Anonymous wrote:Wow! Will your kids eat this stuff cold???- mozz salad, chicken, steak, empandas, noodles, etc????

Sandwiches are lunch, they won't want them again for dinner even if I change it up.

And is your cooler cold enough to keep stuff cold from, say 12-6/7pm? I guess it's time for a new cooler bag for us.

I guess that's why it's always pizza poolside if we stay longer than 6/7pm. Are your kids older and more flexible - (mine are 2, 4 6)

Uh...is there any version of mozzarella and tomato salad that isn't cold?

OP, I don't think I'd pack any meat if it was going to sit around in a cooler for 6-7 hours. Unless you follow pp's frozen suggestion.

Wow! Will your kids eat this stuff cold???- mozz salad, chicken, steak, empandas, noodles, etc????

Sandwiches are lunch, they won't want them again for dinner even if I change it up.

And is your cooler cold enough to keep stuff cold from, say 12-6/7pm? I guess it's time for a new cooler bag for us.

I guess that's why it's always pizza poolside if we stay longer than 6/7pm. Are your kids older and more flexible - (mine are 2, 4 6)

I'm the empanada poster, and while my kids (4 & 5) won't eat mozzarella salad (though DH and I happily will), they will happily eat empanadas if the fillings aren't too weird (cheese & spinach, cheese and beans, taco meat, chicken and beans are all fine) and love things like peanut noodles or tortillini salad if the dressing isn't too strong. Roll ups or burritos with tried and true favorites (any combo of meat, cheese, beans, and avocado) also go over well. They don't seem to care about things being cold. And if PB&J sandwiches meant they could stay at the pool for dinner, I think they'd gladly have them for lunch and dinner every day.

I made pasta salad and ham & cheese sandwiches on rolls.

I also made a batch of Zatarin's dirty rice and packed that in containers to bring with us to evening swim meats.

I used to make chicken (cut into chunks) with soy sauce, onions, peppers and pineapple. Served with rice. I would finish cooking it right before we left for the pool.. put it in 1 big dish, wrap with aluminum and it was still warm and hour later to eat at 15 minute adult swim.

Anonymous wrote:Just buy food there,

Not all pools have a snack bar. Ours does, but the food is overpriced and unhealthy. We do it as a treat every so often, but not every night that we are at the pool.

--Op

Just buy food there,

You may also want to try freezing items that are meant for dinner and let them thaw in the cooler until dinner time. (Worse comes to worse you could spring for food at the snack bar.)

Anonymous wrote:I'm the op. There's nothing wrong with sandwiches for dinner, but we often do sandwiches for lunch, so I just want to mix it up for them. They also have limited acceptable sandwich fillings, so being creative with sandwiches is harder for me to do than being creative with dinner ideas.

Reasonable people understood what you meant OP.

There have been a lot of good ideas so far. Depending how big your cooler is, you could do the separate chopped lettuce, tomato, and shredded cheese and pack beans or ground beef in a thermos. Throw in a pack of soft tortilla wraps and you have a soft taco bar.

Lock and Lock have good containers, e.g.:
http://locknlocks.com/shop/lock-lock-divided-food-storage-container-3400ml/

Pita bread and hummus. Empanadas. Vietnamese rolls. All sound good to me.

Anonymous wrote:Wow! Will your kids eat this stuff cold???- mozz salad, chicken, steak, empandas, noodles, etc????

Sandwiches are lunch, they won't want them again for dinner even if I change it up.

And is your cooler cold enough to keep stuff cold from, say 12-6/7pm? I guess it's time for a new cooler bag for us.

I guess that's why it's always pizza poolside if we stay longer than 6/7pm. Are your kids older and more flexible - (mine are 2, 4 6)

That's a lot of time you're spending at the pool!

Anonymous wrote:Wow! Will your kids eat this stuff cold???- mozz salad, chicken, steak, empandas, noodles, etc????

Sandwiches are lunch, they won't want them again for dinner even if I change it up.

And is your cooler cold enough to keep stuff cold from, say 12-6/7pm? I guess it's time for a new cooler bag for us.

I guess that's why it's always pizza poolside if we stay longer than 6/7pm. Are your kids older and more flexible - (mine are 2, 4 6)

Not Op but My kids will eat stuff cold (in fact they typically eat these same things for lunch during the school year and eat them after sitting with an ice pack in their lunch bags). Also we often go to the pool after work during the week and have dinner there, so the food only sits in a cooler from 5:30pm until when we eat an hour or so later.

One dish meal, either pasta/rice or salad greens based. E.g., salad greens with grilled chicken, corn, cherry tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese and crushed tortilla chips on top, or same idea but replace salad greens with rice. When my kids were younger, I probably would have kept the items separated so picky eaters could have just separate chicken, corn, etc.

Mains:
Cold roasted chicken pieces (cooked the night before - easy way to get 2 meals from one night of cooking)

Pasta salad

Platter of sliced cheese and salami / deli meats with crackers or baguette

Grains salad - quinoa, farro or wild rice with chopped vegetables, dressing on the side

Sides:
Big Tupperware with sliced vegetables, hummus or Ranch dressing for dipping

Whole strawberries

Cold grilled corn on the cob

I'm the op. There's nothing wrong with sandwiches for dinner, but we often do sandwiches for lunch, so I just want to mix it up for them. They also have limited acceptable sandwich fillings, so being creative with sandwiches is harder for me to do than being creative with dinner ideas.

Wow! Will your kids eat this stuff cold???- mozz salad, chicken, steak, empandas, noodles, etc????

Sandwiches are lunch, they won't want them again for dinner even if I change it up.

And is your cooler cold enough to keep stuff cold from, say 12-6/7pm? I guess it's time for a new cooler bag for us.

I guess that's why it's always pizza poolside if we stay longer than 6/7pm. Are your kids older and more flexible - (mine are 2, 4 6)