Guest guest Posted August 12, 2001 Report Share Posted August 12, 2001 Can't believe summer is almost over and school stuff starts again. Not looking forward to packing lunches myself. It's a pain because they don't make lunch boxes big enough to fit the lunches I pack for Josh. I almost need to send him with a cooler. Of course those are the days that he has hot dogs,meatballs, or french toast and I need to pack the thermos I found that I can heat in the microwave before I put the warm food in. I also send in a container of cut up fruit and some kind of cookie snack. Last year his lunch wasn't until 1:00 so the teacher gave them time for a working snack. He had to have an additional snack to eat at his desk. Mostly for a drink I send in water. I use the small 8 ounce lunch box size and change it to a sports top. (of course the companies are making the bottles different sizes to not make that easy, but I've been figuring it out among the different brands) I occassionally will put Minute Maid Lemonade or Motts Orange juice in for a treat. If the weather is real hot I pack extra water bottles in their back packs. To keep it cold, I'll fill a washed out bottle with about 1/4-1/3 of water. Freeze it and then in morning, fill the rest with water. By the time they have lunch, the ice has mostly melted and the water is still cold. Helps to keep the lunch cold too. I've made extra pancakes. (small 1/2 dollar size or cookie size) I put those in their lunch instead of sandwiches since bread is not a easy thing to make. Depending on the weather, my bread maker flops. sigh. My kids don't mind the pancakes at room temp, especially if I add gfcf chocolate chips or blueberries. One of my sons actually doesn't want syrup if I add the chocolate chips. I sometimes get sneaky and add extra protein powder or calcium powder into the pancake batter. I've also used pancakes in place of bread for PB & J sandwiches. My children are older so I don't have to much issues with the art supply stuff. I send in model magic and we haven't really had much problems with paint, but then again, I haven't worried a lot about it. My boys love the Cool Fruit-fruit leather so the teacher has a supply in her desk. I also send in little bags of potato chips and they have given me some freezer space in the teachers lounge. I keep some cup cakes and cookies in the freezer for those surprise birthday treats days that get brought in. Yes, when they have pizza parties and Ice cream things at school, I run up there with my guys stuff. We have been lucky because my guys don't get offended if they have to have a freezer snack instead of what the other kids are having. HOWEVER, because of the wonderful people on this listserver, there hasn't been anything that my kids have gone without. I have made " twinkies, hosts cupcakes, pop tarts, pizza, fruit dip, holiday cookies, birthday cupcakes...... " the list goes on. Now that my husband is on the diet for health reasons that ruin family fun if he is not, I have made beef stew (I should say he did that one) chicken stew, chili, chicken fingers, onion rings, eggplant lazagna, zucchini bread and the list goes on here too. Oh before I ramble forever (I hope someone find this encouraging instead of annoying) when my son wants a cheese sandwich for lunch, I make the bread recipe from www.twinvalleymills.com and we use toffutti cheese. I wrap his sandwich while still warm in paper towel, then put it in the aluminum foil. The paper towel obsorbs the moisture and the aluminum holds some of the heat. Anyway, he has eaten it so I guess he is happy because he keeps asking for it. I've also ordered crackers from Miss Roben's and put cheese or pb & j in between. Oh, we have also taken jet puff marshmellow for the occassion treat and melted them in the toaster oven while on bread or crackers and added some peanut butter on the other side and made marshmellow crackers or sandwich. One last one, we have made nutbutter balls as suggested in Karyn S's book and froze them. Then put in a small container inthe lunch box. They are a bit melted, but the kids don't care. So I hope that helps a little. Really you only have to come up with 2 or 3 lunches and just rotate them during the week. I think sometimes I just complicate things by thinking too much. Glad I wrote this out. Gave me some ideas of what Ineed to do to prepare for those up and coming quick school days. I am also taking the kids to family day camp next week so I'll have to be packing lunches then too. Good luck to all. Joyce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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