Hi All,
DD is starting school next year and up until now I've avoided where possible the over use of pre packed foods. I've always bought yoghurt in big tubs and filled up containers, made my biscuits, never used that string cheese etc. I wanted to continue this with my DD's school lunches but my SIL thinks I am dreaming and that I'll end up giving into the world of heavily packaged foods due to peer pressure and convenience.
So I need some ideas for lunch menus please!!!
NOOOOOO, dont give up. It can totally be done.
I'm a teacher and see the crazy and amazing things which people pack into their kids lunchboxes.
I'll be back with some ideas later.
I rarely use pre packaged foods for DS1 at school, with the exception of yogurts (when we get the big tubs everyone tends to eat bigger portions, so the small individual tubs suit me better). Usually DS1 will have a sandwich, yogurt, sultanas or watermelon and an apple. He sometimes has pasta salad with tuna instead of the sandwich, and a cookie or cake instead of the sultanas if I have been baking. DS1 occasionally asks for the muesli bars and cheese strings he sees his friends having, but he is quite fussy and happy with the diet he is used to. I'm sure your DD will be the same, kids like what they are used to.
We do the things you've mentioned above, yoghurt into a re-usable container, sandwich in lunch wraps, museli slice cut up as museli bars etc... it can be done and your best friend is going to be organisation. Get lunches ready the night before as much as you can and you won't be grabbing the pre-packaged stuff for convenience.
We use a thermos container for lunch most days, summer it has fresh fruit (watermelon, rockmelon) in it, winter ds quite often takes leftovers for lunch, fried rice, meatballs, pasta etc...
Ooh I'll subscribe to this thread for ideas too. So far for DS's 2 days of preschool, we get by with things like bags of grapes, a carrot, a little box of salad, a sandwich and maybe a couple of corn/rice thins. But we're going to need some variety once it's 5 days a week LOL.
I do get him the string cheese cos I was well impressed with the minimal ingredients in them! I was expecting the highly processed 20-ingredient rubbish, but it's got the same ingredients as a block of normal cheese. So I do get those ;)
I'm thinking of making mini quiches and things to pack for lunch. We've only ever had them hot tho, so I'll have to trial him with some cold ones heh. Maybe some healthy mini-muffins or something?
ETA: Doodlebug! *mwah* I was about to post a thread about lunch packs and if there's something that can keep food hot/cold. I am about to go nuts looking at all the thermos stuff LOL. Do you know of any other brands? hmm... maybe I should still start a thread. haha.
No! It can be done :)
Some of the other ladies have already given you super ideas ... I'd also add salads (just normal salad with some meat/egg/cheese for protein - with some potato/rice/pasta/bean salad as well, if they're needing the extra stodginess to fill their little tummies).
I second the yoghurt - it's great for keeping them full!
Fruit is so handy - and bananas and mandarins are extra great, because they don't need washing!
I agree with doodle's comment that organisation is key - I used to make up two big batches of things on the weekend, and then tubbed them up for the week for DH and my lunches. Things that I found keep really well and are good for lunches are lasagne, pastabake, quiche, chilli, curry and stirfry. I find pasta and rice is a better base than noodles and potato, but I guess it depends on whether you freeze or not ...
I also have found that lots of salads can be chopped up and tubbed in an air tight crisper and will last all week (carrot, celery, cucumber, capsicum). Tomatoes and lettuce I find don't last that long once chopped up - but you can always just throw in a few lettuce leaves and use cherry tomatoes in with the salad in the crisper :) And you can boil eggs, cube cheese, and cook and chop up meat in advance too, so all you have to do the night before is tear up some lettuce, and chuck in a cup full of the salad and some of the protein, and there's a great healthy lunch, which can just go with a pot of yoghurt and a piece of fruit.
I guess it depends on what your DD likes though :)
Of course you can send her to school without pre-packaged foods. Pre-packaged isn't even easier nowdays.
Angelica gets sandwich, cheese sticks (the only prepackaged food) or slices, yogurt, airpopped popcorn, fresh fruit, dried fruit and a bottle of water. More then enough food for an adult let alone a little child.
When I was a kid, we never had prepackaged things either. We got a sandwich, a peice of fruit and 2 bikkies (usually homemade) wrapped in glad wrap. That was it, everyday. People don't NEED anything fancy or processed. Kids might pester you for it, but the beauty about being a parent is that you can reserve the right to say 'no'.
The trickiest part to all of this is the containers, esp if you're trying to steer away from plastic bags, etc for the sake of the environment.
I learnt fairly early on that DD was a bit prone to leaving my tupperware items around, so get used to rummaging through the lost property box regularly (in the classroom and in the office) or stocking up on new ones every so often.
You can freeze your own muffins/slices/ready made sandwiches, and they come out fresh & lovely.
You can also freeze yoghurt in summer, keeps the lunchbox cold or they can eat it still frozen for a change
DD1 quite likes to take cold left over pasta from the night before.
A mixture of a few different things (ie crackers in together with dried fruit) provides variety
We send hot milo or soup when it's really cold in winter.
Subscribing because I need desperate ideas for my kiddies lunches. I am so desperate for better ideas. I'm so bland with lunches.
I do it, but admit that I have gotten a bit slack lately because I've had a lot on and not a lot of time to do a full weeks worth of baking. But they will always have at least half a lunch box of things that aren't in a packet. Only one tip though - unless you are prepared to either lose a lot of containers, or have a lunchbox come home full of spilt yoghurt from a lid not being put on properly (either when it's full or after they are finished and they don't put the lid back on properly), then it might be best to only use small tubs of yoghurt. I learnt the hard way that it makes their lunch box smell like you wouldn't believe. Sandwiches are what they have for lunch most days because that is what they prefer, but sometimes during summer they have cold meat and salads.
For DH (who needs to take a packed lunch everyday because he isn't near any shops etc) I make muffins, sausagerolls (load 'em up with all sorts of vegies! and you can have them cold or hot and they're still yummo), little mini pizza's and of course left over dinner.
There is also the obvious ones... fruit... grapes are a good one! The list is endless really... the only issue i have is containing it all!
I try to keep the amount of $ i'm saving in the back of my mind as motivation!
Oh totally it can be done easy, and there are some packaged foods also that are not terrible that you can use also. There are soooo many things you can make and freeze - I actually think it's harder to provide variety with all the packaged stuff and expensive, sure your child will see other stuff & might ask but they will eat what they are used to.
You can get kids thermo's for leftovers.
I always put 2 serves of fruit in Charlie's lunch for Kindy. Today was a banana and a pair, also I put in what I want to eat....given no choice if he is hungry he will eat. Toaday's lunch box was, banana, pear, yogurt, whomeal cruskits with vegimite and a couple home made cookies.
You can make Pikelets (plain, with banana, with appple etc), savoury slices, savoury muffins, sweet muffins, banana bread, cheese & vegemite scrolls, scones, pizza scrolls, pinwheels, pancakes, cookies, muesli bars, trail mix, sausage rolls (full of vegies), pasties (full of vegies), cakes soooo many things.
We also use raw nuts, dried fruits, cereals (some make good snacks), grain bread sandwiches, whomeal crackers with cheese, dips. Vegies with dips.
Ok that's all I can think of now with screaming baby at my feet. Hope that helps.
the thought of the lunch storage items getting lost is a sticking point. i get the non-PVC lunchboxes, and hadn't understood what the Thermos lunch containers could be used for before, but thanks to Doodlebug, i think i understand now. We've been usign the Thermos Foggo bottles for last few years, but never "got" the lunch containers before.
i'm thinking the food won't be the expensive bit, it will be teh lost/missing/snatched by bigger kids for a joke storage containers that will be the expensive bit. I will send food that will "keep" for a few hours, especially in our heatwave summers (lots of plus 40 temps the whole time bilby has been alive, each of the last four summers.
the foggo bottles are best part of 30 dollars, i wonder if i'll have to switch to plastic bottles, for school.
Is it only the littlies (preps, early grades) that lose the lunch stuff, or is it all agegroups? Prolly sounds silly, but i just can't imagine bilby keeping track of all this stuff, without me around (to do it for her, remind her etc). i hope the preps eat in their classroom or something.
not kidding yourself at all, DD1 has been at school almost a year now and has taken pre packaged maybe 3 times.
We usually have a sandwich (i also dont use sandwich bags i use a material lunch pack which i made which is more eco friendly and cheaper!)
Yogurt bought in the big tubs
We do baking every weekend and she picks what she would like for school - sometimes muffins, sometimes cake, muesli slice, scones the possiblities are endless just as long as you check with the school first about any allergies.
Veggie sticks - celery, carrot, cucumber
Cheese and sultanas
In summer we get skewers and different types of melon and other fruits (whatever you like really) and freeze them get one out of the freezer in the morning the kids love them.
I'll have a think more when they arent screaming around me!
OH!
My SIL makes these little vegemite and cheese twist things...
you get puff pastry and slice it into inch wide peices (and however long you want) put vegemite and cheese on, then put another peice of puff pastry ontop and twist and then bake them in the oven... you can also do it using jam :)
ETA, this i sgiving me some more great ideas for hubbys lunch box too haha
The Tupperware divided lunchbox is airtight, so no need for plastic wrap or bags. You can even put yoghurt directly into a compartment and it won't leak. Our school has a 'rubbish free' lunch box policy (pertaining to wrappers, although they also recommend no 'rubbish' food!). It's actually pretty easy when you get used to it and is much cheaper to buy things in bulk packets and put a handful in the lunchbox.
We haven't lost a lunchbox (yet!) and I have found Tupperware lasts longer than the other brands, my DD has had hers for almost 5 years with no problems. My DS dropped his and the corner of the lid broke (so not airtight anymore :( ) but Tupperware replaced the lid for free!
You can buy lunch boxes now that have all the seperate compartments.
Mine usually take a sandwich, capsicum, carrots, grapes, jatz & cheese, sao's, bikkies, cupcakes (I make), apple, banana, watermelon (on occasion).
DD2 loves the home brand le snacks, so will take one of them a day. Other than that its a heck of a lot cheaper to not buy the packaged stuff. We'll occasionally get chips or pop corn, but not often. I use resealable bags that I can wash & re use if I have the energy, or I'll put all their fruit in one & bikkies/cakes in the other. I try to use as little as possible. Next year I'm thinking about getting the lunch boxes that have the seperate parts.
ETA - I think DD1 looses more stuff than DD2! DD2 even brings her rubbish home. It all goes straight back in the bag.
You'll be fine with it! Our school has a "nude food" policy and there is actually competition from the kids as to who can have the least rubbish. The class rooms also compete with it.
The other reason I found to stick with it is the cost. All the bars and snacks cost a fortune (when I haven't baked on the weekend I hate spending the money on them) and I also found the boys got bored with them and if I get lazy they whinge for cookies or slice.
Lastly I try my best to stick to a numbers free diet and commercial snacks are full of additives, preservatives and colours. Even natural colours can set off reactions according to the failsafe diet.