Kids lunches, need some ideas, and a new motivation

Both of my kids will be going to school full days this year and this is the first time I have had to send them with lunches. So i have been scouring the internet for ideas that a kindergartner and a preschooler would eat, but would still be healthy. I have come across some wonderful ideas and that got me to thinking. When I am making their lunches why don't I just make one for myself and my husband(he could stand to lose a few pounds). So that is my new plan and motivation. Only healthy packed lunches for me and my family.

Now if any of you have any easy or creative lunch ideas I would love to hear them!

Amy

 

Good to see you! I am so sick of seeing my face on this site!

I am so happy to see that you are looking for a healthy alternative for your children! Not sure if you grew up (fat) like i did but it is the WORST. I keep reminding my sister of that- since she has two young girls- my sister had the good fortune of not being fat her WHOLE life- but with that she has not experienced all that went with it. I digress....my neices wont eat sandwiches and rarely eat the cafeteria food- i believe like what RO was saying my sis packs a bunch of healthy stuff- much in line with a "lunchable" type of food. I think she also buys the spaghetti etc in the can -- i have never looked at the label but i am not sure how good that can be for them. The girls really like fresh fruit- unfortunately the baby is a fiend for chips for some reason--luckily she is tiny- the older one is already on the chunky side..so scary...
You are such a GREAT mommy!

i can eat room temperature anything! HA HA HA...you always have such great advice RO.

Thank you both for the ideas.  My son is a very picky eater and won't touch meat on a sandwich.  He is always asking for a tortilla with ketchup, nasty I know.  I also have trouble getting him to eat veggies and fruit, so I came up with a plan to make them "fun".  Whenever we go to Sam's Club he loves the people serving food with toothpicks.  He can spot them a mile away, so I was thinking I would get some of those skewer grapes and apples and that sort of stuff to try and trick him. 

He is my complete bean pole that eats like a cow.  I am more worried aout my daughter who is 3.  She is on the large side but she is also very tall.  I want to try and keep her in check becasue I was also a fat kid and was miserable


Amy

Hi Amy!  Have you already checked into the many (many!) Bento sites?  A good place to start is www.obentec.com (doing this from memory here...hope it works)  They make the Laptop Lunchbox system and even if you don't want to use their product (can be pricey) the idea is brilliant and their photo galleries are mostly geared towards children's lunches and not the fancy bento artwork food for people too much creativity.   While you pick up ideas for your kids' lunches you'll have an easier time imagining good things for you and your hubs too. 

Until my hours at work were cut I was making bento breakfasts and lunches and then posting them on my little blog.  Pretty much all I take lately is just breakfast so why bother...how many times can you photograph the same thing??? 

A concept of making Bento that might help you is to do some freezer stocking.  Most of the foods are pretty down-sized like little meat patties, roll-ups (tortilla or sushi style, whatever), small cuts of veggies and fruits.  Since I love raw edamame I often threw some of that in my lunch too.   The goal is always to have five different (dang, my coffee hasn't kicked in yet I hope that is the right info) colors in your lunch.  That can be difficult but it gets you automatically chosing good foods because you are forced to select things from many groups.  Veggies, proteins, carbs, fruits, nuts... 

Sorry to be so rambly and long-winded (did you remember that about me? LOL).  You have a fun and maybe sometimes frustrating challenge ahead of you but I know from you post you'll be very successful. 

So after all that, here's some of my fav's:

frozen mini waffles (I got a cool mini waffler on amazon and LOVE it)
grilled poultry cut into strips and served with a low-fat or fat free dip
mini muffins
fresh blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, canteloupe, grapes
cucumbers, edamame
vegetarian patties: chik'n, mini corn dogs, black bean patties, etc
meat-crust pizza
yogurt (greek!)
mini quiches
cheese sticks
hard boiled eggs
home-made turkey breakfast sausage patties or 'links'

If you can stand the tedium, visit my blog and look at some of the old posts for photos
www.geminisdream.blogspot.com

Molly

Thanks for all the info Molly!  DO you happen to have a recipe for the mini-muffins?

I looooooove the muffin recipes on Shelly's website (www.theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com)  and have modified a few of hers to suit myself.  On my blog I finally made a sidebar with links to my recipes on sparkrecipes.com so it'd have the calorie counts.   It is on the right-hand side of the page. 

www.geminisdream.blogspot.com

Hope you find a few you like or can modify to your family's tastes.

Molly