Back-to-School 2010 – More Easy Lunchbox Eats
Getting back into the habit of packing a house full of lunches every day is, well, possibly the least fun part of the whole back to school gig. It’s a routine which can make your kids groan at the thought of “What could possibly be in there today?” Or, it can be an exercise in fun, healthy, easy (I stress easy) meals that give your kids the lunchtime boost they need, don’t break the bank and don’t have you slaving over a pile of lunch kits every day.
Here are ten great, easy lunchbox foods for kids (and a lunch kit to win too) that can get school started off with a yummy bang:
Wraps
A whole-wheat wrap with veggies and lean meats is a fantastic way to keep your kid’s engines running. For non-wheat kids, try rice wraps with veggies, meat and delicious dressings. The recipe: Let your kids pick out their favorite sandwich ingredients and wrap them up. Perfect.
Kebabs
Save those spare chop sticks (or reuse the ones that come in the new breed of lunch kits) and load them up for a fun twist on meat and cheese or even fruit kebabs. This is a great way to serve up last night’s leftovers in a way that makes kids smile. Easy peasy.
Yogurt Smoothies
Replace juice with a yogurt smoothie that you can throw berries, oats and even sneak in some vitamins (liquid D, DHA). Let your kids pick the ingredients. These are great for dairy allergies too when using soy or goat yogurt.
Power Balls
Pack a healthy, sweet punch with homemade power balls that take minutes to make and last a while in the freezer.
Get Christa Herrling’s fantastic recipe HERE.
Check out my recipe for Coconut Cocoa Date Balls HERE.
Homemade Soup
This simple way to ensure your kids get the nutritional goods is one of those gems you can throw in the crock pot and forget about until throwing it into a thermos before school. It’s also a great, home-style warm up on the cold, rainy days to come.
Color Coded Lunches
A fun way to get all of the food groups in and have your kids participate, set up your lunch kits with a certain color scheme and let each kid pick something from that color group. Engaged veggie and fruit eating is never a bad thing:)
Apple Cupcakes
Instead of putting sugary snacks into the lunch kit, try these fun, inventive ways to dress up apples with healthy alternatives such as nut butter (if it’s allowed), honey, cream cheese and other goodies.
Just slice an apple in half and top with goodness.
Easy Sushi
Sushi is incredibly healthy and seriously delicious. Now, it can be easy too with simple veggie rolls that taste great.
Try a recipe we found that works well HERE.
Muffins with a nutritional punch
Even sweets can pack in the healthy punch you want for your kids and take less than half an hour a week to whip up (freezer muffins rock).
Check out Christa Herrling’s great recipe for Morning Glory Muffins HERE.
One of the things that I like the most about lunch options this year are all of the cool lunch kits that are now available. They come in all sorts of sizes and materials, but our long-time lunch kit has been the Canadian-made ThermaPod lunch box. It’s been a good friend. But, it also has been discontinued.
So, the folks at ThermaPod sent us the new and improved version – the ThermaPod Mini and I have to say that we totally love this lunch kit. They are BPA-free, dishwasher and freezer safe and SUPER durable. Our daughter loves snack plates with meats, cheeses and fruit on the side. So, the dual compartment pack is perfect. Plus, the reusable utensils (including chop sitcks) have a “secret spot” where they stash away nicely.
We’ve got one to give away today.
Here are the ways you can be entered to win:
1. Comment here.
2. Show some love and fan OBE as well as ThermaPod on Facebook
3. Repost this link on your blog.
4. Be sure to let us know here if you do any of the extra fun as it gets you an additional entry in the draw.
5. This giveaway will close at midnight on Friday. We will randomly draw a name with the winner notified Monday morning.
This giveaway is closed. The randomly drawn winner of the ThermaPod Mini is Jaki! Thanks to everyone who participated.
About the Author (Author Profile)
Robin Rivers is Our Big Earth’s Publisher and Sr. Partner. Able to survive on coffee alone. Often can be found leaping tall buildings with the help of great friends. Predisposed to odd hats and the color orange. In love with imagination, her kids and that crazy guy who married her.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Comments (23)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
Sites That Link to this Post
- Product Review - The Hottest Lunch Boxes for Back to School 2010 | Our Big Earth | September 2, 2010
Love the coconut cocoa ball. I’ve been looking for something like this for the kids. I really like the idea of adding some nuts to the mixture. Thanks!
Great ideas! I find lunch-making a challenge and need more variety, as do the girls, I am sure!
Absolutely the worst part of back to school… keeping lunches fun and eaten!! Thanks for the tips, love the kabob idea.
Thanx for posting all these great lunch recipes for the kids. And even a bigger thank you about the Thermapod lunch kit – who knew, guess I will use the brown paper lunch bags for crafting instead:)
Is there a place in town where Thermapod lunch kits can be purchased?
Cheers,
Sharene
Sharene,
They aren’t available in-store on the West Coast yet. So, http://www.thermapod.ca is your best bet.
Thanks for some new ideas and great recipes! I’ll be starting off the school year with some great luch ideas!
Great ideas, it felt like I packed the same lunch all last year we are due for trying something different.
Love recipes, love ways to make it easier – thanks for sharing the links!
I can’t wait to try out the power balls! Thanks
facebook fan
Thanks for the date balls recipe… my sugar-free hubby will be excited (maybe the kids too).
Those lunch kits are awesome! Especially for someone (like me) who doesn’t like her food to touch and dislikes making school lunches…gah. Thanks for the recipes!
I also felt like I packed the same lunch everyday last year. I am not looking forward to another year of school lunches but the recipes are an inspiration. I love the apple cupcake idea and I will definitely be making the power balls. The lunchboxes look really cool.
Great ideas! We usually start off with great success in the lunch department and somewhere around November it all goes off the rails, and I find more mushed and squished and uneaten food coming home with them, so I’m always looking for new, creative ideas!
My kiddos love containers of little chopped up goodies…can be european weiners, cheese, veggies, meatballs or ???paired with funky and cute toothpicks (the boys particularly love those little swords!) and they use these to pick up each bite size piece. You can even pack some type of dipping sauce to go along. Somehow it just makes lunchtime more fun for them!
Thanks for the great recipe ideas! I will have to try the power balls too.
Whoa! Lunchbox boredom begone!
I was just saying the other night “If I never see another sandwich again it will be too soon”. Thanks for all the creative “non-sandwich” ideas!
My son lost his lunch bag near the end of last school year. I’ve been putting off buying him a new one. This would be a great excuse not to!
Thanks for the great lunch ideas! I’d forgotten all about rice wraps. It’s hard to keep variety in my kids’ lunches so I’ll definitely be trying a few new ideas posted here. I’ll be checking out the Thermapod more. I hadn’t heard of them before.
I also have a very easy bison vegetable soup that I should send your way. Very yummy and perfect for winter.
Your facebook fan and now also Thermapod facebook fan,
Jaki
Nice write up! Like the kabob idea and recipes! I faceboook fan-ed the thermapod….it’s cool.
Thanks for the great recipe ideas! Can’t wait to try the muffins, and the kebab idea is genius!
Thank you Robin and Our Big Earth for the chance to win in all your give-away posts. I look forward to trying out my new ThermaPod Mini! Now the difficult decision will be … who gets to use it first?