With 5 kids (4 of whom are in school), lunch making can become a very daunting task.
We have given our kids the responsibility of making their own lunches. We set out some guidelines so they are not just packing junk all the time.
Our one main rule is: If you make it you have to eat it…
We have seen it all, ketchup and pickles with bologna, mayo and ketchup and ham. As long as they eat them, we don’t really care.
The guideline for packing a lunch is that they need to include a main item, a healthy snack, a junky snack, a bottle of water and a bottle of juice.
Some of the choices they have used are:
- Main Items – sandwiches, wraps, hardboiled eggs, Egg McMoms, blt’s, leftovers from dinner, and other things
- Healthy Items - raw veggies and dip, granola bars, oatmeal cookies, hardboiled eggs (if they brought a sandwich instead), fruit, cheese and crackers, and others
- Junky Items – dessert squares, cookies, chips, cheesies, candies (halloween just past), just to name a few
- Always the reusable water bottle and the reusable bottle of juice, unless juice boxes are on sale
I am always looking for new ideas. When we get on a roll we will make a bunch of treats ahead of time, like muffins, cookies, breads etc. We will wrap them up individually to make the lunch packing go easier.
I saw this really cool product out there for wrapping sandwiches up in. It would be used instead of a sandwich baggie, which is better to reduce waste and also saves me money in the long run. You can check them out the instructions to make your own here. A really great idea!
We also let the kids participate in the pizza days once a week. They are allowed one slice and that replaces the main item in their lunches. We are always sending the money in a plastic sandwich baggie (you can imagine how many we were going through) and the kids wouldn’t bring them home to use again. I love mom based businesses and this mom was able to come up with an amazing and affordable idea to reduce the waste and save other parents money in the long run. She produces these Green School Totes. It is something simple that I think every school could take on. I plan on talking to our school to see if they would consider implementing them in our school.
So, now I am looking for feedback. How do you handle school lunches? What suggestions do you have? What ideas or recipes do you use?
I am always interested in mixing it up at our house so no one gets bored…
Thanks for your input!!
I’m open to input for my hubbies lunches too!….lol
thats so cool we do the baking ahead and i do the cheaper pizza days and at our school on second nutrition break every day they can buy chocomilk ( my name for it ).
Sometimes it is costly to participate in the food stuff but when i am working a busy week it saves me time…
I have made cereal bars and wrapped them up individually.
We should get together and make things ahead like we do the meals
My lunches for Julia aren’t too inspired. She gets a peanut butter sandwich every day, per her request. I cut them into shapes with cookie cutters. I always include a raw veggie, a piece of fruit, some kind of cracker and a “goodie,” like a fruit roll up or fruit snacks. For drinks, I send her a small juice and a small water. It’s the same pretty much every day, so I’m interested to hear how y’all mix it up, too.
I’m excited about the new blog. I think you’ll like WordPress.