what is in your kids' sack lunches?
 

I have recentaly taken over many of the domestic duties formerly performed by my wife. The tale is bittersweet, and I shall not go into it here. One of my new responsibilites is packing a lunch and snack for Junior (nearly 6) and Barbarian Child (nearly 3).

Typical staples include:
Peanutbutter sandwich
Cheese stick
GoGurt (frozen so it is a nice cool yogurty treat at lunch time)
Carrots, sliced apples, and / or oranges

Lunch variables include
Pretzles or a few chips
Pistacheo nuts (shelled)
Roasted Almonds
A bit of pastrami for Barbarian Child
juice box
A little crystalized ginger (hey, my kids love it)

What is in your kids lunch? Give me ideas here.

Mmm pastrami and crystalized ginger-- barbarian child is a child after my own heart!!


other things to try:
peanut butter on celery sticks (Hold the raisins)

Cream cheese (flavored is fine) on a dark bread

Anything you can roll up in a tortilla -- cheese and some veggies, ham and cheese, tuna, egg salad (you could even do peanut butter and jelly and slice it up so it looks like sushi... fancy)

anything you can stuff in a pita pocket (cucumbers, tomatoes, shredded carrots, cheese)

people are going to laugh....my fav thing my mother always put in my lunches was kosher dill pickles that had sliced ham wrapped around them

My baby gets nothing but organic foods. God bless Trader Joes.
This afternoon for daycare: organic grapes from a local farm, health bar, organic milk, organic chicken fingers.

You know, when I was a kid, I lived on Peanut Butter and Jam sandwiches.

Today, I can't give peanut butter to my kids. All nuts have been banned from the school system.


My daughter currently gets lunch from her daycare. My son makes his own lunch.

I liked getting some bananas and kiwi in my lunch

tomatoes(provided your kids have somewhere besides their backpacks to store their lunch)

cracker jacks

bagels or bagel sammiches

crasins

my sister does a build your own kind of thing for my nephew as his tastes change with the wind... sometimes she uses those nifty tuna kits or she will pack (seperately) bread, sliced sammich meat, little packs of mustard and mayo, tomatoes and lettuce and sometimes pickles for him to assemble himself.

I also liked getting sliced cucumbers in my lunch

and salad!!! with sunflower seeds

kids aren't old enough for school yet, but I do get to see what other parents bring to the park for snacks. While my 3 year old is munching on some Goldfish crackers or grapes, other kids are eating Lucky Charms (w/o milk) or any other variety of sugar based crap (and washing it down with Kool Aid of course)

My 9 yr old daughter is extremely picky, we have a hard time packing lunches for her. On most days, she buys a hot lunch from school. I know she does not eat all of what they give her, but at least I know she is eating. On the days when she does not buy lunch, she brings either a small yogurt (which I found out she is really not eating, but rather throwing it away), an apple and another snack. We started packing PB&J now that I know she does not eat the yogurt.

My six year old generally has a sandwich with sliced ham, cheese spread, fresh cheese (anything but crumbly ones like Wensleydale), leftover roast meat (lamb, beef, pork, chicken - whatever we had the night before really), or some combination of these.

She likes dried fruits - so often has a little bag of raisins, cranberries, banana chips, or something like that.

Processed cheese products - we have something in England called "Cheese Strings" - there like a form of injection-moulded plastic resin that has a vague cheese scent and no flavour - doubtless a product of NASA research and I'm certain will be found in landfill sites to puzzle future generations archaeologists.

She gets given fresh fruit and whole milk at school morning break time anyway, that's not in the lunchbox.

School have a "no confectionery" rule, but we might put an oatmeal bar or something like that in.

She loves to cook, so we'll let her take any biscuits or portable foods she's made.

Here in the USA we can't even spell "confecshunary" let alone ban it from lunches.

I was kind of spoiled as a kid, I used to carry a mini cooler around with me, I used to eat a lot of salads in school, I had a Tupperware of salad and a small container of toppings, and a small container of dressing (usually oil and vinegar, I love oil and vinegar). You need to keep them separate until you eat, otherwise the lettuce will wilt a bit and lose that crunch. I usually had small bits of cheese (fresh mozzarella is awesome on salad) bacon, lunch meats, nuts (pine nuts are great in salads), and small bits of fruit like crasins.

I learned something today as I had no idea what craisins were - thank you google.

We are quite fortunate in that our 2 yo will eat just about anything. I can see him heading down Daniel's path, because even if confectionary weren't banned by the school, I'm pretty sure we won't be packing it for his lunch.

I always ate hot lunch as a kid...tried packing my own cold lunches for a while to fit in with the "cool kids" but it never worked. Besides, since my folks gave me lunch money it meant I could buy all the candy and soda I wanted at the school store (that didn't last past 7th grade).

Leftovers make a great lunch if you've got the containers--I like cold macaroni and cheese, cold pizza, cold lasagna, cold tuna fish casserole. Cut-up veggies with a little something to dip in is always good too. Fancy sandwiches always make the grade: flavored cream cheese on the bread, lots of veggies, maybe some good-quality turkey breast, roast beef, or whatever. Garden vegetable cream cheese on whole wheat bread with sprouts, tomato, and thinly sliced roast beef is delicious. Dried fruits are a favorite snack of mine, especially since they stand up to brown-bagging it. Nuts are also always delicious.

Is it just me or does the term "sack lunches" just sound funny. I don't think we use that term here, so I just keep picturing burlap potato sacks or scrotums... (shudder).

bag lunches?
Lunchbox lunches?

Sack is one ofthose regionalisms :) like pop vs soda :)

My suggestion, teach them now how to make their lunch. Have them make the sack lunch with you. They will tell you what they like and don't like. Then, when they are about eight, they can make the lunch with your supervision. (Is it okay if I have . . .?) At ten, they are on their own. It saves a lot of your time and fosters independence.

All i really have to say is avoid junk food teach them to eat as healthy as you can. Some fruit apples pears or grapes were always my fav. Sandwiches are always great in lunches one slice of turkey and cheese and a ton of veggies stuffed on it. While other kids were munching on chips and pretezls and stuff i was always happy eating baby carrots.

My 12 year old is in a tuna fish sandwich phase, she helps to make her sandwiches, but we make 2-3 of them at a time. She also gets a cheese stick and a drink. However, most of the time she trades with her friends so we never know what she eats until she gets home.