The Lunch Box Dilemma

[julifish]

My girls ages 11 and 7 are on week 2 of summer camp and already they are complaining about the lunches I'm packing. We packed lunch pretty much all year last year and now we have summer upon us and my girls are sandwiched out! Last week we did chicken nuggets almost every day but that's so, not healthy (even though they are baked). I'm at a loss here!

You ladies are all so creative - give me some healthy and fun ideas for their lunch boxes. We use a little 6 can cooler lunch box that has a little bit of insulation. We also have blue ice we refreeze each day. My kids are picky, but no allergies. They don't have the ability to reheat food at camp. Also, we live in Florida so it's really hot here right now.

Can't wait for the suggestions. TIA

[Darcy Baldwin]

If you do a quick search for lunch ideas on the forum, there've been quite a few threads on this idea. Here are a few of the links I've had tucked away:

Lunch in a box

laptoplunches.com

Lunch boxes for kids

Lunchbox ideas

SuperHealthykids I'm a big fan of smoothies for the kids - better than juice as it contains all of the fiber and other minerals that come from the pulp of the fruit. You can make them in the morning and stick them in a cold thermos, or freeze them overnight and stick them in an insulated cup/thermos and they should be great for lunchtime with an ice pack in the lunch.

Vegan Lunchbox Yep, she's vegan and so is her child, but she has great ideas of ways to eat and fun presentations for the kids. I've gotten tons of ideas from this site for quite awhile.

Easy Lunchboxes

[knlchevys]

I can't wait to look at those sites Darcy!!! My DS has a little OCD and part of that he won't have anything to do with bread. Freaks out to be near it. So school lunch for us meant Ritz crackers with either pepporoni and cheese or pb and honey. I felt so bad for him. Can't wait to check those out of ideas!! Thank you

[AmberK]

awesome links Darcy...I cant wait to read more about them. My kids dont really like bread unless they are eating PB&J so I usually sent meat and cheese with them with some fruit but I feel like it gets boring to them. I need some good ideas for the upcoming school year.

I've also been reading about Bento boxes and Im wanting to do this for the kids and myself for our lunches.

[rach3975]

I checked out some of the links, but 3/4 of the suggestions were things my picky 6-year old wouldn't touch. If I don't choose his foods carefully, he takes 2 or 3 bites (out of the entire lunch), finishes his drink, and calls it good. Here are some of the things that worked well for us during school. He won't eat sandwiches other than pb or butter, so I do lots of little containers filled with different foods (think Bento style, but in regular Rubbermaid containers). I try not to send the same meal more than once a week.

Here are some of the meals that work for DS's lunch box, always with a juice box or milk:

*hard boiled eggs, whole wheat bread with butter, sliced cheese, applesauce
*yogurt, peanut butter on Triscuits, craisins
*chicken (leftover Rotisserie chicken or nuggets), grapes, rice cakes
*sliced deli meat rolled up, whole wheat bread with butter, yogurt tube, dried fruit (the fruit-leather-type fruit snacks from Target that are 100% fruit)
*soy hot dogs, cheese slices, fruit dices
*peanut butter sandwich makings (he won't eat a pb sandwich that sits around, so I send a small container of pb and 2 slices of bread with a plastic knife), fruit
*yogurt, popcorn (popped at home, sent in a ziplock), grapes
*black or kidney beans, sliced cheese, brown rice, applesauce

I think that's most of it. Good luck!

[julifish]

Thanks for the ideas! Those sites look awesome Darcy - my 11 yo is on top it already this morning. She is surfing those sites for ideas she likes so we can go grocery shopping this afternoon.