school lunch tips

School Lunch Tips

These new school lunch ideas, from sandwiches to snacks to hot meals.
11. Heat up soup or pasta in the morning and pack it in a thermos to stay warm
No waiting in line to microwave it later. Just keep in mind that you may want to preheat the thermos and heat the food hotter than you normally would so that it stays warm until lunch time. Here are some helpful tips.
12. Mix homemade food with pre packaged snacks
Forget feeling guilty that you didn t grind your own peanut butter and bake your own homemade pretzels, okay? That s not a chill sitch, and there are plenty of individually packaged snacks you can buy that are perfectly healthy. Here are a few good suggestions.
13. Organize snacks for each day ahead of time
You can buy divided plastic trays for a few bucks and set up snack stations in the fridge, with some variations day to day, at the beginning of the week. Then just grab and pack (with a sandwich) each morning. Get more info here.
14. Use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches into fun shapes
Before you start with the ain t nobody got time for that, let s be clear This takes literally five seconds. And it will drastically increase the odds of your kid actually EATING the sandwich you pack.
15. Cookie cutters are also a great way to jazz up fruit or cheese
Food shaped like tiny hearts is considered 250% more delicious by children.
16. A lunch box with divided compartments cuts down
A lunch box with divided compartments cuts down on packaging and helps you remember all the components.This one, shown over at Dinner A Love Story, is called the PlanetBox.
17. On birthdays and holidays wrap each part of the lunch in gift wrap
This obviously isn t going to happen every day, but it s well worth doing a few times a year.
18. Make your own healthier Lunchables
Are your kids furious that you won t send them to school with Lunchables, aka pretty much the worst thing you could possibly feed them? Address the terrible injustice by packing up cute divided tupperware with real versions of all the same foods (plus some actual fruit or veggies, for good measure).
19. Use up leftovers from breakfast
Most kids will be pretty thrilled to have pancakes for lunch, so don t throw those extras out. Get more smart ideas here.
20. Hummus
Same goes for hummus. EVERYTHING is better with hummus.