I’m not going to lie — so far I really enjoy packing my son’s lunch for preschool. Granted, he only goes twice a week and it’s only been a month, but still, I look forward to putting it all together! Here are some of the lunches I’ve been packing him since he’s started.
Top left: spinach ravioli with marinara, green beans, edamame, and strawberries (he ate all of the ravioli and strawberries and a bit of the veggies).
Top right: black beans, cheddar cheese stick, roasted corn, tortilla, and grapes (he ate almost everything).
Bottom left: rice with mixed veggies, strawberries, and a hard boiled egg (he ate half of the rice with veggies, all of the strawberries, and two bites of egg).
Bottom right: turkey with avocado rolled in tortilla, strawberries, and cheddar cheese (he ate all but two of the rolls).
I never spend more than 5 minutes preparing his lunch. Everything is either in the fridge, leftovers from dinner, or something frozen that I can quickly defrost. They do not heat up the kids’ food at school, so everything I pack has to be able to be eaten cold. Even though I’m not a fan of cold pasta, Liam loves it, so it’s easy to find things he will eat cold.
I love these plastic bento type boxes I got off Amazon. I wanted stainless steel, but these were so affordable I couldn’t pass them up. Liam’s school provides a morning and an afternoon snack, so this is what he gets just at lunch time, plus a thermos of milk (that he never finishes).
I’m sure I will eventually get sick of making Liam’s lunch, but for now, it’s nice to have one chore that I enjoy. What do you pack in your kids’ lunches?
cantaloupe / 6730 posts
I just bought those lunch boxes for daycare. How are they holding up? Also, how are they for keeping food separate? Like if there are crackers in one part and fruit in another, do the crackers become soggy?
kiwi / 511 posts
Edited to add….darn that was long…TLDR; Lunches ugggg.
Lunchs ugggg. I have been packing them since DS1 (4 years old) started daycare at 19 months. I also now pack 2 lunches (the second is for DS2 (2 years old) and the daycare will warm lunches if necessary. Our daycare provides an afternoon snack, however for DS2 I pack his afternoon snack due to food allergies. And I thank my stars that they are peanut and nut free since nuts are one of the food allergies I don’t have to worry quite so much about snacks, lunches or special treats brought in for parties. I still worry about eggs though, since he has an anaphylaxis reaction to those.
For DS1 almost every single day is soynut butter and jelly sandwich, I switch up the jellies and breads but he loves it, has a lot of protein and calories (which he needs) and some small fruit to go with it. His morning snack is either a nutrigrain bar or a yogurt, and he gets a thermos of milk, the school provides water if the kids want it but they try to get them to drink milk first unless they are outside on the playground.
DS2 is a bit more flexible with is lunches, he LOVES leftover sweet potatoes, rotisserie chicken, ham, sausage, veggies. Sometimes he likes pasta or mac & cheese but those are hit or miss. He also likes his soynut butter and jelly sandwiches too but I don’t give them to him every day. His morning snack is usually a yogurt and a single Enjoy Life cookie and his afternoon snack is fruit and 2 Enjoy Life cookies. And he gets milk at lunch and water during snacks.
Both boys can afford to put on weight and with DS2 we are actually trying to do that so we load him up with as much food as we can. We are also trying to expand his volume intake to help put on the calories but he is pretty stubborn when he says he is done he is done. Both boys still drink whole milk as an extra source of calories (with the pedi’s blessing).
I LOVE Friday’s though since they do pizza Fridays so all I have to do for DS1 is send in milk, money and morning snack. For DS2 I send in all his food including pizza because the place they order from uses egg in their crust. For DS2 we make pizza at home and cut it and freeze the slices so I just pull 2 out and they warm them at school.
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
I wish I loved packing lunch like you did. I am so bd with coming up with enough things to hit all the food groups. I only have to pack lunch twice and I hate it. Im going to steal some of these ideas now and hope DS will eat them!
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
@Mrs.Maven: I forgot to say that our school is but free also!!
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
@Grace: so far they are holding up great! The package says that they are not leak free. I haven’t had a problem with things mixing inside it, but it had leaked a bit inside his lunch box. Not bad, though.
kiwi / 511 posts
@mrs. tictactoe: I love that auto-correct likes to change nut to but
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
@Mrs.Maven: bahahaha it’s early. Too tired to catch that!
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
Nice lunches!! I wish I could send lunches to M’s daycare, I loved making them for her! He eats his lunches cold, right?
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
@mediagirl: Yes, they do not heat them. He doesn’t seem to mind, though!
grapefruit / 4923 posts
what yummy lunches! glad this is a fun “chore” for you–hopefully i will feel the same way when our time comes…but i doubt it.
cherry / 215 posts
Ooh, love the idea of separating the beans and corn with a cheese stick!
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
@mossyslane: Haha, thanks! I thought that was pretty creative
blogger / apricot / 367 posts
What to pack for lunch is always a struggle at our house, so I’m going to give these options a try! Thanks for these ideas!