Last school year, we began packing healthy school lunches. Since then, the kids have definitely come up with a few lunches that are their favorites.
I asked the kids what their favorites were, and these are their top 3.
1. Subway sandwiches ~ The kids like to pile an assortment of meat, usually ham, turkey, pepperoni and bacon, on subway bread, sprinkle a little cheese on top and then broil it for a few minutes to toast and melt everything together.
2. Bagel sandwich ~ I can pretty much guarantee a hit if I include a bagel in their lunch, but their favorite is strawberry cream cheese with sliced strawberries.
3. Homemade Pizzable ~ I haven’t ever bought the pizzables/lunchables due to cost, but for some reason it never occurred to me to do a homemade pizzable. These are really easy to do. Just grab a flat bread, and include the different elements separated in their lunch. I send sauce in a closed container and a spoon so they can spread it at school. Easy, fast and yummy.
Some other ideas we have incorporated are:
1. Homemade Mac and Cheese
2. Fried Rice
3. Pretty much anything Pizza! Mini pizzas on English muffins, Pizza sandwiches in a sandwich maker or waffle iron.
4. Homemade chicken noodle soup
5. Sandwich sushi. You can find my tutorial here.
6. Breakfast. They love it when I send pancakes
And if you are struggling to think of something original to send with your child to go along with a main course, here is my go-to master list.
Side Lunch Dishes
1. Cut fruit. Strawberries and apples are favorites for sure.
2. Pretzels
3. Granola
4. Muffins
5. String cheese. (Freeze over night and it will be perfect by lunch.)
6. Grapes
7. Peanuts (Of course barring major allergies of classmates.)
8. Mini oranges/tangelos
9. Yogurt (In our containers, I press and seal over the yogurt. Works like a charm. No spills.)
10. Apple sauce (Same as with yogurt.)
11. Watermelon when it is in season
12. Popcorn
13. Trail mix
14. A kiwi sliced in half
15. Boiled egg (Some of my kids won’t eat it, so I switch out for something else.)
16. Mini rice cakes (Caramel is the best.)
I have learned a couple of tricks since packing food other than PB & J.
1. Thermos: Preheat by pouring boiling water into it for a few minutes. It heats the core of even our crappy thermos and keeps the food warm until lunch.
2. Press and Seal: I had a love/hate relationship with that stuff because I could never get it to come off the roll cleanly. And I had to cut it in half anyway to seal the one spot on the container. My brilliant husband suggested I cut the roll in half. It was brilliant. The roll is more manageable for my purposes and there is less swearing in the kitchen.
3. Prep ahead: If I have a lunch that requires much cooking, I will prep it on Sundays. You can find my tips for Prep ahead Here.
4. Think outside the lunchbox: Ok, that was cheesy, but seriously! You can send just about anything for lunch. My kids sometimes complain, but I don’t think any of them would go back to our old PB & J way of life. In fact, every Friday I allow them to choose either school lunch, or they can pack their own. They almost always choose a home lunch and they tend to choose healthy foods to take. It makes a Mama proud!
My containers are EasyLunchboxes and for more ideas, check out Momables.
What are your kids favorite lunches?
