3 Lunchbox Ideas for Kids (No Sandwiches)

If you are loving my back to school lunch posts (and I hope you are), then today is your lucky day!  I have created more easy lunchbox options for kids.  Please refer to my previous posts on how I get myself organized to make this happen in an efficient manner in the mornings.  It's all about planning and preparing.  

It's hard enough for me to try to figure out what to put in my kids' lunchboxes every morning, and it's even harder when I can't give them both the same things.  They do not like the same things.  I try to give them similar things without having to think too much that early in the morning.  Pictured above is Gracee's lunch.  Sometimes I will break down and give them good old Chef Boyardee!  I use a small thermos to keep it warm in.  Paired with this is a cheese stick (Gracee does not like meat sticks), homemade fruit salad, and a kids' Odwalla bar.

Georgee does not like Chef Boyardee and will only eat the mac & cheese one.  He does like meat sticks, but does not like fruit salad.  He gets a cutie for his fruit.  

Another alternative to sandwiches or deli meat is mini pepperoni packs.  Georgee loves these and they are easy to throw in his lunchbox.  No prepping needed.

Gracee actually really likes the spaghetti and meatballs Chef Boyardee and will often request it.  I added raw broccoli, grapes, and a squeezable Greek yogurt.  One of these sides she can choose for a classroom snack.  

Over the next few weeks I will continue to post new ideas so that you can have at list of options to add to your kids' lunchboxes.  Don't forget to add in a cute little drawing or note.  They may not show it, but they do love that!  

More Back To School Lunch Ideas for Kids (No Sandwiches)

In the hustle and bustle of back to school time, the last thing we need to worry about is what to put in our kids' lunchboxes.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about this issue and have come up with some quick, easy, affordable, and mostly healthy lunch ideas.  I hope these ideas are able to save you at least a little bit of time and stress.

This may not look very appetizing, but any type of cold pasta salad is great to add to lunch to change things up a bit.  My kids love my Mom's recipe of macaroni salad.  We just use whole wheat elbow noodles, eggs, relish, onions (add whatever diced vegetables you like), ham or turkey, shredded cheese, and light miracle whip.  You can choose whatever pasta salad your child prefers and put it in a thermos to keep it cold.  I use a thermos that I can store in the freezer at night, and put the pasta salad in it in the morning to keep it cold for lunchtime.  I like to add raw veggies and crackers with this.

I usually meal prep for my husband and I a big fruit salad every week.  My daughter is also a fan.  I like to prepare hers in a cute small mason jar with some whip cream on top.  Sometimes we add granola and Greek vanilla yogurt.  This dish is not only super healthy, but super cute and delicious too!  My son is not a big fruit eater so he isn't a fan.

Here is an example of my homemade lunchables.  I have mentioned before that I hate buying the ready made lunchables in the store.  I do give in to those when I'm having a Mommy moment and just don't feel like having to think about lunch anymore.  Those times are few and far in between because I think my lunchables taste better and are quite cute.  The kids liked that I wrapped turkey around blocks of cheese and secured them with toothpicks.  You can also do this easily with string cheese without having to cut anything.

Soup and salad is always another great option.  My kids like tomato soup.  I use the thermos to keep it warm.  In the morning I pour boiling hot water in the thermos and let it sit in there for five minutes or so.  Then I warm up the soup until it is boiling hot as well.  I pour out the water and quickly pour in the soup to keep it warm for lunch.  I add a salad and fruit.

Check out my previous blog post for how I organize myself to quickly create these lunches.  Comment below ideas you use for your kids that you have found helpful.

Kindergarten Back To School (Boy) Style

It was just last year that my baby was entering Kindergarten.  He has been going to daycare all his life, but it's a different story when they go to big kid school.  With starting big kid school, he had to look the part.  We found this super cute outfit all from our favorite store Ross.  Little Georgee loves to wear his ties and it was befitting he do so on the first day of school.  This tie came with this shirt and we matched some dark jeans to go with it.  We also got the orange Converse sneakers from Ross to add a pop of color.  He was definitely the coolest and most handsome Kindergartener!

Back To School Lunch Ideas for Kids

Back to school is upon us.  As parents we have scrambled around to tackle the infamous million dollar school supply list, got the kids fresh new outfits and kicks, and made sure to tame their manes all so that they can make the best first day of school impression.  The last thing we want to think about is what to put in their lunchboxes. Especially if you have picky eaters like I do.  I mean what kids don't like sandwiches for lunch?  My kids, that's who!  Considering my kids will be entering 4th and 1st grades this year, I have agonized over the lunchbox issue for years.  I have racked my brains on what to feed them, and I refuse to pay for lunch daily.  After awhile and getting their feedback, I finally got this lunch thing down to a science.  Over the next few posts I will share with you different ideas for kids' lunches.  I will warn you that my options are not super clean, organic, or super healthy, but they are quick, easy, mostly healthy, and kid approved.

I like to first make a list of ideas of all the different types of foods I can put in their lunchboxes for their lunch and snack.  I make a list of possible entrees and sides.  I always put in their lunchbox one entree with two sides and an extra snack.  All the sides that I list can go either way as sides or snacks.  Making a list gives me a good idea of options to be able to change it up.

Possible Entrees:
Sandwiches
PBJ
Turkey/Ham Rollups
Wraps
Salad
Soup
Chicken Nuggets

Possible Snacks/Sides:
Raw Veggies with Ranch
Fruit
Yogurt
Fruit Snacks
Fruit Salad
Nuts

My actual list is very long because I try to list everything I can possibly think of.  I go back to the list when I get ideas off Pinterest and other blogs.  I keep this list stored in the kitchen.  Once my list is ready, I can go shopping.  I like to shop in bulk for lunch items so that I am not running out of them quickly.  Above I started with their drinks.  In addition to taking their water bottles to school, I also back a milk or juice box.  The ones shown are some of our favorites.

Cheezits, crackers, fruit snacks, etc count as sides and snacks.  I like to get an assortment of each.  Pictured above are some of my kids' favorites, but we also like the organic rope fruit snacks, and the Motts fruit snacks.

These are a few more of our favorites.  I love the small apples, oranges, and bananas for kids.  I found these at Wal-Mart.  I try to always include one or two fruits and vegetables in their lunches.

Here is a sample of putting everything all together.  They are pictured Hers and His.  As you can see, both kids do not have the exact same lunch.  I mean that would just be too simple for me if they both liked the same things right!  So of course having to make different foods is also a struggle.

For my little Georgee he is fine with a sandwich...once in a blue moon.  He prefers Cheezits and he likes bananas and yogurt raisins.  Notice the Ninja Turtle sticker?  That is for him to be able to distinguish his snack for class from his actual lunch.  Otherwise he would eat everything in his lunchbox at lunch and look at his teacher like, "Mommy didn't pack me a snack".

For my Gracee, she prefers blackberries, a pbj, and occasionally will eat the Cheezits.  Also in the picture is the Odwalla kids bars.  She really likes those as well.  Hers has a sticker on it for a snack as well.  She can usually tell which is her snack, but she likes the stickers anyway.

These are examples of my homemade lunchables.  I hate spending money on the store bought lunchables (unless I'm in a lazy Mommy bind), so I try to make my own.  Also, I have found that my kids prefer to eat lunch meat plain instead of as sandwiches.

Here is another rare day that the kids allowed me to send sandwiches.  I try to throw those in once every other week.

I hope these ideas help to get you started.  I will also note that I pack their lunches with an ice pack.  They also have small thermos that will keep the contents in it hot or cold.  I will have more posts with those later.  Stay tuned to more lunch ideas and comment below any ideas you have found helpful.

Thoughtful Target Father's Day Gift Basket Idea

Father's Day is really right around the corner!  At this point it's in four days!  You would think that because I'm now a Stay-At-Home-Mom that I would be on point with thinking ahead for thoughtful and creative gifts!  Well, much like the idea that Stay-At-Home-Moms have lots of time, you are dead wrong!  It seems as if it crept up on me this year, but who am I kidding?  I said the same thing last year when I had a full time job!  I'm not sure what my problem is...too bad I can't blame it on "pregnancy brain".  Maybe it's just "I already have too much to think about" brain.

Last night I made it a point to get my brain in gear and come up with something for Father's Day for Hubby's Dad, my Dad, and my Hubby.  I figured if I needed to mail something I definitely needed to get it in the mail today to make it to SC on time for our fathers.  I love to kill two birds with one stone and decided I needed to shop for Hubby too.

The kids and I set out on a Target journey in hopes to not spend our whole life savings (everyone knows that Target is the devil), and to find all the gifts that we needed.  Prior to going to Target I sucked it up and made what I wanted to make for our fathers.  Weeks ago I got the idea to make our fathers a calendar on Shutterfly of pictures of our family, the kids, and their other Grandkids.  I was thinking against it this week knowing that I waited too long to make it for it to get delivered on time.  My dear friend assured me that it would be just fine if it got to them late, but to make the calendars anyway.  I thought long and hard about what to get our fathers and was sure that even though they wouldn't say it, but they would be tired of yet another gift card from us.  I knew that they would really love and cherrish a cool calendar with pictures of their Grandkids and family.  Two hours later, I was done with the calendars and knew I made the right gift choice.

Back to Target, I allowed the kids to pick out what they wanted to get their Dad.  Gracee is very resourceful like myself, and found an idea on You Tube of something she wanted to make her Dad.  I was quite impressed and happy that I didn't have to think of this.  She got her materials and her present came out perfect!

Gracee made a "Dad's (Mu) Stache" jar of candy.  I had seen this on Pinterest and of course pinned it, but didn't actually think to make it!  She found a large mason jar and all her Dad's favorite candies and she was set.  When she got home she used black construction paper and a silver sharpie and made her creation.  She even revealed to me that she put a little glue on the paper to make it stick to the glass.  I didn't cringe at the thought of her doing this due to my hopes of reusing the jar for my own purposes.  I of course smiled and praised her on her creativity.

Materials from Target:
Large Mason Jar $1.99
Assorted Candy 3 bags for $10

Next I asked Georgee what he wanted to get Dad.  He said "A thing that Dad can make pancakes and grill on".  So I'm thinking a griddle.  We did buy him one for Father's Day like six years ago, but of course one too many Army moves broke it.  We looked at the griddles and they were just #teamtoomuch.  Especially for a Dad that never makes pancakes!  Instead Georgee settled on getting his Dad some Avengers pajama bottoms.  Gracee also picked out a Corona t-shirt because she said, "It's Dad's favorite beer...and look it's even his favorite kind...the Extra one".  I could die right there.  Kids pay attention and tell everything.  Lastly I added a Brita water bottle.  Hubby is the only one in the house that doesn't have one, and Mama is tired of buying him bottled water!  We finished it all off with a cute little basket.

Materials from Target:
Corona T-shirt $12.99
Avengers Pj bottoms $17.99
Water Bottle $15.00
Basket $3.00

Not bad for a last minute, yet thoughtful gift!