Make ahead fridge/freezer lunch for children

[Anonymous]

My son is going to daily camp this summer and needs to pack lunch.
We do school lunch so this is new to me.

I’d like to make lunch on the weekend and have it grab and go during the week.

I could make muffins or energy bites…?

He is a picky eater unfortunately, but he’ll do almond butter and jelly.

Other ideas? I bought a plastic 3 container thing for his lunchbox so I want to pack and stack in the fridge or freezer.
Thanks!

[Anonymous]

What does he eat?

A lot of lunches can be made the night before but won’t keep for days in the fridge.

[Anonymous]

My kids buy lunch during the school year because we are all lazy, but in the summer, we separate out small portions of fruit, pieces of cheese, salami, olives, crackers, etc. to make it easier for them to toss into their lunch boxes the night before. They have been making their own lunches (supervised) since they were in Kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does he eat?

A lot of lunches can be made the night before but won’t keep for days in the fridge.

Carbs. He might do bagels and cream cheese. Carrot sticks.

[Anonymous]

Almond butter and jelly, fruit, chips
Cheese/crackers , fruit, chips
Cold rotisserie chicken with ketchup packet, fruit, chips.
You can also do a Thermos if time allows. Mine takes hot lunch twice a week. Usually nuggets or pasta leftovers. Preheat the thermos with hot water for about 10 mins first.

[Anonymous]

My kid ate pb&j every school day for lunch for about ten years. We included fruit and water and called it a day.

[Anonymous]

bagel, cream cheese and cucumber slices
hummus and veggies in a pita pocket
pbj
salami and cheese on a hard roll
pasta salad with veggies, mozz balls and italin dressing

These are typical camp lunches for my kids. I always freeze a capri sun and use it as the ice pack, and add cut fruit and chips as sides.

[Anonymous]

You can make a stack of PB&J sandwiches on the weekend and freeze them. I assume it would work for almond butter as well, although I haven't tried that.

If not sandwiches, I always packed a bento style or multiple containers with:
-1 protein: diced cooked chicken, cubes of cheese, hard boiled egg
-1 fruit or vegetable: mandarin orange, strawberries, carrot sticks (with dip if that's how they prefer to eat carrots), etc
-1 carb: crackers, bread, leftover cooked pasta
-1 extra: junky snack or dessert: chips, cookies

Sandwiches basically took care of the protein and carb, so I just packed a fruit/veggie and a snack/dessert along with it.

Assuming he has a water bottle for camp, that should do it. If not, I'd add a water bottle or juice box.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does he eat?

A lot of lunches can be made the night before but won’t keep for days in the fridge.

+1. Our kids also like cold chicken and hardboiled eggs.

[Anonymous]

I used to assemble small sized sandwiches and wrapped individually. I used Hawaiian dinner rolls and deli turkey or ham and cheese. Within the refrigerator, separate or label. (If kids needed mayo or mustard, they would have to handle). Child would grab however many sandwiches they needed, a piece of fruit and previously assembled crackers/pretzels in a snack zip lock.

[Anonymous]

You can make a sandwich the night before, but not a weeks worth. That would not be good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid ate pb&j every school day for lunch for about ten years. We included fruit and water and called it a day.

Mine too!

[Anonymous]

We usually do a pbj plus some combo of yogurt pouch, cheese, cut veggies, fruit and sometimes a cookie.

[Anonymous]

If you really want something to freeze maybe a pasta casserole that could just thaw and be eaten cold? I don’t think any kind of sandwich is going to work.