Lunch Bag Ideas (No Heat)

celery sticks w/ Peanut Butter
carrot sticks w/ dipping sauce or salad dressing
animal crackers
graham crackers and peanut butter
raisins
dried fruits or nuts for the older child
yogart
pudding cup
oranges
strawberries w/ yogart dipping sauce
pita w/ any kind of filling sandwhick or veggies
broccoli heads with cheese dip sauce
ritz mini peanut butter crackers
cheese and wheat crackers

Youve already gotten alot of great ideas..so just a few that I thought of that havent been mentioned that I do for my own daughters lunches.

-Leftover pizza..I usually warm it in the oven in the morning..then wrap with foil, throw in lunchbox.
-Crescent rolls: usually leftover from dinner the night before also..one of my dd FAVS! Keep them stored in a zipbag til morning and dont refrigerate them. You can cut them in half and make ham cheese sandwiches with them instead of using plain bread. OR just throw them in by themselves with some chicken nuggets.
-Salad: my daughter LOVES salad..thank goodness! She doesnt like dressing though..I can pack a lil mini tupperware cup with some romaine salad, mini carrots and lil cherry tomatoes..with a few cubes of cheese..she loves it!
-Prepackaged pudding cups..nilla pudding can be used as dip for those nilla wafer cookies :)
-You mentioned apples..but have you tried CARAMEL and apple slices? Walmart has the prepackaged apple slices comes with a lil cup of caramel..easy to open.
-Corndogs: Again this is something I can cook up in the morning, wrap it in a napkin (to absorb oil) then foil..throw it in lunchbox. Mine doesnt mind eating it at room temp.
-Sandwiches: When you do have sandwich days..make them a lil more fun by using cookie cutters..my daughter loves her sandwich in a heart shape, we also have a butterfly and a flower cookie cutter.

This is all I can think of for now:)
Hope it helps!

Hi T.,

RE: fresh ideas for snacks

String Cheese, applesauce, graham crackers, honey graham crackers, cereal bars, fruit snacks, Chex Mix for kids, bananas, Ritz Crackers, Honey Nut Cheerios, Fruit Loops, Kraft Twist-ums (mozzarella and cheddar), Ritz S'mores, Pretzels, Animal Crackers

D.

I have packed everything from string cheese to microwave popcorn (already popped of course).Fresh fruit is always a good idea. Rice cakes (mini are best),peanut butter on ritz crackers. Chex mix, granola bars...hope that helps.

A. R.

I go to a website called allrecipes.com and they have great ideas for ANYTHING. Go check it out. They actually had a whole list of ideas for back to school lunches and snacks

Check out The Vegan Lunch box: http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

It has so many great ideas. Although my family is not vegan, I use a lot of her ideas to pack my daughter's lunch, and even use some of the recipes for dinner, etc.

I work at a preschool, so I've seen ALL sorts of packed lunches!! Any kind of sandwich (unless there is a peanut allergy in their class, then you'll want to stay away from pb &j). I've seen tortilla wraps, lots of bagel sandwiches, english muffin sandwiches. A simple cut up lunch meat, cut up cheese, with a side of sliced fresh fruit. For the thermos, I used to have a child that brought warm meat wrapped in aluminum foil and shoved in his thermos. Usually, especially for a 2 year old, lunches are pretty early and whatever is in there doesn't have time to get cold, even if it's not kept in a thermos. My daughter has never been extremely picky about having things warmed up, so I would send whatever and knew that she would eat it cold. But maybe your little ones would know what they are missing! Hope it helps!

I get deli ham or turkey and roll it up and give my girls that with a cheese stick and some crackers. Use the thermos for chicken nuggets, I have cooked them that morning in the oven put then in a thermos and there you go. You can also do spaghetti-O's, ramen noodles just don't refriderate it and it will be fairly warm for them to eat. You can do grapes, oranges, pretty much any kind of fruit.

My daughter is a little older but loves "cold" spaghettiO's from the can.They are actually room temp. and cheez-it's have out 2 new flavors: Cheddar Jack and White Cheddar.She takes this to lunch at school once a month.It's easy and other than a bowl to wash later (buy one with the lid for travel) no mess.

have them help you pick out things to make a trail mix such as cheerios, cheezits, raisens, m&m's, mini pretzels, combos, and let them pick each week and allow them to pour the things into a big gallon size ziploc bag and they can change ingredients every week if you pick small packages of each. this is what we do during the summer months as we travel alot and it makes for good snacks on the road. they also like it more cause it is something they made and they can pick it pur it and shake to mix all by themselves with a little help from mom

Some snack ideas are sugar snap peas and carrots... even cutting up some red and yellow peppers. Pears and yogurt is always great too!
As far as lunches go... probably much of the same ideas... for the main course you could make some chicken the night before and in the morning make a chicken pita or sandwich. Peanut and Jelly are standard. Or even just pile the chicken on a bed of spinach. Pretty healthy.

My son takes a cooler to school for lunch every day, so I have gotten very good at this. His school offers pizza only a few times a year & has neither refrigeration or heating available. He was 3-4 last school year & these are the options we went through, mixing it up each week.
Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich all but the top crust cut off. Veggie chips with a small cup of sour cream or french onion dip. Carrot sticks with ceaser salad dressing to dip in.
Celery with peanut butter raisens optional.
Bananas, grapes, blue berries, rasberries, strawberries, fruit cups, any fruit in juice not syrup. Individually packaged cheese sticks. Yogurt with a side of granola. Healthier cookies, like oatmeal raisen or oatmeal chocolate chip. Cereal bars, yogurt granola bars, fruit filled cereal bars. Milk, juice, Ocean Spray & Capri Sun are 100 % juice. Small cups of nuts, mixed or a favorite. Wheat thins. Better Chedars, we prefer the taste of the reduced fat for both crackers. Baked Lays & Cheetos are our treat snacks. After Halloween I include one piece of candy each day. I also include a themed napkin. It seems dipping, putting food together & cool napkins make for a more interesting, more consumed, neater lunch. Hope some of these work for your little ones.

T.:

It looks like you have tons of great ideas. Here are some more:
Whole grain bread with peanut butter and bananas or apples, wheat or other kinds of tortilla's (they come in so many fun colors) with hummus, tuna salad with wheat crackers and cheese

Healthy snacks: fresh fruit, dried fruit, olives, trail mix, applesauce cups, string cheese, avocado (my son loves them),fig newtons, animal crackers, graham crackers with peanut butter,bran muffins, yogurt with fruit...

Keep it healthy, as kids eat about 3/4 pounds of sugar per day and 1/4 pound of fat. We need to feed our kids healthier foods:-)

Hello,
I do daycare at home and the kids get tired of eating the same things for snacks. Some of the things we eat are vanilla wafers, teddy grahams, mandarin oranges (drained), fruit cocktail, bananas, ritz sandwich crackers w/ peanut butter or cheese, austin cheese crackers w/ peanut butter or cheese, yogurt, applesauce, chewy granola bars, cereal bars, and I will make muffins (the kids love that). Hopefully this helps. I am also looking for some fresh ideas for kids lunches. My son also goes to preschool and eats lunch there, same rules. I have a feeling he is getting tired of lunchmeat sandwich or pb&j.

Hopefully the snack ideas help.
Michelle

Just thought I'd share some ideas that I use for my kiddo:

Whole wheat tortilla roll-ups w/ lean lunch meat, cheese, and dressing

Cooked elbow pasta w/ Ro-tel tomoatoes (or reg stewed tomatoes if R-tel is too spicy!) with a sprinkle of parm cheese. Great even cold!

English muffin w/cream cheese & ham (amazing! trust me!)

snacks:

mandarin oranges
pretzels
yogurt
cottage cheese
string cheese
snap peas
whole grain fig newtons

For your thermos:
Make a big ol pot of veggie (beef optional) stew. It keeps for a whole week!

Good luck!

I have been using the Lunchables - they are in the cheese/lunchmeat section in the supermarket. They are wonderful! They have crackers and cheese, and meat (you can choose turkey, ham, bologna, etc...). Depending on how much you want to spend - you can even get them with a drink and dessert. Both of my children love them - and my youngest (before this year) had NEVER had anything like that - only hot meals. Try it and see how they like them.
For snacks we have been using Kelloggs granola munchums. They are fairly healthy (according to my nutruition magazine) and they taste fabulous! Good luck! Hope this helps.

Hi T.,

You have gotten some great ideas already, if you children still like the vieanna sauges you can pack those, theres the lunchables, if they like tuna they have the tuna lunches which come with tuna, crackers, and relish. As for the snacks my son loves the Dole fruit parfais ?SP? they come in peaches pineapple and apple cinn. They're pretty cheap too. Oh they have the jello that doesn't need to be cooled, I also buy that for my son.

Hope these few suggestions help.

M. R G