ottawa foodies

i did a search in the archives, but didn't find any posts about school lunches.

starting next week, we will enter the world of school lunches. i'm looking for food ideas that are easy to eat. we can't bring in eggs, peanut butter or shellfish. this is too bad since pb & eggs are big favourites. we can have almond butter, but we've never tried it. we will keep that in mind.

i have cheese, crackers, hummus, fruit, & veggies.
muffins or granola bar for snack.
for drinks, water mainly, with occasional juice box.

what are some other things parents do (outside of sandwiches).

issues will be things have to be easy to eat (little hands negotiating containers and food), quick to eat, since lunch is short, and healthy.

thanks for all ideas and please not hot dogs ;)

i sometimes like to send a bag of freshly popped popcorn for a snack

grilled cheese depending on whether or not your child will eat it a few hours old

same with pancakes if they will eat it as finger food

home made chicken (or other meat) nuggets (see my video)

hamburgers if they will eat them cold

pickles and olives if they like them

We do soup, or occasionally leftovers (pasta, stew, whatever fits the allergen free criteria) in a small thermos. We bought a bunch of the small snap lid containers so can send bits of this and that along (fruit, chips/pretzels, raw veggies, hummus etc). The kids do get 1 day a week when the school brings in either mucho burrito or pizza - but those are both the kind of things you could send. We send milk or chocolate milk along. You can get small freezer packs (looks like a freezie) that we rubber band to the milk contain. We also sometimes send frozen yougurt tubes.

Hope that helps, its hard to keep up variety and try to keep it healthy.

would cooked meat still be safe if it is just a freezer pack in the bag? cold breakfast foods would be a big hit, good idea.

yeah our one son likes soup in a thermos too

those pizza days will be going away this year with the new school food regulations that are coming in. we should probably start a new thread about that

would cooked meat still be safe if it is just a freezer pack in the bag? cold breakfast foods would be a big hit, good idea.

cooked meat is fine after a few hours (in my opinion). for my own consumption i would consider it fine for probably 24 hours if sealed in a container. for my kids 5 or 6 hours no problem at all even without having any cooling in the lunch bag.

Agree with Zym, cooked meat out of the fridge is good for a few hours. We've never had a problem, but I'm not sure it would pass official food safety guidelines.

hipfunkyfun I have a freezer pack similar to the one on the right and I use it to wrap around my sandwiches. My sandwiches are usually made with tuna, salmon, or cold cuts of sorts and the freezer pack keeps them cold for a few hours.

I also have a hard freezer pack (as opposed to the gel variety above) which I use when I take salads with protein in them. I place it in the bottom of my lunch bag then place the salad container on top. It also keeps food cold for a few hours. (I can't get the picture to upload but if you search google images you will see lots of types of hard freezer packs.)

I have seen both types of freezer packs at the dollar store.

Some lunch ideas:

Cheese, and Crackers with some meat

Turkey sausage patties - ground turkey mixed with spices and fried in butter. Great cold.

Pasta salads with veggies and protein (i.e. taco salad, chicken pasta caesar salad etc).

Wraps with left over meat from dinner

Yogourt "tubes" frozen, like a freezie. They help keep the rest of the lunch cool as well. I will usually freeze their drink boxes to act as an ice pack as well. They are almost fully thawed by the time lunch rolls around. I'll also send a pasta salad that my daughters enjoy (spiral pasta, greek salad type veggies, feta crumbled, a greek type dressing), veggies and hummous/baba ganouj, soy butter in place of peanut butter (somewhat similar to a pb and honey combo taste), soy butter/banana/tortilla wrap, tomato/lettuce/cheese/mayo wrap, thermos of soup/leftovers, celery with cream cheese or cheese spread, hard boiled eggs or pickled if they will eat them.

Dried fruit...banana, apricot, combined fruit 'leathers',

Thermos containers are great for chili or soups. I used to take veggie sloppy joe mix this way. I know you said no hot dogs, but filled with hot water, it's a great way to keep them warm too. Also mac n cheese. Use green peppers to hold things like tuna or mac salads - wrapped tightly with saran they work well.

It really sucks that you can't pack peanut butter eggs or shellfish any more. I knew the Peanut butter police were out in force, but eggs? so sad...peanut butter and cucumber sandwiches with alfalfa sprouts were one of my favorite school lunch treats, and who didn't love devilled eggs?

Oh, sorry, I must have missed the 'no egg' part...

No eggs isn't in all schools. My son's school allows eggs.. well, they only specify no peanuts. No peanuts is annoying, that makes for an awesome "healthy" lunch!

We have homemade pizza night every Saturday, so when there are leftovers I wrap them in waxed paper or foil then freeze. Makes a quick lunch.

If there is extra dough on Saturday, I freeze it in small portions then I can make quick bread sticks in the toaster oven. I take our the dough the night before so it's thawed(and if I don't remember, I take it out before I go out to milk the cow), roll out the dough, add olive oil and seasonings, then toast, then slice, then pack in foil. they only take a few minutes while breakfast is cooking. If there's lots of dough, they become part of breakfast too.

I use small 125ml mason jars to make cupcakes in. Google 'cake in a jar' for ideas. You can make a bunch at one time and they store well in a cupboard, great if freezer space is at a premium in your house. We add lots of goodies like seeds and use extra eggs and whole wheat flour to add more protein. Your kid gets a treat, you made it so it's healthy.

Our kids loved baked beans in a thermos too. Same goes for hot cereal.

Regarding the eggs, ask to find out if it's all forms of egg, or if there are exceptions. One child in my daughters class is deadly allergic to all nuts, eggs, beans, and a bunch of other stuff (which I'd better remember before school starts) but it's only whole eggs and eggs mayo that are a problem. Eggs in baking aren't as dangerous, it's the actual egg, and the oil in the mayo that makes the egg easier to stick to desks and kids.

You can also not bother with the gel packs (they break if roughly handled in any case, and like that's not going to happen with kids), just freeze the sandwiches etc. and they will thaw out by lunch time.

the eggs can be in baked goods. i don't want to start the topic of allergies and school lunches, it can be an even more heated debate than hot dogs! do you teach the allergic kid to function in a food threatening world? do you ban everything so they don't have to?

seems like most people freeze portions of the lunches to keep things cool. interesting. my guy isn't one for sandwiches, he prefers sandwich fixings as individual foods. that may change as the school year progresses.

now, i have heard that some schools are eliminating lunch in favour of 2 nutritional breaks. how would that work for kids? i know my son prefers to get his calories in the morning - big breakfast and morning snack, smaller lunch and small dinner.

My kids have always been on the two nutritional breaks. I don't know if it makes much of a difference or not - sometimes they still bring home most of their food (what keeps them going who knows) and sometime they bring home empty lunch bags and are hungry.

HFF, my guy (although not little) also not a sandwich guy. Some of his favourites :

Leftover chicken wings
Tacos (I pack the meat, tortillas, cheese and salsa in separate containers)
leftover pasta especially spaghetti or linguine
leftover ribs
roasted cauliflower
homemade mini pizza

Feeding him at lunch is difficult since he often turns up his nose at things he loves at home and his appetite is fickle at the best of times.

Sometimes I send just snacks, usually 2 or 3 kinds of fruit and some hummus and veg, crackers, granola bar or cookies and juice or soymilk. His school is fine with nuts as long as they aren't peanuts so there is often a small container of almonds or pistachios.

When I was a kid, my mom used to make me THE funnest lunch ever: cold mini-kabobs on tooth-picks with diced cheese, grapes, grape tomatoes, cubed ham, cucumbers, sausage, peppers... I can't remember what else.

I also used to LOVE cold pizza (so leftovers from homemade pizzas the day before.

Wraps made from leftover salad the night before (we'd make a huge salad with protein and dressing in it and wrap it in a tortilla).

All kinds of carb salads (some kind of pasta/grain + every vegetable in your fridge + some kind of protein + homemade or store bought dressing). The possibilities are endless!!

@HFF, well this may sound like borderline child abuse to some :-), but if my kids don't feel like eating, I just don't stress over it. Sometimes I'm home with them and they are busy on the internet or playing outside and they just skip lunch. It doesn't seem to bother them at all (it bothers my wife more I think).

Sometimes they forget their lunches when they rush out to catch the school bus, and the school calls at lunchtime in a mild panic. I used to buy some sandwiches and rush over, but now I suggest perhaps they can get some unwanted extras from other kids, or just skip. When they come home they are just as healthy as ever, no sign of malnourishment. :-) It may be a shocker to some parents, but a lot of kids just throw away most of their school lunches.

Yeah, we do like Francis to a large degree. On some days at least. When they are hungry, they will eat and make up for whatever they have missed. No big deal. They are 7 and 9 now and both can make themselves sandwiches any time they like. They know where the fruit is. And the pickles and cheese. No big deal.

While I don't have any kids, here's a short list of things my favorite things my parents would pack for me.

-Cold Soba noodles, with a green onions on the sides and ponzu sauce. (I once traded a tiny bit of my portion for someone entire dessert)
-Mexican layered drip
-hummus
-pasta salads

- Tortilla chips and salsa or guacamole for snack
- A bagel and cream cheese
- Thermos of soup or pasta
- A refried bean burrito

IME at that age - finger/bite size stuff and something to dip them in

so cubed cheeses, meats, sausage, breads, crackers, veggies, fruits. And what ever sort of dip he likes.

Nothing that needs to be assembled. I'm assuming that because this is your 1st foray into school lunches, your son is about 5. Lunches need to be something he can eat quickly and easily. Some of the small containers are hard for little fingers to open, so maybe have him try it at home 1st to make sure he can get the container open.

so far what has worked is:

cold grilled cheese - who knew?! he likes it, so i'm ok with it.

hummus, crackers & sweet peppers

cheese, crackers & sweet peppers

grapes, blueberries (bigger fruit has been rejected)

mini-muffins (i made a ton, froze them and stick in lunch box frozen)

wowbutter sandwich. this is something new to us, toasted soynut spread. it is really good and spreads just like peanut butter, but is safe for schools. it doesn't taste just like pb, but is really close and has a nice toasted flavour.

we are planning leftover tortilla roll-ups, pasta & pizza soon.

drinks - only packing water. the school daycare provides milk, fruit & veggies.

@hipfunky, is nutella safe, or like peanuts? My son also likes the curry buns from the bakery at Kowloon Market. We froze them; he brings them to school frozen and microwaves them for 20 secs in the school cafeteria.

our school does not allow nutella

Nutella out our school too - no nuts or peanuts. On a happy note somehow pizza days (once every two weeks) is continuing. On a sad note they've switched from mucho burrito back to subway for the other off weeks. Our kids loved the burrito, but apparently they were in the minority. Subs we'll make at home.

Love this thread, as I've just entered the world of school lunches for my eldest and am filled with soul-crushing dread about the repetitiveness of it all. I have some refried beans in the fridge right now though, so Mexican layer dip's on the menu for Tuesday (thanks @Yan!). Also really like the idea of mini kabobs. My son's a very good eater, but I think that at this age, with all the distractions of a new school and new friends (and their lunches), making food that's visually interesting is a pretty important driver in it actually getting eaten.

About the ice pack issue, I just bought these after seeing them on sale at Loblaws www.rubbermaid.com

I'd originally planned on using tiffin carriers, but think these are a bit more kid friendly and they're BPA free. They also fit better in my son's little lunch bag. His school has lunch plus two snack times and it was hard to find a configuration of reusable, lightweight containers that would fit in a kid-sized lunch tote.

Not sure if I've shared this before, but I have a non-foodie, non-cooking friend who got her two kids through school by buying cheap pizza pops and vachon treats. Every day there was competition from kids who wanted to trade their home made healthy lunches for the much more desirable commercial crap. Her kids ate healthy every day at minimal cost and effort to her, and they were super popular with their classmates too.

Going into year 2 of lunches... I also had to pack lunch everyday in the summer (daycare).

Make sure your kid can open the containers! Have a practice session. The teacher will not come around opening everyone's container and the break is short if your kid likes to talk.

So, what I've learned - make them quick, easy to eat things. Many small snacks seem to go over better than a sandwich/fruit combo. Cold quesadillas are a hit here, as is cold pizza. Utensils don't always come home, lunch containers don't always come home, water bottles don't always come home - so don't spend too much money on that stuff.

I'm lucky in that daycare (1/2 day school, 1/2 daycare), supplies unlimited fruits & veggies, so I don't pack much of either. Sandwiches are tricky because my kid won't eat meat, so we do hummus, cheese & veggies. He can easily eat the same thing every day of the week, which makes lunch planning easier. I make, slice & freeze pizza then stick frozen pieces into his lunch.

Homemade muffins or banana bread are always enjoyed, so once again, I make & freeze.

Our school prides itself in litterless lunches. So no packaged foods. I'll still send granola bars sometimes, but just leave the garbage at home, or he brings it back home to me.

blubarry - at our school kids are not allowed to share lunches or foods from lunches. Schools have become extremely cautious due to wide range of allergies out there. Maybe older kids can share, but definitely not younger set.

Thanks for my morning laugh, blubarry! Wish I'd thought of that.

Well it figures they'd legislate a way to take the fun out of that too. It was a few years ago, but seriously her kids ate very well on the lunches other parents made. I guess an enterprising kid would trade on the school bus. :)

blubarry That is too funny. Kudos to the kids for giving up the crap. Their mom must have been doing something right (or really, really wrong and they were desperate...?).

cardamom, their mom was indeed into eating healthy, just didn't enjoy cooking, and that was the easiest and cheapest way for her to get them decent lunches. It worked right up until high school.

Does she acknowledge that, in an ethical sense, she was a parasite? Undermining the efforts of other kids' parents to give them healthy lunches makes her a selfish detriment to society. Hopefully her kids are making up for it now. ;-)

Hey FF I traded my own lovingly made healthy lunches occasionally in junior high for pudding snacks, potato chips and french fry money. I guess she was an enabler of bad behaviour who took advantage of a more than willing marketplace. I remember what it was like to be 10 and to want an Oh Henry bar more than an apple.

We discovered the big kit in our kids lunches this year was rice with chopsticks! Not sure if it's because it's NOTHING like what the other kids have, or because it's fun for them to eat with chopsticks.

And jar cakes. They help make'em, they always eat'em.

Fruits are still a challenge I find, they eat lots at home, but fruit just doesn't travel well. So their lunches must always look very unbalanced.

blubarry our kids are the ones that always have the 'apple' and never the 'Oh Henry'. My school lunch concern right now is my eldest is coming home everyday with either a pudding snack (boughten) and chocolate granola bars (also boughten). Not sure which kid/s these are coming from yet, but I hate the thought that some other parent is paying for a snack for my kid that I don't want them eating everyday! :-(

I'm with FF on this one, 'parasite' is the right word! Taking the cheap, lazy route at the expense of good, responsible parents.

I disagree, blubarry; a marketplace does not consist of kids who don't know or care what's good for them or understand the value of their parents' money and effort.

My suggestions for easy lunches...

Bean salad is one of my favourite easy to make easy to eat snacks.
If you're making vegetarian sandwiches, try throwing some extra veggies on the grill next time you bbq and then slicing them in. Makes for a different taste and makes peppers and mushrooms so much better in sandwiches.
Also maybe subsitute spinach dip or baba ganoush for hummus to mix things up.
Oh, and if he likes little fruit maybe some pitted cherries?

Just stopped by St Honaire Bakery and along with lunch picked up some hot dog buns for the kids. OK, not healthy but oh so yummy. (so say the kids). This is probably something really easy to make at home too, but a $1 a pop (more or less) its a great pick up alternative.

Well the "parasite's" kids are adults now, and grew up to be healthy eaters for the most part, and one is a pretty good amateur cook. Not sure about the kids they traded with. And as for me, I'd still trade carrot sticks for a Crispy Crunch bar :)