Challenge #4 - Lunch box Challenge, all welcome!

[brazen20au]

as per request, lunch box ideas - go for it!!!

[meganjane]

The lunch boxes that I prepare are a lot different to the ones most of you prepare! I make lunches for three hungry men when we're seeding, harvesting, hay baling or whatever.
They have two rounds of sandwiches or a wrap, plus meat and salad, slices, cakes or biscuits, something else savoury to nibble on like cheese and bickies or chicken wings and fruit.
It takes me over an hour to make them in the morning! Luckily, I don't have to make them before they go as they sometimes leave at 5am when it's hot!

Fortunately, there's only the two blokes to feed at the moment and they're cleaning out dams, so coming home for lunch.

I remember when making my children's lunches, they loved to have 'chicken roll ups', which was chicken and salad in a wrap.

[riv_mum]

the zuccini and noodle slice on the front of this months super food ideas is good. Everyone said it was nice and noone likes zuccini!
Can eat it hot or cold. Have converted - will post soon

[cookie1]

I still make DD's lunch even though she is 'all grown up'. It's basically just salad, fruit, and yoghurt. will have to put my thinking cap on and see what I can find that is suitable for lunches.

[achookwoman]

Although I don't do lunches anymore , we do picnics.   The little rolls cooked in muffin tins, centers removed and filled with whatever a child, ( big or small) might like,   This child likes  ---   ham, tomato and avocado mixed with a little EDC mayo.   The big "child '  likes curried egg .   But the centers can be filled with sweet things--dates, walnut and apple,  lemon butter and banana,  nuts ,sultanas and cream cheese.   For children,  taking lunch to school ,  we would have to take note of what conditions the food is exposed to, also no nuts.   Cold spaghetti and baked beans are popular.  If a cold pack is used then chicken and grated carrot in mayo would be Ok.  The variety of choices is endless as is the size if the little rolls.

[judydawn]

My GD never really liked sandwiches so I suggested to her mother that she should get a fairy cutter and see if that would entice her to eat one for lunch at kindy.  It worked.  Bit of waste but at least she ate something.

[cookie1]

It's well worth it Judy. Children don't really have that much time to eat at lunch time and if they sit there eating the entire time they miss out on the socialising that goes on. There is nothing sadder than seeing a child still eating lunch when it is time to go in. They often say 'Mum said I have to eat all this' and then they have enough for an adult.

[brazen20au]

my kids only ever want sandwiches for lunch. last year i wrote up this huge list of ideas and it was just sandwiches day in day out lol boring but at least easy

[judydawn]

Lucky you Karen.  Kids can be so darn fussy.

[Jabba]

Fried rice.
Wedge of frittata - made using leftovers, left-over risotto is especially good, or using fresh ingredients.
Dinner left-overs.
Pieces of meat - schnitzel is always a winner, as are chicken drumsticks.
Plain veg - cherry tomatoes, carrot/cucumber sticks; plain pasta; some cubed cheese; crackers.
Hoummos (great with the plain veg) or other dip.
Mini pizzas.
Boiled egg.
Veg pasty.

[foodiepep]

They're all good suggestions Jabba!  Apart from the cherry tomatoes my fussy 6 yo should eat them all. 

I also cut left over tortillas into bite sized pieces spray with a little olive oil and season with either onion powder or parmesan and bake them as a healthy cracker to go with the dip. 

Looking forward to making my own tortillas when my TM is delivered.  (It was dispatched today)

[achookwoman]

Foodiepep, I'll bet you are excited.   Let us know what you cook.

[brazen20au]

here was my planned list 
http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/2009/02/lunchbox-ideas.html

[quirkycooking]

It's well worth it Judy. Children don't really have that much time to eat at lunch time and if they sit there eating the entire time they miss out on the socialising that goes on. There is nothing sadder than seeing a child still eating lunch when it is time to go in. They often say 'Mum said I have to eat all this' and then they have enough for an adult.

It's even worse when they don't even get to EAT their lunch because their teacher keeps them in to finish their maths (which they couldn't understand and didn't get much help with!)!!!  (That happened to my 2nd grade daughter, who is very thin and gets all sleepy and 'low blood sugar' if she doesn't eat often... we're very happy to be homeschooling now!)

So, obviously we don't have to worry about lunch boxes since we homeschool, but when we go out for the day to do the shopping, etc, I often take things so they don't beg for junk...  here's some of our favourites:

- fruit (if they're picky, slice up a few different ones and mix together in a container with a squeeze of lemon juice) - their favourite is sliced apple sprinkled with cinnamon - no need for sugar, nice just like that.
- quartered & cored apples with a blob of homemade nut butter in the middle.
- home made tortillas with refried beans & cheese, or avocado, salad, tuna, whatever we've got.
- sweet and salty nuts (a mixture of nuts drizzled with honey or agave syrup then sprinkled with sea salt, and toasted for 10 - 15 mins on a tray in mod oven)
- treat balls (a few handfuls of raw almonds, same amount of dates, couple of large tablespoons cacao powder, ground up in TMX sp 9, until it sticks together - add some more dates or sultanas if needs more moisture.  Can also add dried apricots, choc chips, raw cashews, seeds, etc)
- snack sticks (http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2009/01/snack-sticks.html)
- nut butter (the one in the veg cookbook with seeds in it) & fruit spread sandwiches on homemade spelt bread.
- stuffed olives/little whole pickles
- boiled eggs
- homemade cookies/cake/slices (plenty of recipes on my blog - favourite cookies are the choc chip almond butter ones: http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2009/11/almond-butter-choc-chip-cookies.html)

[Thermomixer]

Never had kids to make lunchboxes - but certainly think I would prefer to home school my kids if I had any.

Sounds like it is a lot healthier and better for your kids Quirky Jo.

Welcome foodiepep - hope you find interesting things on our forum too.