School Lunches.... Help Wanted....

OK ATS, this is driving me insane right now.

A typical lunch option for either of my kids right now includes;

A sandwich (meat such as ham, salami or devon/fritz with cheese and sometimes tomato or cucumber),
Two kinds of fruit, usually a banana, kiwi fruit or a combination of grapes and strawberries,
and general assorted "munchie" lines, such as small packets of Shapes biscuits, fruit bars or muesli bars and dairy lines such as small yoghurts and cheese sticks.

The fruit? No problem, always a winner, just swap it out a bit for something different now and then.
The munchie stuff? Same deal, although fruit bars are more often left than not.

Put a sandwich in there? Almost every day I come home to find the contents of said sandwich done and dusted, with bread and often vegetable filler left to stagnate in the bottom of the lunchbox.

I've tried salads, beefing up the sandwiches with all kinds of filler, up to and including chicken schnitzel and steak sandwiches, tried swapping bread for rolls and wraps, same deal. I'm a huge advocate of not letting food go to waste, so to see these mangled lunch leftovers silently degrading at the end of the day breaks my heart (not to mention my wallet).

Go for it ATS foodies. Time for your daily bread (or lack thereof)....

How about switching the bread for pita bread or tortillas and make a wrap for them ? It's a bit funner to eat ! Or I used to cut the crusts off the bread , my kids hated the crusts for some reason ?

reply to post by 74Templar


How old are your children?

Young children have small stomachs. Perhaps they are eating the fruit and fillers, and that's all they can hold.

Maybe try cutting back on the filler stuff? Or just ask them...what do they want to have for lunch?

I am guessing that when the kids come home from school you feed them a snack. Don't! Until tea time the only thing they can eat is leftover lunches. Also cut out the spending money at school and you have too many munchies in there. In other words they either eat what they are given or go hungry and going hungry will not hurt them.

Additionally, have a talk to them and see what they want. Your kids are eating all the sugary foods and leaving the healthy stuff. Give them less, much less of the high sugar items.

P

Alright, if I read your post correctly.....the fruit, cheese, yogurt, meat and snack crackers gets eaten. The bread and vegetables do not.

My first thought is the age of the children. My second thought is "do you serve bread and vegetables at home and are they eaten?" IF they are eaten without problem at home then the focus should perhaps be on...how are they served at home compared to school lunch. Maybe the bread gets soggy? I find that distasteful myself...for my 2 "lunchers" I pack the mayo or other spreads separately as well as the "wet" veggies (tomatoes, pickles etc). So that they can assemble their own...but here the age would need to be taken into question and/or maturity....5 to 6-year-olds compared to 10 to 12-year-olds.

Another idea is to send (bear with me, I'm American lol) cut-out rounds of meat and cheese with round biscuits so they can "make their own" sandwich. I do this with my daughter and use round wheat ones with meat, cheese, and cucumbers. She loves them.

Bottom line, if the food is the same as at home then look at the presentation (soggy). If they are being stubborn, then I agree with the above poster to have them finish it for tea. But I also agree with asking them what they prefer and even asking them to help you pack their lunch. Sometimes getting them involved in the process works wonders.

Hope this helps a bit. Cheers!

Hello OP and everyone,
My kids used to get sick of sandwiches every day....so I bought them each a thermos (the ones that can keep food hot, not the ones that are just for cold beverages).
Some days they would have left-over spaghetti, casseroles....sometimes canned pastas (yeah, I know...not great quality food, but it wasn't every day).
Anyways....they always ate the "hot" lunches that I sent...and today they are all healthy adults, lol.
Good luck....it's a challenge to feed them well, especially on a budget! (Sounds like you care...that means a lot!)
jacygirl

Sounds like you are making your little one's nice healthy lunches..... The portions seem to be a little more then they can eat in one sitting. LOL...but I understand...I used to overpack my daughters lunch when she was little too.....and the wasted food bothered me also.

If they are having carbs at breakfast, toast, bagels, etc. , maybe istead of putting the meat and cheese in sandwhich form, just put in slices of meat and cheese they eat as finger food? I also found that kids love veggies diped in ranch dressing. Baby carrots, cucumber, celery sticks, etc. there are some cool little re-usable containers to put the dressing in.

LOL...if they do not eat the fruit bars, stop buying them...sounds like they are getting plenty of fresh fruit.

Peanut butter and jelly were always popular with the kids in my life....also peanut butter or cream cheese in celery sticks....if you put a few drops of food coloring in cream cheese you can make fun colors too.

My last thought on wasting food with kids in general is smaller portions, they can always ask for more. When my daughter had kids over I learned very quickly not to give each kid thier own apple, they would take a few bites and waste the rest, so I would just cut up a few apples into slices, for an example.

Good Luck.....Loved the idea some other members mentioned too about letting your kids help make thier own lunches, even a few times would give you a better idea what they think they will eat at school.

My brother does the same thing. He eats the cookies, fruit, alfajores, etc. and only takes a bite or two of the sandwich he takes then brings the rest home.

So, he started taking chicken or meat empanadas to school some days and he does eat those. There are a lot of variations you can try, like spinach cheese or ham.

Something that we usually eat at home but can be taken to school is corn baskets, that recipe includes eggs, bacon and asparagus too.

You could also try something simple like tuna fish and egg rolls.

I hope this can give you some ideas

I ate soyburgers and pizza almost everyday at my high school. I loved it. That was before I knew how bad most of that stuff was for you... The pizza anyway. It was hardly pizza at all really...The soyburgers actually tasted like beef. You couldn't tell the difference.

I still think my all time favorite thing that we had at my school was 2% milk.

-SAP-

Its great that you are putting a lot of thought into this but let me share something with you. First does the school your kids attend have a hot lunch program (School Lunch). If so let your kids eat the school lunch for awhile and you will find them begging for you to make them lunch with in the first week or two.

Reason I say this is my kids ate school lunches until this year, they started to complain about the school lunches because under the Federal Mandate the school lunches had to be in portion sizes according to Michelle Obamas plan. (look who has the big butt here and she is preaching portion sizes)

Because the meals were so small the kids were coming home hungry and not wanting to eat the school lunches so now they make there own lunch.

I went to the school and ate. Menu showed Apple crisp, hamburger and something else, the apple crisp was sliced apples in ice, and the hamburger was a poor excuse for a burger (soy burger) taste like a shoe.

Give it a try have your kids eat the school lunch for awhile and see what they say after a while.

Good Luck

reply to post by rick004


I tried the wraps to no avail either, it just seems anything bread they don't seem interested.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
reply to post by 74Templar

 

How old are your children?

Young children have small stomachs. Perhaps they are eating the fruit and fillers, and that's all they can hold.

Maybe try cutting back on the filler stuff? Or just ask them...what do they want to have for lunch?

I did that, and generally get shrugs. I went for a little bit of chicken schnitzel cut into strips with bacon and shredded cheese for a bit, but it's not really that healthy, and not something I want them to have every day. They are 11 (almost 12) and 7. They do graze a lot at home, and we generally don't have set meals or times.

reply to post by pheonix358


Actually I do make them eat whatever's in the lunchbox, but the bread from the sandwich is something that's always left over regardless.

I alos only allow them one lunch order every four weeks, which is usually lasagne, pikelets and a milk drink, but it does vary. Problem is at $10 a hit over two kids, it's not something I could do every day, and certainly not afford it every day either. Recently I've tried different salads and mixing ingredients together without a sandwich. It seems to be working better than the sandwich, but they seem to go for the unhealthy foods rather than the veg, which also is something I'd like to stray away from. Depsite this, they do eat a fair bit of veg at home, and usually get two pieces of either for recess. The extra munchies are just extras so to speak.

Chicken schnitzel is a piece of chicken dipped in flour, egg and breadcrumbs. I cannot see the health problem. This assumes you are not buying pre-packaged crap with an ingredients list that looks like a meth lab recipe.

Leave the bread out! Put more salad, cheese and meat. There have been some good suggestions such as celery and carrot sticks. Fill the lunch box with good finger food.

Grazing is a lifestyle choice that is perfectly valid as long as the sugary items are restricted.

Your doing fine!

P

Sorry I haven't been able to reply properly, it's been one hell of a hectic day, but I just wanted to say thankyou to you all for the ideas so far, they have been great. I will try to reply most likely tomorrow when my brain is a little less fried than right now.

In the meantime keep the suggestions coming...

reply to post by 74Templar


One thing my kids love is a small ring pull can of tuna! Great, easy to pack, good for them. Lots of variants!

P