I need ideas for my kids' lunch boxes.?

Question

They are tired of sandwiches, and I want to make sure they are getting something healthy. Also, I need them to be quick and easy to prepare in the morning.

Answer 1

Make your own "Lunchables" - as the commercial ones are rubbish - high fat, high salt. Use real cheese (not the processed cheese "food" slices), whole grain crackers, some chopped veggies (cucumber slices, baby carrots, celery sticks, fresh peas, etc.) and real ham, turkey or roast beef cut bite-sized.

Leftover pizza is ALWAYS a hit.

Buy a proper wide-mouth thermos (make sure it's EASY TO OPEN) and send any leftovers kids like - just heat something (chili, soup, stew, pasta in sauce, goulash with rice, etc.) in the microwave in the morning and pop it into the thermos. It will stay hot until lunch. Remember to send cutlery with your child.

Be sure to include a couple of servings of fruit - kids are more likely to eat it if it's ready to go - washed, peeled (if need be), and cut into bite-sized portions - when you wash grapes, pull them off the stem and pop them into a snack-sized zipper bag. Or, make a home-made fruit salad (strawberries, chopped peaches or nectarines, chopped pears, raspberries, blueberries, halved seedless grapes, tossed with a can of pineapple tidbits in pineapple juice - no need for added sugar) and send in a small wide-mouth thermos with a spoon.

Answer 2

Lunchables are quick and tasty. They have full meals. Like a drink, a main food, and a snack. Or, try some different types of sandwiches. Like instead of peanut butter and jelly, try a vegetable sandwich. Full of cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, mayonaise, onions, condiments (like mustard, ketchup, pepper, and salt if you want). If you like turkey slices try that too. Some people take noodles, pizza, and a lot of other stuff. Burritos and tacos are good. make your own unique ingredients. Salad is really healthy. There's something called lettuce boats, I have heard something like that. Soup in one a thermos. Hope this helps! Have a great day!!!

Answer 3

My kids love wraps. I let them use leftovers to put them together the night before. Steak wraps, chicken, ham, tuna ect.....
Also try pita pockets, again something they can help stuff and put together the night before.
I also put all the fixings to (build a dog). I pack a bun a hot dog and then the little packets of ketchup and mustard from take out. Some shredded cheese, they put it all together at lunch and love it. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

I make tuna salad and add shredded carrots to it.
Put in some crackers so they can eat the tuna with those (cheaper than lunchables and not as many additives)

You can try the lil tortilla wraps, cheeses and fruits, pretzels with a whipped cream cheese to dip them in.....Cooked chicken cubes with a lil bit of dressing added in the morning(chicken salad-mine likes it plain)

Answer 5

My kids love "homemade pizza lunch-ables" They are cheaper and healthier than store-bought. I give them pita bread, a small Tupperware container of pizza sauce, a small container of shredded mozzarella cheese and a plastic spoon. (they don't like pepperoni or I would include that as well) They make their pizzas fresh.

I combine this with fruit, maybe go-gurt and a handful of nuts. They love it and ask for it nearly everyday.

Answer 6

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Hello :o) You can make a tasty cold rice or couscous salad, by cooking the rice or couscous (which takes no cooking - just a bowl with boiling water an inch over the grains and stir in some vegetable stock) or cook the rice in some vegetable stock, even with a shake of chinese five spice into the cous cous or rice after its cooked for an oriental difference on some days!

Stir in strips of cold chicken or beef or just vegetables roasted the night before on a tray for 15 mins, with a shake of olive oil over them and a sprinkling of brown sugar over the onion to make them delicious and sweet. You can use spring onion,baby corn cobs, or loose sweet corn, celery, mushrooms, red yellow and green bell peppers, olives(if the kids will eat them they are very good for them) and toasted pine nuts/almonds are yummy too and add extra protien and energy ....and of course fresh herbs or salad....this mixture is truly delicious and always has them scraping their plates clean... you can spoon a portion into a little tub with a lid on and they can eat it with a plastic fork or spoon. You can stir in a spoon of creme fraiche or mayonaise/yoghurt to make the mixture creamy and they can eat it with crackers or bread sticks broken in half, pitta bread or little slices of french bread already buttered in a sandwich box.

making a chocolate tiffin cake with seeds, nuts and raisins,cherries etc is great for a little treat for desert because you can cut a square for each day for most of the week and freeze a tray to defrost for the week after and so on. Making an apple and date and walnut slice is very easy and very cheap too and can be cut into squares to give them a piece each day, or just a chewy cereal bar with a little yoghurt and slices of mango or melon etc in a little tub...with some strips of cheese, they love that! There's a lot more ideas too. I'm sure there'll be ideas about this on the internet somewhere or in a recipe books.

Kids love bits and bobs... things to dip into things and crunchy bits and different flavours and it's good to expand their palette..so just experiment and let your imagination come up with different ideas and try them out on your kids. Good luck!

take care x x x :o)

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Answer 7

Leftover pizza..or you can make a frozen one the night before, raw veggies with ranch, salads, leftover dinner,ravioli, anything really just make sure to go buy some containers..cuz you might need some..well i hope this helps

Answer 8

I used to have crackers and cheese in my lunch (not lunchables), you can pre-slice the cheese or buy the cheese cubes or small slices at the store. You could also pack veggies and peanutbutter or pretzles and peanut butter (they sell small containers of peanut butter at the store now).

Answer 9

try crackers and cheese w/ome fruit cups and veggiesand if they are tired of sandwiches cut the bread in shapes with a cookie cutter

Answer 10

fruit kabobs but poke straws through the center instead of the pokey things,

lasagna-you culd prepare night b4
or tv dinner you cook that morning

or let them get hot lunch