Small Slice

My kids are also not big sandwich fans. Do you have some thermoses you can pack warm food in? My daughter is always happy to find a thermos of soup (homemade leftovers) or stew or cous cous with veggies. My son---a.k.a. king of all processed foods---will deign to eat some mac-n-cheese or spaghetti from a thermos, though he turns his nose up at the rest.

Cheese and crackers is a biggie for us. I'll usually send that with a plethora of cut-up veggies in a baggie, and a little container of ranch dip.

Fruit will be easier for you to manage there in CA; for us, in winter we do a lot of applesauce, raisins/dried cranberries and mandarin oranges.

I'm sure you'll figure it out. And YAY YOU on the recent weight loss! GOOOOOOO JENNY! :)

As a lifetime Weight Watchers member I will tell you that a resonable goal is only 1—2 pounds per month. You could lose around a half a pound a week which would put you at the 2 pound a month end. And remember, if you're exercising, take your measurements. You may find the scale not budging but your body is getting smaller.

How about sliced cucumbers? That's a veg that Tacy eats willingly. Also tortillas (Mission makes a whole wheat version that tastes just like the white flour ones) with refried beans and cheese. Pitas with hummus and shredded carrots.

Triscuits! Lots of fiber. Also Frosted Mini Wheats, sans milk.

Will think on this some more and let you know if I have more ideas.

You can do it! (I have a challenge packing lunches, too. I rely on Triscuits and cheese and apples a lot.)

How about pasta salad? You could put it in a little tupperware bowl. Is it too soon to be slipping hummus and crudites in there yet?

How about pasta salad? You could put it in a little tupperware bowl. Is it too soon to be slipping hummus and crudites in there yet?

Hi Jenny,
My kids bought their lunches at school last year, but this summer I had to make my three kids lunches for camp. I let them plan out their menu for the week, which usually meant they did a good job eating it. I gave them this list and then they picked from it. "Mystery Fruit" is whatever I had -- watermelon, blueberries, strawberries, etc.

LUNCH MENU CHOICES

Peanut butter and honey sandwich
Cheese sandwich
Tofu
Boiled egg
Rice
Beef or chicken bouillon rice
Pasta
Tuna salad
chicken

Cottage Cheese
String Cheese
Sliced Cheese
Yogurt

Boiled, buttered potatoes
Raw broccoli with dressing
Carrots
Salad
Cucumber
Snow Peas
Celery with peanut butter or cream cheese

Mystery Fruit
Applesauce
Mandarin oranges
Pineapple
Peaches or Pears from a can
Fruit Squeezee (flavored applesauce from Whole Foods)

Tortilla chips
Popcorn
Veggie sticks
Pretzels
Crackers

I bought a lot of little tupperware containers, so that helps.
Good luck!

If you get much resistance from the kids, you may want to give a little and let them have 1 thing per lunch that isn't 100% healthy but isn't 100% garbage either (like the artifically colored yougurt in a tube, individual cups of flavored applesauce, granola bars). That way they won't feel deprived when they see the other kids with their garbage laden lunches.

Some other healthier ideas:

- pickles
- homemade banana bread
- beef jerky (not slim jims)
- plain ham or turkey (my son will not eat it on bread but will wolf down sandwich meat by itself)
- homemade mini muffins
- homemade pizza (if they like cold pizza)

Will they eat mini pitas? The ones from Trader Joe's are yummy.

My kids sometimes take them for lunch, along with a little container of hummus.

Also, Natual Ovens Bakery makes some great, good-for-you granola bars.

Another good, not too scary granola bar: Kashi TLC. Trail Mix is my personal favorite. And? 4g fiber, 6g protein per bar. (only downside? price--over $3 for a box of 6. So maybe this is a special treat. . .)

What about a wrap? Yea, it's basically a sandwich, but maybe different enough to get them excited about eating it. You can use whole wheat tortillas or those flavored tortilla wraps...

Perhaps this site will offer some inspiration:

http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

Check out the archives - the author posted a photo and description of every lunch that she sent with her son throughout the school year. She's vegan, but many of the ideas could easily be adapted for omnivores.

It often works for my kids to give them the sandwich filling in a little container and give them crackers or veggies to dip with, This works for tuna, peanut butter, eggsalad, hummus etc. Also, my mom used to give us all of the ingredients seperate so they didn't go soggy, esp. pickles and we put the sandwich together ourselves,(like lunchables only homemade.) It made the difference beteween eating it or not for me. And we could roll the meat around the cheese and eat the bread later, etc.

She also made her own pizza pockets, snack pockets etc to heat up at school. once a month she would make a big batch of whole wheat pastry, though sometimes as we got older she would use spring roll wrappers or something instead, but still bake instead of fry, and we would cut the pastry in circles and fill it with the different fillings (Anything not too runny that we would eat)and fold them over and squeeze the sides together. Hse would bake and she would freeze them all in baggies so we could just take a few out and put them in our lunch bag. BAsically she was the queen of homemade convenience food. Whatever was at the store she would make it at home only healthy and cheaper.

We also had homemade muffins, bags of nuts and seeds, etc. She made it look pretty, so we ate it. And my teachers were jealous of my lunches.

I'm slowly figuring out how she did it.

I too have a hard time with the lunch thing. My daughter has food intolerances. No milk, cheese, and she also has some trouble with wheat. She'll eat these things on occasion but she risks finishing her day with a migrain and or stomach and digestive trouble. She likes fruit but it often doesn't seem to appealing after being in her locker half the day. I may check back to see what other mom's suggest because they may help me too with planning school lunches. She can use the cafe' microwave so we do send mirowaveable ravioli and the sort occasionaly.