Family Forum / Parenting / Parenting / July 2004

    When my kids take lunch, they have a Lands End
insulated lunch box that has held up well over the years
and seems to work fine.  Honestly, though, it got much
more of a workout in preschool and camps.  Both my kids
have no interest in packing lunch, and I have no interest
in making it ;-)  They buy lunch at school.  It's not
the most cost effective thing in the universe, I'm sure,
but it's not all that expensive either and it's a whole
lot less work and aggravation.

Best wishes,
Ericka

Something like the stuff you can get here:
http://store.yahoo.com/lunchboxshop/index.html

Although I think we just got ours at Wal-mart or Target.  Both of mine have
the soft-sided kind that have soft, shiny plastic on the front (my DD has
Spongebob and DS has Spiderman), and the inside looks sort of like a soft
cooler.

My daughter had PB (no J) sandwiches every day for 3 years (we did OFFER
other stuff), but has finally gotten tired of it this last year and switched
to mostly leftovers.  They seemed to keep OK in the lunchbox, with a cold
box of OJ and often a container of yogurt.  She didn't get to eat until
12:45, and they weren't refrigerated.

Laura

AT <nospam@nowhere.com> wrote in message

lunch >bag, brown bag, insulated cloth lunch box?

The girls take lunch boxes. I have bought lunch boxes that have their
favorite character on them or now that they are older, the more prettier
ones with flowers or butterflies on them. I will pass on a little tidbit to
you though, the plastic lunch boxes don't hold up very long at all and you
might find yourself having to get another one before the year is up. The
lunch boxes that zip around are much more sturdier and have lasted longer
than the kids wanted the lunch box.

As for ideas for lunches, here is what my girls usually take.

Sandwiches like PB&J, ham, turkey, bologna, salami either on bread or rolled
up in a tortilla.

Some kind of crunchy thing, like crackers and cheese, chips, Cheezits. You
get the idea.

A fruit of some kind and a dessert.

In the winter, sometimes I pack soup. Just buy a small thermos that fits
into the lunch box and you're good to go. Leftovers that were easy to eat.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)

Just a plain old lunch box, insulated or not.  My current
pet peeve is that so few lunch boxes come with a thermos
anymore - and I refuse to buy juice boxes.

We pack whatever they usually eat at home - sandwich, fruit,
 soup or whatever in a small thermos.

Lesley

After 2 years of sending DD to preschool with her lunch, I *finally*
feel like we've got this down.  Of course, that doesn't mean it doesn't
keep changing, especially as I have the only kid on the planet that
*doesn't* want to eat the same thing every day -- or that what's worked
so far will continue to work exactly the same way once she starts
kindergarten in the fall.  Nonetheless ...

* For lunchboxes, I second the recommendation for one of the soft-sided
insulated ones from Lands End, LL Bean, or someplace like that.  L's LL
Bean one has held up well for almost 2 years, and is still going strong.  
These do cost a bit more, but given how quickly kids (or at least my
kid) seem to break the cheapie character ones they sell in the
supermarket, you'll probably end up paying less over the course of the
year(s).  The one caveat here is, if your kid's more likely to lose than
to break a lunchbox, you obviously won't want to buy a new one of these
every month ... in which case, you may choose to treat lunchboxes as a
semi-disposable item, and just buy the cheapest ones you can find.

* For favorite lunches, the key for us has been to mix it up a bit, and
*not* fall into the habit of sending the same old thing every day.  DD
tends to get some combination of the following:
    Beverage: favorites are juice, chocolate milk, or molasses milk.  
The plastic Thermoses *don't* really do a good job of keeping drinks
cold on their own, so I'll pour an inch or so of the beverage into the
Thermos the night before, stick it in the freezer overnight, and then
fill it up with more milk/ juice from the fridge in the AM.  This also
acts as an extra ice pack of sorts.
    Something with protein: PBJ sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, sliced
hard-cooked eggs, individual servings of yogurt, cream cheese & jelly
sandwiches, cheese cubes, small cups of nuts, hummus, tofu-kan, sliced
seitan, etc.  (DD's *not* a big fan of most breads, so we tend to be a
bit creative here -- pitas 1 day, several tiny sandwiches on a skinny
baguette the next, some sort of spread on crispbreads the next.)  
Occasionally sliced turkey or ham if we happen to have some around,
which is rare.  There are also a number of dinner leftovers which DD
likes to eat cold, so if we had roast turkey, meatloaf, baked beans/
beans & rice, ravioli/ tortellini the night before, she often begs me to
put 'em in her lunch.  
    A fruit or (occasionally) a vegetable.  DD's pretty good with
these (and the apple cores/ peach pits/ banana peels that come home
suggest she's really eating them), as long as I keep it varied.  (Frozen
berries from the supermarket can help with the variety, especially in
the winter.  They're a bit expensive, but a bag lasts us a week or 2.)  
She prefers fruits, but will eat certain veggies (baby carrots, grape
tomatoes, sliced red & yellow peppers) occasionally, especially if
there's hummus or bean dip to dunk 'em in.  Also, this took us a while
to figure out, but she seems to get overwhelmed by big pieces of fruit,
and is much more likely to eat (for example) those tiny, bite-sized
apples than the big grapefruit-sized Mutsus I prefer.  
    Sometimes, but not always, another treat or filler item.  If
either of the other items isn't very filling, or is one of those things
she'll eat some days and not others; or if the combination of the 2
seems to lack something (not much fiber, all sweet stuff, etc.); or if
we just plain have something I know she'll like on hand, I may tuck in
something else: a rice cake, a small cup of pretzels or popcorn, 1 or 2
homemade cookies or brownies (if we happen to have any), a small cup of
dried fruit, etc.  DD also *loves* cold leftover pasta in pretty much
any shape or form, so sometimes this is both the "filler" item *and* the
main lunch item, in which case I try to include nuts, cheese, yogurt, or
something else with protein as a snack.  

WHEW! Didn't realize quite how varied our lunches were -- I'll have to
print this out for myself for the next time I'm stuck!

-Jean