Beyond Peanut Butter & Jelly

[SRL]

What are you doing interesting in packing school lunches these days? My difficult child is limited but I'm in need of new ideas for the other two.

On a related note, this morning difficult child informed me that I forgot something very important in his lunch yesterday. I assumed he meant the spreader for his PB sandwiches but instead he told me "THE PEANUT BUTTER. I had to make a candy corn and butterfinger sandwich instead!" He didn't sound like he minded much. :sushi:

 

[nvts]

We do:

chicken and pickles (canned chicken, mayo and pickle relish - gross!)

cold fried chicken, carrot sticks with- ranch (Hidden valley has little individual servings - sort of like pudding cups) or those 100 calorie chips, apple slices (you can get caramel for "dippers" just like the ranch dressing), meatloaf sandwiches, coldcuts, etc.

Now this seems like a varied lunch, but in our house you have the "2 for 3 rule". Two out of three will/won't like something and the other one will/won't. NEVER have we had all 3 like/hate something.

:grrr:

difficult child 3 will also do broccoli and ranch.

To keep the stuff in the lunch cold, I either freeze a juice box or put one of those "ouch, cold packs" (you know, the ones for when they scrape their knees or hit their heads sort of like a stuffed toy - they wouldn't lose "Mr. Piggy" if their lives depended on it!).

Beth

 

[goldenguru]

I used to buy tortillas and put all sorts of goodies in them and make 'roll ups'.

I used to do crackers & cheese/salami slices.

Cold leftover pizza.

Hard boiled eggs.

Any of the above with a piece of fresh fruit and a yogurt cup and you've got a fairly balanced lunch.

 

['Chelle]

difficult child always takes the same thing - ham and cheese sandwich. I have more problem with easy child's lunch. She doesn't like to eat meats, why I don't know. She likes peanut butter or cheese sandwiches. Peanut butter is banned from the school, a couple kids with allergies, which leaves her with cheese sandwiches. Sometimes she'll have lettuce on it, but not always. She likes yogurt, and yop drinks, and will eat fruits, so that's good. Hard boiled eggs are a great suggestion, I have no idea why I never thought of it before as she likes them.

I have sent hot dogs before. If you boil them, you can put them in a thermos with some of the water and they stay heated until lunch time. We save extra ketchup packets from fast food visits, then send them to put on the hot dog. Have sent soup in the thermos too, but easy child always feels she has to heat it up more at school, which puts her in the microwave lineup and by the time she gets it rewarmed she doesn't have time to eat it before her friends are going out to the playground. Therefore she doesn't eat it because she doesn't want to miss play time. :slap:

 

[Lothlorien]

Soup in a thermal bowl.

Apples cut up with single serve peanut butter.

Ham & Cheese on Rye/pumpernickel bread.

Yogurt.

Cheese and crackers.

tortilla with ham and cheese.

That's pretty much it. Mondays they have chicken nuggets at school, Fridays are Pizza. She usually gets lunch those two days. Sometimes they have tacos or quesadillas and she'll get that.

I like the idea of the hot dogs. I might do that in the future.

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

Tink does not just limit herself when bringing her lunch to PBJ, it HAS to be an "uncrustable".

The only hot lunches at school that she will partake in are pizza, chicken nuggets, and hamburgers (burgers only if she wakes up on the right pole).

 

[susiestar]

Jess is homeschooled, she gets leftovers and loves it.

thank you is very very limited in what he will eat. I buy the (icky) frito-lay nacho chees crackers and the jalapeno cheese crackers. He will sometimes pack leftover hamburgers (no bun) or pizza. We make up for it with fruit and veggies which he loves.

Our school will not let a student have a lunch that is just fruits and veggies. Go figure.

 

[tinamarie1]

My easy child goes in phases, for 2 weeks she wants lunchables, the next 2 weeks pb&j, the next 2, turkey with- mustard. ugh i don't see how anyone eats the same thing every day. Last year, she used her thermal bowl alot, i would pack left over lasagna or spahgetti or roast and veggies...she was the envy of all the teachers and students when she opened that bowl. lol
This year, I guess its not cool to bring a thermal bowl.
She wouldn't touch school lunch though if her life depended on it.
difficult child on the other hand LOVES the school lunches here, they give them a choice of 3 or 4 things.

 

[susiestar]

thank you would LOVE to have those uncrustable thingies, until he actually had to open the pkg. Nope. Not doing it. It would not get close enough to his body to touch him, much less get down his gullet.

He would LOVE lunchables, but he will not EAT them. I do NOT care to LISTEN to the lunchpeople about if he will or won't eat. HE can listen to them. I GRADUATED, I don't HAVE TOO!!

So I only buy stuff I KNOW he will eat. He won't eat hot dogs, so why would I think he would eat them on a lunchable?? He is sooooo picky. BUT he is a 3rd kid, and well, I just refuse to spend that much time on his lunch. He can tell me what he thinks he wants, I buy what we can afford, and then I keep an eye on the date on the packages. What gets eaten in a reasonable amount of time will be replaced. If ya don't eat it, don't beg for it!!!!

School lunches drive me nuts.

Susie

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

I had a boyfriend (who, in hindsight, was SO Aspie, poor guy fell through the cracks when he was in school) ate THE. VERY. SAME. THING. FOR. LUNCH. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. OF HIS. LIFE.

2 bologna and cheese sandwiches. And when he made them, he had 4 slices of bread on the plate, 2 above 2, like a square. The bologna went on top R and bottom L slices. Cheese went on top L and bottom R slices. No exceptions. Then he made them into sandwiches.

Breakfast food could ONLY be eaten at breakfast. He would really get upset if I made it for dinner. Likewise, if I went for leftovers in the morning, it was the end of the world.

At that point I had never even heard of autism (and I'm sure neither had his family, or he would have had support throughout his childhood).

Poor Chris. I swear they scooted him through just to give him a diploma.

 

[SRL]

Thanks for the ideas, everyone! There are some ideas I'd never thought of--definitely never thought of hot dogs!

easy child has just informed me that they have a microwave to warm things up which I either didn't know about or else slipped my mind. So that opens up a lot of doors. She took chicken soup the other day but said it was still warm in the thermos. I'd bet she'd like something like taco salad too.

I sometimes do snack mix using Crispix cereal as the base, then adding crackers, goldfish, sometimes peanuts and of course a bit of something like M&M's.

Today easy child came home for lunch and she had Camembert cheese spread on french bread and topped with strawberry jam and that could go in a school lunch. The cheese is so expensive I only buy it when it goes buy one get one free but it makes a nice change.

 

[goldenguru]

If she has access to a microwave then she could take those little single serving cans of soup, ravioli, or mac and cheese.