Madeleine : a cupcake made with a lot of butter, no icing, a third of the size of a cupcake, different shape, basically nothing like a cupcake, delicious.

Lunchables, never. Meats always nitrates free. Never a lunchbox without fruit and veggies, usually raw.

For protein, sometimes I pull 3 pre-cooked shrimp out of the freezer straight into the lunchbox in the morning, thawed by lunchtime. Who knows what nasty chemicals are in those. Variety is the key. If there's undesirable additives in one lunchbox element, it's unlikely to be the same in every one, so I worry less if my kid doesn't basically get the same item in her lunchbox more than a couple of times a month.

Anonymous wrote:No bottled water! Send water in a reusable bottle. Come on! Let's stop trashing the Earth for "convenience"; do it for your kids and grand kids.

Get over it. Nothing wrong with using bottled water. I prefer it and my family likes it too. I sometimes even reuse the water bottles and refill them. You're not going to save the planet by bitching about bottled water on dcum.

No bottled water! Send water in a reusable bottle. Come on! Let's stop trashing the Earth for "convenience"; do it for your kids and grand kids.

once a week, I am no santicimommy. Do the pizza one that comes with bottled water and flavor to add. Also include a piece of fruit or grapes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Horrified moms- please post your unprocessed menus.

Hummous with whole wheat pita bread and carrot sticks for dipping, apple slices, Manchego cheese with crackers, yogurt.

Homemade Mac and cheese in a thermos with sliced peppers and carrots on the side, grapes.

Peanut butter on whole grain bread, cantaloupe slices, homemade oatmeal cookie.

Caprese salad w vinaigrette dressing in a Tupperware, fruit salad, dried seaweed, homemade cookie.

My son loves dried seaweed but he came home one day and told me never to pack it in his lunch again. Apparently some kid loudly said, "Ewwwww" and other kids chimed in that seaweed was gross. DS was embarrassed an now will only eat dried seaweed in the privacy of our own home. Otherwise, lunches look pretty similar to these. The veggies almost always come back uneaten, so I've been sending less of them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Horrified moms- please post your unprocessed menus.

Hummous with whole wheat pita bread and carrot sticks for dipping, apple slices, Manchego cheese with crackers, yogurt.

Homemade Mac and cheese in a thermos with sliced peppers and carrots on the side, grapes.

Peanut butter on whole grain bread, cantaloupe slices, homemade oatmeal cookie.

Caprese salad w vinaigrette dressing in a Tupperware, fruit salad, dried seaweed, homemade cookie.

Peanut Butter??

Cue the PB haters.

Omg, I have been giving them to my child everyday for camp (plus fruit). He does not eat anything anyway, so I was tired of making everything from scratch. He barely eats thise as well, so I guess less harm done :/

Cracker Cuts cheese are good and convenient...but all that packaging is terrible for the environment! We bought them once and then wash and re-use the container, filling it with sliced block cheese. It truly is better to make your own "lunchable" from better ingredients/components. You can do it the night before. It's not a big deal. It saves a lot of money, too!

Anonymous wrote:Horrified moms- please post your unprocessed menus.

Hummous with whole wheat pita bread and carrot sticks for dipping, apple slices, Manchego cheese with crackers, yogurt.

Homemade Mac and cheese in a thermos with sliced peppers and carrots on the side, grapes.

Peanut butter on whole grain bread, cantaloupe slices, homemade oatmeal cookie.

Caprese salad w vinaigrette dressing in a Tupperware, fruit salad, dried seaweed, homemade cookie.

Like many PPs said, the challenge is that they really are supremely unhealthy. See this entertaining but sadly accurate column about them:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-f-jacobson/children-nutrition_b_1163253.html

Not quite as fast, but here's my equivalent and it takes me about 2min to throw it all in a multi-compartment lunch container:
One or two slices of organic turkey or ham (I buy Applegate brand) rolled up
Piece of organic string cheese, or if I've bought a block of organic cheddar then I precut that into cubes
Handful of crackers. My kid happens to love Ritz and eats a pretty good diet overall so I don't stress on this part, but you could do even better with whole-grain crackers.
Fruit, veg, or both

Basically the same composition as a Lunchable, but more economical and also far healthier in terms of the individual components.

I give them once in a while. Maybe once every month or two months. My kids are very healthy weights and eat tons of fruits and veggies.

Never. And I'm as lazy a lunch maker as they come.

Shit food, for shit parents.

Anonymous wrote:I don't serve them because DS doesn't like lunch meat, but I do think the reactions here are kind of over the top. We don't eat at fast food restaurants because I think they are unhealthy, but certainly wouldn't suggest that other parents were engaging in "child abuse" by letting kids eat there., or refer to it as "horrendus nastiness."

Thank you. Everything in moderation, especially outrage

I don't serve them because DS doesn't like lunch meat, but I do think the reactions here are kind of over the top. We don't eat at fast food restaurants because I think they are unhealthy, but certainly wouldn't suggest that other parents were engaging in "child abuse" by letting kids eat there., or refer to it as "horrendus nastiness."