Healthy Easy Lunches - HELP!

Honestly, I don't understand why this is a difficult topic. Buy only whole grain breads, lean lunch meats and cheeses, fresh fruit, whole or cut up, and absolutely no junk food. If kids grew up only eating healthy foods from infancy, then this would not be a problem! This includes beverages! No soda! No sugary juices! No cool-aide or anything like that! Kids should be drinking low-fat milk or water with meals. Other ideas: homemade soups, salads with simple, homemade dressings, pasta salads made with whole grain pastas, cereal or granola bars, whole grain crackers...

My family just returned from staying with friends out of state for the weekend, kids the same age as ours, and I was not trilled with the foods she chooses to feed them! French toast sticks that were nothing but sugar for breakfast, no fruit to speak of except apple sauce or canned peaches... and it went on from there... also she let the kids eat constantly throughout the day, whatever they wanted, from popcorn at breakfast to candy and chocolate throughout the day/night.. and even sugary snacks at bedtime.

Schools should address this issue! I'm glad that yours is : ) Good luck!

I try to pack natural and whole grain stuff:

--real fruit (apples, raisins, grapes, pears, peaches, berries, bananas, etc.) instead of fruit roll ups or fruit chews

--real veggies (cut up green pepper, carrot sticks, celery sticks, broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, pickle)

--yogurt or applesauce with fruit or granola (watch the sugar content on granola or make your own) on the side

--instead of chips I pack popcorn, rice cakes, whole grain crackers, whole grain bagel, pretzels (lower fat)

My kids like hummus as a dip (instead of dressing) for veggies, but also eat the veggies plain without a dressing.

My kids also will eat salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoe) which is a nice change of pace for a lunch.

I also make cheese rolls ups with melted cheese on a whole wheat tortilla that I roll up and cut into sections that the kids love.

I also make our own "lunchables" some days where I include a bunch of cut up cheese, cut up lunch meat and whole grain crackers that they assemble at school.

For part of their lunch or as a snack, they have cereal - many whole grain cereals are good snacks.

I also never pack juice or soda as part of lunch and the kids drink water or white milk (not chocolate) at lunch.

The key is finding stuff that is not prepackaged and the fresher it is, the better it is for you. It IS more work to cut up and store fresh stuff, but it's worth it in the long run for everyone's health.

The convenience part of food (relying on prepackaged prepared stuff) is a hard habit to break, but I never spend more than 10 minutes assembling one lunch that is full of fresh stuff for my kids.

Good luck!

Here are some good guidelines to follow when considering lunches:

-Each meal should have a healthy balance of carbs, fats (yes, I said fats - the good kind though), and protein. Complex carbs will be released more slowly in the body, providing a steady stream of energy for your child throughout the day. When including carbs pick WHOLE GRAIN (not multi-grain...usually multi-grain is a way that food companies trick you into buying junk). Healthy fats are good for the heart, blood vessels and brain, not to mention they assist in making food tasty. The protein will be awesome for a young child's growing body.

-Every meal should include at least one vegetable (two or three would be awesome) and one fruit.

-During the week, try to "pack the rainbow". In other words, provide a variety of fruits and vegetables in all colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue/purple). Doing this means you will come very, very close to providing all the vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and antioxidants that a growing child needs.

-If your child is willing, try to make at least ONE meal per week a vegetarian meal. Don't freak out thinking you have to pack a bunch of weird stuff - homemade vegetable soup with wheat crackers (Wasa is awesome!), sliced vegetables with hummus, or a veggie wrap fits the bill.

-If your child likes yogurt, feel free to include it every day. They'll get calcium, vitamin D, and protein. Same goes for light string cheese - kids typically love it and it's a pretty good choice (pick a white cheese though).

-Try to avoid anything that comes in a 'package' if possible. Most packaged foods are processed/refined and have little to no nutritional value. Same with deli lunch meat - most of that stuff is typically loaded with sodium and preservatives.

-It's a shame you can't include nuts - many of them are considered to be 'superfoods' and have fantastic protein and fats for the body. At the same time, I completely understand that nuts can trigger a life-threatening issue for someone who is allergic. So, definitely give the nuts or nut products as an after-school snack as certain kinds have tons of beneficial unsaturated, heart healthy fat.

I know these aren't actual recipes or menus, but these are great guidelines that should help get you started. Good luck!

This principal is right about so many atrocious lunches, and it is a problem perpetuated by any school that serves hot lunch as well. If your school has kids bring their lunches from home, then she should have provided several types of resources for parents to help them plan and provide for healthier lunches. This is akin to her complaining about an academic issue without researching and offering multiple resources for help.

It would be nice if the principal would also give some suggestions and not just scold! Does your school have a wellness committee? Ours sends out snack and lunchbox ideas every fall.

I am not vegan, but I like looking at blogs like veganlunchbox.blogspot.com and http://healthylunchbox.blogspot.com/ for inspiration and ideas, and also because they often have good "presentation" ideas to keep the same thing a little fresher by making it pretty or novel. I send different dips with carrots and cucumbers, cut sandwiches into shapes, once in a while make wraps that I cut into pinwheels.

It also helps to understand what their lunch period is like. My kids have to stand in line for their milk and then have just a few minutes to scarf down their food before running outside for recess. So I have learned to expect that they won't eat that much at lunch time and I pack less food for my pickier eater (less overwhelming.) I also try to get them to plan and make their own lunches once a week or so, with the idea that they will eventually do their own.

I try to pack something hot at least a couple of times a week, using a Thermos food jar. Today my 4th grader is having a rice/beans dish in his food jar. I try to add variety and try different things. There's always fresh fruit and/or vegetables, even if they don't always eat it. (I send small portions.) I try to make it easy to eat on the run - fruit is cut, grapes removed from the stems, etc. I pack in screw-top containers instead of pop-top because they're easier for little hands (especially for my kindergartner.) About once every couple of weeks I bake homemade muffins in the tiny size and send one or two with each lunch for a few days.

Still, it's not always easy to get them to eat what I send! I'm looking forward to reading the other answers.

It's sad isn't it? So many kids are overweight, and their parents are clueless about how to help them. Worse yet, the fat cells you accumulate pre-puberty can NEVER be eliminated....they can only shrink and expand, which makes for a lifelong struggle with obesity.

My daughter packs a lunch box with an ice pack every day, but she has no way to heat anything at school. I'm assuming your sons school has the same issue? Here are some of the things we pack in our daughter's lunch box:

Bottled Water
all-natural lunch meat rolled up around pickles
raw cashews
Apple and Small tupperware with about 2T of peanut butter
Cold slice of meatloaf (she puts ketchup on it at school)
2 hard boiled eggs or sometimes we make egg salad
carrots
sliced avocado
left over flank steak (cut in thin strips)
Cold, cut up chicken
Small salad w/dressing on the side

Essentially, we don't eat any grains. If you want to know why our kids are fat, check out our country's beloved food pyramid. Think of it this way....cows graze in the field eating nothing but grass, but this doesn't make them fat fast enough. What do the farmers do? Bring them into the barn and feed them GRAINS. This gets them fat REALLY fast, but it makes them sick, so they pump them full of antibiotics to keep them healthy. If we could replace all the grains with healthy fats and meat, we could "cure" obesity.