I am not creative at all when it comes to this. Last year the kids got peanut butter everyday. I need to make it more exciting because there will be no cafeteria eating this year. What do you put as drinks, snacks and the main thing to eat?

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My ds likes turkey sandwiches, or sometimes ham, then usually I put a small snack cake or a few cookies or pudding, or even fruit snacks, sometimes a ziplock bag of chips. He'll take a juice box on occasion but he prefers to buy milk at school. He's only 6 so he doesn't need much to eat for lunch.

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All depends on what your child likes. I would pack all sorts of different sandwiches, from egg salad to pb&banana. Use different types of breads, tortillas and pitas to change it up a little. Cold/lo chicken legs or homemade chicken nuggets. Do they have access to a microwave?? Chef boyardee has little cups of ravioli, etc. Not very healthy but something warm in the winter. Thermos with homemade soup.
Snacks: fruit cups, granola bars, crackers with cheese or pb, veggies and dip, pudding cups, gogurts, bananas or apples/pears slices, cheese sticks.
Drinks: I would send juice boxes freeze them 1/2 way so they help keep everything cold. Or send milk $.

I just take a look at the print out of the food pyramid that I have on my fridge and make sure that they are getting something from each catergory. I never put anything like cakes or chips in their lunches for school. Not that they dont eat stuff like that, but I dont want them too crazy on sugar and not be able to pay attention in school.

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we have those thermous for food I will send soup with dd or anything hot i them she ishappy!

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Kelly mom to 3 great girls A Peanut, a monkey and a little burrito.

This will be my first year packing lunches for my dd. Neither of my children are lunch meat eaters so it will be peanut butter or cheese for protein.

I've been meaning to try to get her to eat hard boiled eggs but keep forgetting. That would be another good option.

Thermos of Chocolate milk
Thermos of Homemade soup
Peanut butter sandwich
Cheese wraps
Cheese sticks
Homemade granola
Goldfish
Pretzels
Cereal
Yogurt
Pudding
Applesauce
Fruit cups
Apple slices
Raisins

Be sure your school allows peanut butter. Many schools don't anymore due to peanut allergies.

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I put a grain, protein, fruit & veggie in each lunch.

So some days this is Hummus & pita bread, small tomatoes, and blueberries; Salami rolls (just salami rolled up and secured with toothpick), crackers, veggie and fruit; ds also likes 'kabobs' as in chunks of ham, pieces of veggie like small tomatoes or olives, and then a chunk of cheese on a toothpick 'skewer'; or sometimes we'll do 'tapas' with little bits of all different kinds of cheeses, fruits, veggies, and breads/crackers.

Will your child have access to a microwave? Because I started making these 'tortilla pockets' that can be made ahead, frozen, then popped into a lunchbag and heated at school (we do not have a lunch program either).

I take a flour tortilla, and mound the filling in there like a burrito, folding up all the ends. I first heat the tortilla for 10 seconds in the microwave to ensure easy folding, and lay the tortilla on a piece of foil. After it is all bundled up, I use the foil to continue wrapping it (my burritos tend to open) and the foil keeps it all rolled up in one piece without filling falling out.

I have tried for the filling a homemade 'rice a roni' with small bits of cooked chicken and a little cheese as a filling and I find it very kid friendly. When the child goes to have lunch, they can wrap it in a paper towel (you can include this) (minus the foil of course) and microwave it for 1 minute on one side, then 40 seconds on the other side. Wrap in the foil and leave for a minute or two to cool down, then eat!

Ds will be getting some of these in his lunch next year and I'm looking forward to making different versions of these for him.

I was worried about that but our school is not peanut free. I didn't know what my daughter was going to eat without peanut butter!

I'm sending my girls to your house. How did you get him to eat this food? Yes, I have offered it over and over again!

Lunches are a bit different at our house. DD (7 yrs) is very picky and will not touch a sandwich of any kind.

I always make her a buffet-type lunch. We have a laptop lunchbox and I just fill it with something from each of the food groups and a sweet treat.

Examples: Deli meat (ham, turkey or chicken), bread or crackers, diced (mozz-cheddar-swiss) or string cheese, fruit (blueberries, strawberries, watermelon..etc), veggies (sliced carrots or green peppers, etc), something sweet like fruit snacks or graham crackers, and a cookie or small piece of candy.

She always takes water or milk to drink, it's just her preference. We use the water bottle that came with the laptop lunchbox kit.

I often use tiny cookie cutters to cut her cheese, green peppers, or bread(made in the bread machine) to make it more fun.

She doesn't like soups or casseroles, so we've never used our Thermos.

She doesn't have access to a microwave, maybe they do in the higher grades..she'll be in 1st grade this year.

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