Thanks everyone. Bookmarking this!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll +3 the concept of a bento box lunch, esp for non-sandwich eaters. No need for an actual bento box (but we loved the fun silicone dividers and hard-boiled egg molds! I'm jealous; they even have a T-Rex one now!).

A really good book for an intro is The Just Bento Cookbook and the companion website: https://www.justbento.com/. The website was dormant for awhile but it looks to be back a bit.

And for those who say kids won't touch this stuff, you never know til you try. If you make it fun to prepare/pack and involve them, they're much more likely to eat it. Yes, it takes time. But it's worth it: the time with your kiddos will go so quickly and you'll end up with better ingredients, at usually a cheaper price. Practice over the Summer to find what you might like and develop a routine. Good luck and good munching!

Some of us have tried. I was very smug about what a good eater my kid was until some traumatic things happened and now he’s in feeding therapy. -NP

PP here. I'm so sorry. Many virtual hugs sent your way.

I am so jealous of all the variety here! My 7 year old is a very picky eater. She’s really willing to try so many more things than a year ago, so it’s getting better, but lunch is still tricky - no Mac & cheese, no chicken nuggets, no pizza. She just barely willing to eat pasta with butter, and not enough to fill up on. I also have a 4 year old who is a more adventurous eater, but I’m not making 2 different lunches. So staples for us in lunch are:

Sun butter & honey sandwiches

Sliced applies with cinnamon - they won’t eat a whole apple if I send it in whole, or sliced if it gets brown. Cinnamon covers the brown and it’s easy for me, and they’ll each eat the whole apple.

Frozen waffles. I toast them in the morning and they eat them cold. I ordered little silicone squeeze bottles from Amazon and put a small amount of syrup in them.

Blueberry pancakes - this is their fav but I’ll only do it once a week. I get the Kodiak protein pancake mix - just add water! And add frozen blueberries to the pancakes as they’re cooking. Sometimes I do it the night before. Sometimes the morning of. Bonus is I know they’re eating the fruit!

I send fruit every day. We use a metal container for lunches and I use muffin cups to divide as needed. I try for 2 muffin cups of fruit a day. Sometimes at the end of the week “fruit” = raisins or dried mango. Anything whole - apple, pear, banana, clementine - comes home untouched 80% of the time, so I avoid that.

I try to add a fun snack part of the time, maybe most of the time - pretzels, goldfish, pirates booty, cheezits.

Hard boiled eggs used to be easy and a big hit but she was teased about the smell and begged me not to send them anymore. So I don’t.

I would very much like to move to the bin system, but all the examples I’ve seen are processed food + whole fruit. That doesn’t work for us.

Good luck OP!

Also cut up rostisserie chicken works great for protein!

We do micro’d chicken nuggets with ketchup dip for one and jimmy dean sausage Pattie’s for the other. Big fruit salad with lots of strawberries for nugget kid and yogurt or applesauce packets and apple slices. Granola bars for dessert. Cheesy cracker packs - I prefer the Keebler ones slightly less junk in them.

Other options: Mozerella Cheese sticks (whole milk ones taste way better).
croissant cut up with jelly spread.

Tips: Freeze yogurt packs overnight or use the blue ice chiller packs. I like the siggis yogurt packs but they are pricier. Less sugar more protein. My kids are usually thirsty so I often add a chocolate milk.

Anonymous wrote:I'll +3 the concept of a bento box lunch, esp for non-sandwich eaters. No need for an actual bento box (but we loved the fun silicone dividers and hard-boiled egg molds! I'm jealous; they even have a T-Rex one now!).

A really good book for an intro is The Just Bento Cookbook and the companion website: https://www.justbento.com/. The website was dormant for awhile but it looks to be back a bit.

And for those who say kids won't touch this stuff, you never know til you try. If you make it fun to prepare/pack and involve them, they're much more likely to eat it. Yes, it takes time. But it's worth it: the time with your kiddos will go so quickly and you'll end up with better ingredients, at usually a cheaper price. Practice over the Summer to find what you might like and develop a routine. Good luck and good munching!

Some of us have tried. I was very smug about what a good eater my kid was until some traumatic things happened and now he’s in feeding therapy. -NP

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Always veggies and fruit, alongside leftovers from dinner, so something like:

Polenta rounds with parm, blueberries, cucumber slices
Squash risotto with a small pear, pickled veg.
Baked sweet potato with beans/cheese, small apple, pepper strips
Veggie stew with rice, baby carrots, plum
Tomatoes stuffed with pearl couscous, zucchini rounds, cornichons
Homemade mini bagels, smoked salmon/cheese, with tomato slices
Greek yogurt with handful berries, sunflower seeds, banana
Homemade mini-veggie tarts, blueberries, carrot stick
Homemade focaccia, hummus, pickles.

This sounds really tasty. And healthy.

Agree. I wish I had the energy to pack this for myself and my kid. Good job pp.

Refried beans on a soft tortilla with a sprinkle of cheese, fold in half and cut in two pieces.

Small thermos with soup, baked beans, etc.