the best!
I pack lunch for my Husband and myself every day. The best way that I've found to keep my sanity and keep our stomachs happy is to meal plan ahead of time. I always try to think ahead about what meals can be eaten as leftovers for lunch the next day and what can be bought in bulk and packed quickly (i.e. fruit, crackers w/hummus, veggies etc...). We may eat the same snacks for a week and then I will change it up the next week. Saves a lot of money and time!
I don't pack for our kids (they don't live with us) but they're so picky, I'm kind of glad I don't have to! Their daddy is the same way - I pack for him and myself every day. For me, I eat leftovers, various soups, or a salad, plus fruits, carrots, nuts, and possibly homemade granola and yogurt. For my picky husband, I always have to change it up, but it also has to be low-sodium and easy to eat. He gets granola bars, fruit, nuts, Terra chips, sometimes a salad, carrots and celery, sometimes tuna salad with crackers, cheese, and once in a while, I'll tuck a little bite of chocolate in there, just to make him smile.
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