One of the best things about being away last week was a reprieve from the monotony of packing school lunches for the kids. But they go back to school in a few days, and there are still 60 or so more school days this year, so I’m determined to keep refining our school lunches to get them made more easily and get them eaten more often. With those goals in mind, I’ve found a few great tips to make school lunches better:
- Pack school lunches right after dinner—this way you can even use dinner leftovers as part of the lunches. Put the any items that don’t need refrigeration right into the lunchboxes and everything else into a specially designated spot in the fridge. If you find you forget to add the refrigerated items in the morning, put your car keys in there as well, or leave a large note on your purse or the lunchboxes.
- Avoid brown apples (they never get eaten) by keeping a small spray bottle filled with lemon juice and water in the fridge. Just give the cut apples a spray before packing—kids will love to help with this step.
- Cut sandwiches into seasonal shapes with cookie cutters to add an element of fun.
- Make your own trail mix using your child’s fave cereal, raisins and mini-pretzels. You can even throw in a few fruit gummies as a surprise. Pack in a reusable container and you have a nut-free snack which is much more economical that the pre-made single serving packs.
What are your favourite school lunch tips?
Comments
I keep yogurt tubes in the freezer. That way they go into the lunch kit frozen to help keep everything else cold, as well as keeping the yogurt good and cold until lunch time.
To change up her sandwiches, I roll luncheon meats or cheese (or both) in colourful or whole-wheat tortillas. She calls them “rollies” and it gives her a break from the usual breads or buns.
I once tried cream cheese, a banana and a small amount of chocolate chips rolled up in a plain tortilla. She didn’t like it, but I’m sure there are others out there who would!
Cutting sandwiches into shapes is definitely a fun way to encourage picky eaters to eat!
We’ve just got some new BPA-free animal and puzzle-shaped cutters in that are specially-made for sandwiches. They’re deeper than normal cookie cutters and are slightly larger to try and cut down on sandwich waste. They’re made by a brilliant Aussie mom.
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