Get the ball rolling

**JamieGirl** · 11-05-2006, 11:23 AM

Just thought i would post so hopefully others might too!! I need some inspiration in this area.

I guess the easiest and one frugal lunch is some leftovers with fruit ( we have apple and pear trees) and a little cottage cheese or yogurt.

Homemade pizza would be a loved and frugal lunch.

I get stuck ina rut of lunch meat or pb&j, so I need some ideas that are quick and easy if anyone wants to post!!

Thanks!!

**Neeley** · 11-05-2006, 03:11 PM

When my kids were in traditional school I would make them wrap sandwiches. Use flour tortilla shell, and wrap up a sandwich. My kids really likes turkey with lettuce, cheese and some ranch dressing all wrapped up. I have a huge salad eater and he would take salads with some chicken or bacon in it. but I would always send the dressing on the side. Keep a variety of "side items". I tried to rotate and not just send chips and fruit everyday. Cheese and crackers, a homemmade muffing, pickles,popcorn, nuts, carrots and celery with p-nut butter.
If the sanwich gets boring, you can use cookie cutters to "shape it" - makes it a little more visually interesting - and after all we eat with our eyes first. Hot dogs are good in place of a sandwich also.

**crazyBMB** · 11-05-2006, 04:31 PM

This is what we have been doing for several years now. My DS loves them.

**Nada.Leona** · 11-06-2006, 10:49 AM

I love a bowl of homemade or canned soup at work with a slice of bread or a biscuit and some carrots or celery with peanut butter to dip 'em in.

makes me lunch sometimes too, usually a form of pasta with a homemade sauce.

**JamieGirl** · 11-06-2006, 12:22 PM

I use the cookie cutters too! Sometimes i would do harder cheese that way and it was a hit.

I love the wrap idea!! We love tortillas! Thanks, will try that for sure. Haven't sent soup either, but mine enjoys soup too.

Now,i am inspired to get on the ball!! I made her a pb&j sandwich, cottage cheese, banana bread and juice for lunch today,

**dmvezina** · 11-06-2006, 12:35 PM

My kids get lunch at school as it's only .40/day each. I dont' think I could make their lunch cheaper.

I do send dh with a lunch though. it's a sandwich, chips or cheezits, whatever else i have in the house. Brownies, cookies, slim jims, etc.

**Leahmom** · 11-25-2006, 09:10 PM

Ah the packed lunch
I have 2 kids in a school where I can only send dairy (NO MEAT whatsover- or anything made with meat juice etc.) Nor can they use the microwave in this school. One dd is allergic to milk...
my DS with a protein disorder goes to school with a homepacked lunch loaded with protein. but no milk whatsover...and is allergic to soy and sugar.
So in my oh so sane moments I made a weekly menu with 2 protein items, fruit, crunch and dessert. Basically the girls rotate ketchup, honey, pb, jelly and tuna sandwiches on homebaked bread with carrots,celery,cuke & PB
Also with either a muffin,cake,snickerdoodle,cupcake,brownie Along with popcorn and saltines. I make it all at home with no premade food.
MY DS goes with pickled fish, tuna, pb, cheesesticks or cubes and pickled fish. I splurge on protein bars for him 1 box of southbeach bars = 6.25. per week. also carrot,celery, cuke & PB dip along with banana & apple
Saltines with PB and Ryvita crisps also with PB-
Yes on Sundays- I make 10lbs of bread dough, batch of snickerdoodles, cupcakes, fruit muffins,choc cake, white cakes,granola bars. Everything is cut into cubes and put into the freezer first on trays then when frozen into gallon bags. So lunches and after snacks and breakfasts are done on Sundays. I am working now so my time is crunched to say the least. Thank G-d for the freezer. If they don't like it then tough- they are not starving and can wait until dinner time...no it is not fancy and i buy nothing that is prepackaged-tho I have been known to make a bowl of pudding to repackaged inlittle cups for them. it is not fancy- but darn nutritious and cheap and thats the deal.
Leahmom
Mean mom of all mean moms....aahaa no you can not have prepackaged sodium soup in styrofoam cup...never NEVER
L

**got2run3** · 11-26-2006, 10:12 PM

I make my son ham/cheese/picante sauce wraps, muffins he loves it when I send these : ) standard pbj, preztels, fruit snacks, carrots with ranch dressing. I'm sure he is getting board with the standards. So I need to be searching for some new ideas : )

**Chef4You** · 12-26-2006, 05:09 PM

to have a variety. Although I try to send it for them I still get in a rut sometimes also.
My kids also have learned to eat some things cold that DH thinks is close to being mean for me to send it cold in their lunches!! Chicken is the big one that DH disagrees with but I chop any meat or cut it into "nugget" size pieces, add cut cheese, a fruit, etc.
They also like popcorn, a small bowl or bag of it does the trick other wise it takes too long to eat. I sprinkle parm. cheese or seasonall? on it. The kids seem to like the cheese and DH the seasonall. I pop it in a pan so it makes lots inexpensively.
I do not always send bread with their lunches, they prefer to have meat with cheese rolled up. Tortillas with; PB&J or cream cheese and turkey or ham salad, turkey or tuna or egg salad also.
Cracker/PB sandwiches, Cracker/PB with Marshmallow creme sandwiches (not the healthiest but they like it once in a while!)
Thats about all I can think of right now other than obvious meats, salad type things. OH- Grapes with yogurt as dip is not just for adults!

**bzkdz** · 01-19-2007, 09:42 PM

Maybe no one will see this, I realize it's an older thread. I just thought I'd share a few of the things I do for lunches. One is that I make bread sticks, putting chopped up pepperoni into the dough and sometimes shredded cheese. Then I send them to school with a little container of pizza or spaghetti sauce and a baggie of cheese. The kids can dip the breadstick in the sauce and then into the cheese. They really like them!

Another thing I sometimes do is fill a thermos with hot water and then put a hot dog into it. I wrap the bun separately, along with some ketchup. At lunch, the kids just dump out the hot water and put the hot dog into the bun.

Sometimes I just send a bagel with cream cheese or butter instead of a sandwich.

Beth

**foxxyroxie** · 01-20-2007, 01:05 AM

I don't pack school lunches for kids but help roomie pack his lunch for work. Luckily he has access to a microwave and refrigerator at work so it really makes things easier.

I did come across this sandwich website just this morning:

http://www.cbel.com/sandwiches/

It seemed to have a lot of good ideas for cold and hot sandwiches. Hope this helps somebody.

**Edna_E** · 02-06-2007, 10:41 PM

I rean into an idea in a book and started putting little notes in the container with the sandwich in my son's lunch. He and his friends got a kick out of it, and thought it was cool that he had "fortune" sandwiches. The notes might say anything from "I'm sorry!", "I love you!", "You pick supper tonight!", "good luck on your Algebra test", to variuos quotes or song lyrics.

**Marie78** · 02-06-2007, 10:54 PM

I used to bring frozen meals for my lunch. I had the advantage of a microwave at work. I either brought leftovers from dinner the night before or if I found a good sale on prepared frozen meals I would bring those. Soup is always easy and I used to bring homemade muffins and fruit too. I liked bringing leftovers the best though, because it wasn't a sandwich and I like looking forward to a yummy lunch

**mommy4ever** · 03-31-2007, 07:50 PM

I get the rubbermaid juice boxes for the kids. They bring water in those. We were sending $10 for 20 milk "tickets" for htem to get milk, but the milk was usually warm, and the girls started complaining it tasted funny. So what we do now is use a thermos, we freeze a bit of milk over night in the bottom, and top up. If they want chocolate milk, we just add it in the morning. Always nice and cold, no worries about sour milk...ewwww. It also does ok in the rubbermaid, but don't use the straw and freeze slightly more milk as it's not insulated. I like to send both milk and water, as the kids are permitted to have snack mid morning, and then they can rehydrate.