I agree, packing lunches is so difficult! I was just discussing this with my SIL yesterday in fact. My kids are 9,7 and 4, so I pack for my 9 and 7 year old nearly daily, plus my hubby packs too for work. Ugh...the dreaded...what to pack them!?

I will say hubby does usually take leftovers since he has access to a microwave. But the kids, they take PBJ, Ritz Peanut Butter crackers, spaghetti o's, ramen noodles, mac n cheese or chicken tetrazini in a thermos. My 9 year old will eat salad with ranch dressing, so I even pack that occassionaly for her. I hate that they eat junkie type foods for lunch, but I am at a loss of what to pack them! Neither of them like lunch meat, so that makes it very difficult. Then they get sides like yogurt, fruit, cheese sticks, etc. I really try to pack a healthy lunch for them when it comes to sides to make up for the main course :)

Would LOVE to get ideas from others here!

Missy - well, you should be thankful they don't like lunch meats; those are about the acme of unhealthfulness (acne?).

I have a friend who moans that her kid doesn't like "lunch", she prefers "ingredients" - that is carrots, cheese, etc...

Maybe all the cooking grandmas on this list will start making us some photo-recipe ideas....

Noodles -- I gotta figure out a way to make ramen without the MSG that they'll eat. The Japanese grocers is a minefield of chemicals. But tasty....

And for you chefs on this list - I've always thought this was a good marketing opportunity -- cook book with photos of packed/packable, fast-to-make, healthy, tasty, interesting, different tupperware-available lunch items. With shopping lists. Have a section with list A, list B and from these (as in TR's "working backward from the fridge" - I love that!) construct a series of packable "ingredients".

I have four elementary age kids so I pack up to 20 lunches per week, one of the things I dread most when summer ends. Of course they all have different likes and dislikes so not every lunch has e same thing. My older two typically have a sandwich, pretzels, fresh fruit and a homemade cookie. Younger two take things like yogurt, cheese and crackers, fruit, carrots, pretzels, tuna w/ww crackers. Sometimes one of them will take leftovers like taco meat with a tortilla, pizza, pasta. None of my kids like soup which drives me crazy! My oldest daughter has recently asked for salads every day which usually consist of lettuce, cuke, red bell pepper and carrots with chunks of grilled chicken. They all take water to drink.

I try to keep them healthy so I don't really buy packaged or processed foods for them. I'm curious to see what others pack as I'm always looking for new ideas.

Dh chaperoned a field trip this week and came home aghast at what some kids got in their lunches. One kid AND his MOM had lunchables! I can't even fathom a parent eating that junk (he told me the family - an upper middle class, educated mom!).

Isn't the composition of others' lunch boxes *astonishing*?! I do sometimes buy "treats" like, say, those crunchy peas as snacks; in general I just never buy that stuff but feel very virtuous when I include such 'normal' junk... but then when you chaperone, or just ask the kids, you learn of: chocolate coated dipping goo and lunchables -- which are, believe it or not, comparatively good -- there is worse out there! And on and on ... sandwiches that consist of two slices of wonder bread encompassing one slice of unknown sliced "meat". only. candy bars. chips. soda. etc -

Anyway, I can tell from what's getting posted here that by and large this is not the sensibility of folks on this list.

Maybe ... maybe I should actually make some cookies to add one of per day because it's good, fun and I never get to do it as we're all always eating too much sugar, and the quality and novelty and specialness will make up for the rest.. those choco chip cookies with chilis -- are they spicy or just flavorful? ;)

Only, this isn't what I was asking for was it ... I worry about the heavy metals in tuna and unsustainability of its harvesting, so that's a very rare treat only, but I love the idea. sigh.

As for tuna, I buy wholesale wild alaskan salmon from a fisherman in PA through a buyer's club in my city. It's much less expensive (almost half) than at the grocery store and it's fantastic! I buy them by the fillet--25 lbs at a time. They're flash frozen in plastic, so I just take one out of our freezer, rinse it, spice it, and bake it and then throw it in the food processor. Then I add mayo (sometimes cut celery/carrots) to it in a bowl and there's homemade fish salad. No worries about too many heavy metals.

Depending upon budget, you could simply buy larger cuts/pieces of fish and do the same.

Will be following this thread for sure! I have two in public school who usually get the school lunch and one in private school whose lunch I pack (the purchase your lunch choices are complete junk - no fresh fruit, no veggies, no milk, no whole grains, etc.) . . .

I did read somewhere recently the tip to premake lunches for the week and prebag them - so slice a few apples dipped in pineapple juice, premake sandwiches (without condiments except for PB&J which supposedly doesn't get soggy if you freeze it), etc. She put them in neat little baskets in her fridge so she just had to grab and go in the morning - sounded good to me!

Oh the dreaded lunch packing... I too find it hard to be creative.

We supposedly had a rule that the kids (15 yo DD and 12 yo DS) would pack their own lunches, but the reality of morning crunch time is that I often end up helping. (I have about 15 minutes between getting home from a morning workout and them leaving for school.) Both like sandwiches, but neither likes regular sandwich bread. So they either use sub rolls or bagels. DS likes his with lots of lettuce and tomato, so his sandwiches are always really stacked high and look great.

Sometimes they'll bring hot food (chili, soup, pasta) in a Thermos, but not often. We keep a stock of baby carrots, sugar snap peas, apples, grapes and Clementine oranges (when in season) for the sides. DS likes to make his own (super spicy) salsa, so sometimes he has that on the side with chips or he'll even put it on the sandwich. We usually have some Joe's O's or Dunkers cookies (Trader Joe's) for their dessert.

Sometimes we make Jello or pudding and put it into mini Tupperware containers as a side.

Lunch is tough. I pretty much have to rely on having control over a healthy dinner! Aliris - love the cookbook idea. I'd buy it!

I tend to send a lot of little things, rather than a "main course". Like, brie & crackers; smoked salmon, cream cheese & crackers; black bean & cheese burrito. I also make huge batches of muffins and homemade granola bars, and freeze them, easy to supply lunches that way. Also, would your kids eat nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc? I also send the organic olive oil popcorn from TJ's...my kids complain that they don't get very much, b/c their friends want to eat it all :)

Oh i am so glad to have this thread going...my child just began kindergarten. In the preschool the lunches were at least inside the building; but here they are in cubbies outside, and getting baked or frozen depending on the season. (We're in SF Bay Area so weather is not extreme but in summer I have seen fruits actually go bad during the 4 hours).

So -- the challenge is to provide healthy lunch that the kid likes (an oxymoron?) that would stay reasonably fresh.

I typically pack one small serving of main course (like pasta or grilled cheese sandwich, or pita bread) combined with a vegetable (carrot, asparagus, sugar snap peas) or whole fruit (cut slices spoil most certainly in the heat), such as orange, peach or berries in season. I try to toss the main course in a bit of oil so it does not dry up. DD has recently taken fascination over fried rice so I stir fry greens and broccoli.

If I want to include protein, I typically steam garbanzo beans or edamame beans and mix with pasta.

I prefer to not include meat because of the concerns about how well they will hold up.

I have to admit, what I give is no reflection of what gets eaten. Regardless of what is included in the lunchbox, depending on the day, she will eat what/how much she wants. That's one reality I've resigned to (sigh!). For dinnertime, I use a heavy handed approach about finishing vegetables etc. as a result.

The kids have very little time to eat and some chat while they eat (heaven forbid). So it can't be too complicated to eat.

We use a whole wheat bread with no corn syrup. Years later, my kids admitted to me that they took a little teasing as they never had the ideal lunch: a white-bread sandwich, apple slices and chocolate chip cookie. This mostly mattered in the early grades.

I send leftovers if I have them. I do buy roasted turkey at the deli counter, there are supposedly less preservatives in it than the prepackaged stuff in the refrigerator case. My daughter will only eat a few things and tuna is one of them. I sometimes make Annie's pastas for the thermos.

I have a severe nut and peanut allergy, so no pbj. I let them have prepackaged things with nuts that go straight to school. One that my older two love is the Nature Valley Oats N Honey bars. I buy them in bulk at Costco, but they are also sold at the grocery store. They do at least use real sugar and have some fiber--better than cookies.

I don't know anything about the contents of these, and whether the recipes are actually nutritious, but Aliris, there are lunch box cookbooks!! Check Amazon if they don't have them at the bookstore.

I'm actual a major overacheiver in the lunchbox arena. I have about 10 bento boxes I use for my girls, FUNtainers, etc. I think they have 8 lunchbags between them. I actually have a list on another board for lunch ideas, so here it is for you all for new inspiration:
Fruits/veggies
baby carrots
carrots sliced into "coins" or use mini cookie cutter for small shapes
carrot sticks
celery sticks-plain, with p-nut butter, with cream cheese
broccoli "trees"
cauliflower trees
bell peppers
black olives
green olives
cherry/grape tomatoes
mini salads-Rio loves a cherry tomato wrapped in a spinach leaf dipped in ranch dressing
cucumber
edamame

apples
applesauce
oranges
mandarin oranges
peaches
pears
plums
pineapple
watermelon
canteloupe
honeydew
berries(strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
tangerines
banana
grapes
kiwi

Breads
bagels
muffins
cornbread
banana bread
zucchini bread
pumpkin bread
whole wheat
tortillas
white bread
cut bread into shapes and toast for "croutons"
bake tortillas cut with cookie cutters and sprinkled with seasonings for "tortilla chips"
rice balls

Hot meals
Spaghetti-os
Any pasta
Noodles of any sort
Soup for older kiddos
leftovers

Snacks
Chips
Dried fruits(raisins, craisins, apples, prunes-Just Tomatoes stuff)
Dried veggies(JT stuff)
Trail Mix
Nuts
Crackers
Granola bars
Fruit bars(Nutrigrain/TJs This ____walks into a bar)
cereal
popcorn
pretzels-hard or soft pretzels

Dairy
yogurt(buy tubes and freeze them)
cheese-cut into slices to top a cracker, cubes to thread with meat/veggies, Babybell(cut away part of the red wax-leave the shape of hair and put eyes and mouth on it from black olive pieces), string cheese
cottage cheese

Spreads/dips
Cream cheese
nutella
nut butter
peanut butter
mayo
mustard
Miracle Whip
Hummus
Ranch
strawberry cream cheese mixed with marshmellow cream-DELICIOUS fruit dip
yogurt to dip fruit

Meat/ protein
Cube/slice turkey, ham, chicken
Hot dogs
beans (baked beans and hot dogs are one of Syd's favs)
chicken leg(wrap end with foil for less mess)
rolled up deli meat
Hard Boiled Eggs

DH only works one day a week now, and I won't tell you what he takes because it's truly awful from a health perspective.

But DD packs lunches for 6 (including DH and 5 kids in private school) and they usually get a "wrap" made with a tortilla or Flat Out and leftover chicken or turkey, a fruit, cut up veggies, and sometimes a pudding snack. So not too bad. She let's them "purchase" lunch very occasionally.

Califreckles: granola bar recipe please??! Though hmmm, I have my own granola that I make and could probably just add extra liquid, mash it together into a cookie sheet and bake it that way then slice it up - no need to make two steps; make the granola then make the bars... Still, I'd love to see a recipe if you've one to share.

ppplog - Then I'd have to shell out money for the books though! I only _think_ I want one... ;)

Plus, those dainty quantities are downright sweet - they're for littler kids I think. You should see the massive quantities I've taken to packing for my swimming adolescent. I find that if I don't stoke her up on my food she gets into the school store where they sell fairly appalling fare. It's actually better this year than last, thanks to a concerted effort. Still, it's like a race to fill her with relatively healthy calories, else the others just seem to get in there.

Does anyone have the experience of those thermoses actually working? I preheat them with boiling water, buy brand name at high $$$, then encase them in insulating dad-socks, double layer. Still no-go; the innards are cold by lunchtime.

Seeds and nuts: a good idea. I need to start making more of my own variously changing gorp mix. Under construction for so long I decided I could try to maybe have someone pre-make something for me and made the mistake of buying a TJ's bag of trail mix. Geeeesh. It's 60% chocolate at least. 2-3% would be the right amount for an occasional special treat I should think - there should be an occasional, surprising flavor burst. I spent the time trying to avoid sugar. Silly.

colorfast: yup, the chattering is a problem! When littler that is.

Homey, I find that kids - mine, random ones - that kids like "healthy" foods just fine. But there's a culture of dissing it so that when they get together in small groups, no one's allowed to admit to liking tastier food. I think this has to be some sort of marketing coup. It's weird. But I think there's no oxymoron in creating healthy food kids like. The dilemma results when they interact with peer pressure which is really just a synonym for agri-marketing. I'm guessing...

BalTra - I love it that you give *3* chocolate chips. Minis? Good Girl!

My kids won't eat bell pepper. grump. They do get celery, carrots, peeled cukes for veggies, but when it's every day that even in rotation, gets so old year after year. Steamed green beans - I'll try to get that in the mix. Maybe I need to buy broccoli for just this purpose. Maybe that would be the utility of making up lunches in advance, so as to have and plan for some variety. Else, there's just zero way I could do all that pre-packaging and freezing and fussing.

It's not the "ingredients" I'm having trouble with, it's the main dish part. Too much pasta. My kids like the frozen cheese mini pizzas from TJ. The meat is just too scary to offer, plus one wouldn't take it.

Salads I find such a mystery. I'll make a fantastic-to-me one one day and everyone will whine and complain: I can tell immediately upon pickup whether they've eaten it by their crabby-gauge. Then other days I'm pretty worried I've packed something icky and they're both enthusiastic as can be. I just don't get the salads. And trying to buy them from TJs doesn't work either. I thought that would be a fun treat but they've quickly grown to hate them. When we had no kitchen I tried that pre-made route but the non-meat varieties are scarce and "adult" (read: blue cheese) and the chicken varieties tend to be gross, or so I'm told.

It's actually my experience that this second childhood known as adolescence sees a resurgence of food-fussiness. Or maybe it's just a surge of food insistence: that is I Insist On Sugar And Fat Only And Ever. oy.

I absolutely love the idea of making up muffins and freezing them. I think fruit muffins would be a no-go as they'd get soggy. But others....

I wonder .... maybe I could see my way to stir frying up a much simpler stir-fry than I'd ordinarily make - as you mention, homey, just broccoli and rice and greens -- I could freeze servings of that I suppose. Dunno .... I'm hearing the groans now.

As for what being sent actually winding up in the gullet, thankfully I have "girls" and they're fairly non-sneaky that way. The rule is, veggies before the rest and I worry that they'll just toss the veggies and call them "done", but for some reason they appear not to really do so. Sometimes the teen will pass them off to friends, but I'm actually OK with raising the public health of her friends that little bit that way. As noted, dinner's the solution for that. If the stuff were to go in the garbage can, that would irritate me.

hlove - your buying power is making me so jealous! 25# of flash-frozen tuna would make a lot of lunches. Sadly the mercury and other heavy-metals concern isn't really a function of the catching or canning process, it's a function of our poor land/sea husbandry. What you actually do about it on an individual level is a tricky problem. I think reasonable minds can disagree on this but there are official suggestions for intake limits. They're depressing. And I want to quickly add, while I believe, personally, that reasonable minds can disagree personally, there is a whole other level concern regarding the heavy metals for pregnant women. Just tossing that out there, though I'm sure most everyone here has to be aware of this.

Bahaca, I think I love you. Lists. I must be a middle-schooler at heart. Lists is what I want...

Thankfully my kids like boring.

things that make their way into our lunches:
homemade bread sandwich - typically a pbj... occasionally tuna or egg salad. occasionally a meat and cheese.

fruit/veggie. they really just want apples/carrots/ broccoli. occasionally I'll throw other kinds in there, but they'll often will just come back home (they eat a variety of fruits/veg at home... so why not at school????)

homemade vanilla yogurt. occasionally gussied up with sprinkles, granola, or a "no-no" sugar cereal. (baby steps, people, baby steps!)

hard boiled egg

homemade granola... trail mix... crackers... granola bar

I have one that likes to take leftovers - that is if her daddy lets her have them instead of for his lunch.

as it gets cooler, soup.

I feel like it needs more variety... them, not so much.

I'm not good at premaking, but the few times I've made sandwiches in advance and put in the freezer have always been met with both kid approval and help in the crazy morning rush. a friend of mine actually "makes" her sandwiches on the bread dough, folds the dough around the stuff and bakes up sandwich rolls. Then freezes those. I did that once. Kids loved it. I felt it needed (I needed?) work to make it time friendly and a bit less messy. (I didn't get the dough rolls folded enough so the insides occasionally came out).

I did find the divided lunch containers from ziplock (gladware?) - very similar to the easylunchbox.com idea. basically simple bento boxes. It has definitely streamlined packing time. no more stuffing into all those baggies.

That's why I buy W.A. salmon instead of tuna...I'm not sure anything's zero mercury, but it's supposed to have a minimal amount. I remember reading, though, that a lot of fish ocean fish is high in selenium? I think, which from what I've read, counteracts or binds with the body before mercury does.

Anyway, thanks for starting this thread...my 6 yo is going through an ultra-picky stage, which is very trying when trying to pack snacks/lunches, much less cook for home!

Wow - definitely some good ideas here!

Here's what my family will eat: 14-yo likes sandwiches on a roll (store-baked turkey, cheese and salami is his favorite), tuna salad with AkMak crackers (relatively healthy), simple pasta salad (made from leftover pasta -- I'll toss it w/ olive oil, lemon juice, S&P, pine nuts, and herbs...sometimes I throw in leftover chicken/veggies, but he tends to eat around that. Chopped raw veggies w/ a lemon wedge to squirt. Sliced apples, berries, grapes, clementines. Nuts & dried cherries on the side. Last week I had *nothing* around for an entree, so I opened a can of black beans, and made black bean dip -- blended beans some salsa-from-a-jar, added chipotle powder and lime juice. Packed it w/ some tortilla chips - okay, the chips weren't superhealthy, but he absolutely loved that lunch (I added lots of fresh fruit) and it was a good boredom-buster. Still healthier than high school junk food lunch. Will eat the occasional wrap, too.

11-yo "I hate sliced bread and won't eat ANYTHING with whole wheat" daughter: sigh. She's tough, but wants to buy every day. Luckily she doesn't demand much variety. She'll eat crackers and string cheese and turkey pepperoni, the occasional ham sandwich *if* we have a high-quality loaf of homemade or bakery bread, crackers with peanut butter and a banana (I pack a plastic knife to cut the banana into slices and spread the PB, plus a small paper plate and lots of napkins). She loves fruit and carrot sticks, so that's easy. Her fave lunch: a baked potato packed in a thermos, with a little chopped bacon or just some butter, salt&pepper. I will nuke a leftover spud and put it into the preheated thermos, and she says it stays hot longer than other foods like soup or pasta. Usually I have to cut off the end of the potato to fit it in the thermos. Only problem: can't find the thermos lately! (If she lost it at school, she'll have to find it or wait for Santa to bring her another, 'cause I'm tired of them losing stuff!).

8-yo son: Will eat some leftovers, yay! Will eat PB&J crackers (I pack it all separately, again, lots of napkins and a wipe), the occasional "homemade lunchable" (ham and cheese cut into little squares, crackers - unhealthy ones or Triscuits). Only sandwich he likes - as an occasional boredom-buster: the David Dog (named after him, he "invented" this in preschool). It's a hot dog bun w/ any kind of cheese, a thin-sliced pickle, and a little ketchup and mustard. Will eat fruits and cukes, not many other veggies at lunch, but does okay at dinner. He buys school lunch occasionally, too.

On Mondays, 8-yo eats lunch at 10:15, and says it's too early for lunch food, so I've started packing him a container of dry Cheerios, some chopped up strawberries, a plastic bowl, and a spoon. He buys skim milk at school and has a "2nd breakfast". They get out early on Mondays, so he just has a late-lunch-type snack when he gets home.
When we have leftover homemade cookies, I freeze them for lunch box desserts -- doesn't happen often.

I have trouble packing whole bananas, peaches and pears -- they get beat up in the soft-sided lunch box by lunchtime!

Love the bento boxes! Unfortunately DD and all her friends only use Vera Bradley lunch bags. This Vera Bradley thing started in 5th grade, maybe earlier. (Feel free to roll your eyes. I do.)

DS was good with his thermal lunch boxes for years. I loved them because I'd add a small ice pack to keep things fresh. Suddenly in 7th grade "everyone just uses paper bags." Yes, we've had conversations about the green-ness of reusable vs. paper.

I forgot about the Flat-Outs someone mentioned. We used those for a long time and then I think the kids got tired of them. I'm ready to try them again -- I love wraps.

Why won't bentos work in a Vera Bradley? There are tons of slim ones that fit ANYWHERE.
As for the paper bag-http://www.artistsclub.com/cfSurfaces/surfaces_display.cfm?id=40128 $4.99 and DONE-no complaining it isn't like a paper bag and you save the paper bags from going in the trash.

Wow!
I grew up on balogna sandwiches and chips when I took a bag lunch to school and I turned out just fine.
It's what I had for breakfast and supper that had the most effect.

Library?

aliris - regular sized, dark choc chips. Sometimes she gets 5! Since they are dark choc, I can feel good they are heart-healthy (!hee!)

bahacca - count me in as having a crush on your lists too!!

I hate admitting to this.

For dh, a baloney open face sandwich done as two faces - Baloney Man on one with orange cheese features, red onion hat, mustard ears on lettuce and Old Man Winter on the other with Swiss knit cap, eyes and mouth out of capers. I ran out of carrots so he didn't have a scarf.

I want some of the bento cutters but haven't given in yet.

Bmore - did you mean dh? Not ds or dd??

That's so cute! I mean, my dh definitely acts like he needs smiley faces on his stuff but there's just no way I would ever do this. I am loving the image of someone out there calling a spade a spade and just slapping smiley faces on dh's chow.

I think you have cosmically earned a bento cutter. I don't even know what that is, but it sounds like you definitely deserve one.

"cosmically earned"

yep.

sitting here enjoying my chuckle.

and imagining my dh's face if he would see a Baloney Man sandwich... with old man winter... wow. what a wonderful image!

I hope, hope, hope you really do make it for dh... and not ds/dd!!! it would sincerely make my day....

enough for me to chip in for you to get your bento cutters!!! ;-)

This is a fun & 'idea inspiring' thread. It's just hubby & me, now but with 4 kids, I packed a lot of lunches.

I still cook big so whenever I make a big batch, I freeze in blass Snapware entree dishes (love those things!) Hubby works an odd schedule so I go in spurts.

I jokingly took a pic for my daughters of a typical lunch for their Dad - he works a 12-hour shift so he needs a good assortment. Can't remember the entree - He loves Graham cracker sandwiches with icing. And dark chocolate. Those Power Crunch bars are crispy & creamy with 14 gr of protein. (My usual list of foods is below pic).

Most common things I make are:

Homemade Arrabbiatta sauce with either meat sauce or meatballs.

Chicken Parmigiangna with the Arrabbiatta sauce
Chili

Just now put on "Papa Bear's Own Lentil Soup w/Reindeer Sausage" a recipe by Ann Hodgman from "Beat This!" cookbook (I added the sausage)

Split Pea soup with Ham
Red Salmon Chowder
Dal Makhani
Meatloaf
Red Curry Chicken

Always looking for new ideas. I get several food magazines, you'd think I'd have it covered!?! LOL I think I have to actually tear out the recipe? *sigh*

I think I want a wife. ;)

Melaska - I would cry for a lunch packed that beautifully for me!

:) aliris,

It's really just a lot of fresh fruits, veggies, the treats were mostly store bought. I wash & spin romaine lettuce for several day's worth of salads. I cut up a seedless watermelon & store in 2 big bowls in fridge.

I pre make the 'graham sandwiches' for several days & put in fridge. I have a carrot, celery, English Cukes (the regulars are too watery & lots of waste IMHO) & whatever other produce is on sale party & pack several day's worth. That way, it's easy to put together when needed.

I usually have at least 2 week's worth of entrees packed up in the freezer so it's just 'grab & go'.

I hope you find that wife! :)

Yes, it was for dh.

Bento cutters are food cutters in assorted shapes or punches that make edible eyes, eyebrows mouths or noses out of flat food or dried seaweed like we would make holes in notepaper. I feel that the hard boiled egg molds are likely a gateway product for addiction.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bento stuff

That link makes me feel so inferior!!! Oh my the effort that goes into those lunches ... oh my.

I absolutely love that Mr Bento/Ms Bento lunch box -- does it really keep food both hot and cold at once? I think I mentioned above or elsewhere, I have expensive Thermos hot-food containers, fill em with boiling water assiduously, cover them with double-layer of socks and still the innards are cold by lunchtime - southern california lunchtime I might add (though in some ways that might be cooler than ambient temperature in a heated climate).

If those other lunchboxes will keep things warm, and even also other compartments cool, wow - that would be quite the holy grail.

I live near several Asian markets; I may have to investigate. I always worry about the provenance of all that junky plastic though.

I'm glad you all make your kid's (and DH's) lunches. I see daily how MUCH food kids throw out in the cafeteria. I'm talking about entire lunches, unopened containers of milk, fruit that they didn't touch. It's sinful. My school has close to a 70% free and reduced lunch population and most of these kids don't bring lunch from home. More food gets wasted then gets eaten.

I bought a few of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Stainless-King-SK3000MB4-Midnight/dp/B0017IFSIS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1320542508&sr=8-3

My kids/DH tell me that their lunches are still piping hot when they're opened.

I make soups or stews and freeze them. In the morning, I pop the frozen square (if I've forgotten to thaw it) into a pot or the microwave and warm it up. Add noodles if needed, put into preheated thermos and we're good to go. My teens like it.

I pack a tuna noodle salad about every other week. I will sometimes use canned salmon instead, but they prefer the tuna.

Some days, my husband will make a frozen pizza early in the morning, let it cool and the kids take slices of that to eat cold. They really love that.

They get hot lunch at school once a week, on "Chef Day", when there's something really good that they want.

Once in awhile I still buy lunchmeat and let them make a few sandwiches with it, but it's not very often. We can't send PB&J with my daughter because there are several kids at her school with severe nut allergies and she worries about causing a problem for them.

Carrots are the usual veg of choice for the lunchboxes, and they prefer to have a fruit snack when they get home so I have stopped trying to get them to pack fruit in their lunches.

I am less strict about lunches than I am about breakfast and dinner, the goal is to get something fairly healthy that they will actually eat and enjoy into the lunchbox.

Gloved and gowned, I once dug through the luncheon garbage from grades 1-5, looking for a lost retainer. I was horrified at the number of whole apples and bananas thrown away, and the number of lunches that were not even opened. Bag after bag lunch, obviously lovingly packed, some with cheery notes or hearts on them! Baggies with whole sandwiches, or whole bags of vegetables or fruits. I felt so bad for those moms, and for the teachers who had to deal with hungry, crabby kids for the afternoon. And irritated with the unknown kids, who were wasting so much nutritious food when so many children in the world go hungry every day. It was disgusting.

Cj

Here is a link that might be useful: Thermos

Thanks, cj, for the link. This is the one I use and although it has rave reviews, I can't seem to get it to work. I don't understand it. Maybe I don't leave the boiling water in long enough? (1 reviewer said 15 min). What's your MO?

Remodel, cj: As a died-in-the-wool atheist, I agree with you utterly in the use of the word "sinful". But poverty, hunger and adolescence are peculiar things, the mixture all the more so. I couch it all in terms of respect; I believe my children respect the food that goes in their boxes because they respect the suffering of those without. I guess that reads really stupidly, but that's what I think when I read of your vivid pictures: it's just rude, any way you cut it, throwing away food.

My kids are outsizedly enthused by frozen pizzas in their lunchboxes too. Funny, I'd never realy serve that stuff at home, but it's really handy for lunches and meets with such acclaim. sigh.

Hint for sending fruit: slip it inside a plastic cup. With no lid, just prop it in the lunchbox well. A lid would stew the fruit so that's no good, but the rigid sides of the plastic cup serve sometimes as just enough protection. I save pre-bought yogurt cups and a large variety of plastic buckets and cups for this purpose; the gradations help. You want it just larger than the fruit to hold it snug, not bruise and not let it rattle around.

Aren't these peanut allergies wild? At first I felt dismissive of it, but I think it's part of the rise in auto-immune diseases generally. There's a classmate of my kids' who is so allergic that really truly, he got an epi shot the other day because he smelled peanut.