by Lois Breneman - © 2007 - Heart to Heart
{Updated Note - August, 2013:
After forty-three years of packing lunches for my husband to take to work (He fully retired in June), and many years of packing lunches for our children who are all married, the only lunches I need to pack to carry out of the house at this point are for trips or picnics, but I'll gladly share what I've learned over the years}.
{Updated Note - August, 2013:
After forty-three years of packing lunches for my husband to take to work (He fully retired in June), and many years of packing lunches for our children who are all married, the only lunches I need to pack to carry out of the house at this point are for trips or picnics, but I'll gladly share what I've learned over the years}.
School is already under way for many families, and you may be dreading all those lunches that need packing! For
many years I packed lunches for my three children and my husband, and
certainly know myself how easy it is to fall into a lunch packing rut!
Although those days of packing lunches for my children are in the past,
I've continued to pack lunches almost every weekday for my husband
to take to work. It's good to know that lunches don't need to be
predictable, monotonous, repetitious and boring, but I know I have
fallen short in this area many times. Hopefully these tips will give
you more ideas, as well as motivate me to perk up my husband's lunches!
Did you ever stop to think how
those packed lunches add up so quickly? Just think! If you pack
lunches for only one child, that's as many as 180 lunches each school
year, but if you have three children and a husband to send off
with nutritious lunches, that's as many as 720 lunches, just counting
the school year! Wow! Using these lunch packing tips, we will all be
able to put together many good nutritious lunches, as well as have a
substantial savings measured in dollars, compared to purchased high
calorie, fat-laden lunches every day. A little preparation goes a long
way in helping to make lunch packing less stressful, so let's get
started. I hope that all of us, including those who teach their
children at home, will find some new ideas here for serving nutritious
lunches, as well as ways to save time and money.
Begin
by discussing lunches with your family to be sure of their food
preferences. Involving them in the process will help ensure you that
the foods packed will be eaten. Getting their input each year is always
a good idea, because likes and dislikes do change. Otherwise you may
learn your children are trading or tossing their food in the trash to
hide the evidence.
Involving your children in the
lunch packing process will teach them future survivor skills, and you
will be so glad you involved them in this responsibility! They will be
glad as well - maybe not now, but definitely later!
Most
younger children love carrying lunch boxes, but from experience I've
learned that teens would rather die than carry a lunch box. They will
most likely want to brown bag their lunches, and toss all the
containers, so provide foods for them in zipped plastic bags, rather
than Tupperware, Rubbermaid or Glad containers.
As
much as possible choose from different food groups, using the Food
Guide Pyramid as a guide. Plan to include breads and starches, fruits
and vegetables, and some form of protein, with a variety of natural
colors and textures. Avoid food coloring, preservatives and junk food.
Breads
and starches are probably the easiest group to include. But rather than
the usual choices of bread, crackers and cookies, whole grain bagels,
nutritious muffins, whole grain pita bread, pretzels, rice cakes, and
tacos. Skip the white flour and go with whole grains whenever possible.
Protein
is provided in tuna salad, egg salad, hard cooked eggs, and humus
spread with whole grain crackers or with vegetables for dipping. Peanut
butter, almond butter, nuts, cheese, milk, yogurt, beans and meats also
fit into this category.
Buy colorful fruits in
season. The old standbys are apples, bananas, grapes, and oranges, but
also include strawberries, mangoes, plums, pears, peaches, pineapple,
grapefruit, watermelon and cantaloupe. Oranges and grapefruit are much
easier to eat if they are peeled and sectioned at home, so have the
children help right after the evening meal. One orange may be enough
for two younger children and a grapefruit could be divided between
several lunches. Bananas and grapes are probably the easiest to eat.
Try fruit kabobs too. Spray fruits that brown with lemon juice. Add a
tiny amount of Stevia if lemon juice make the fruit too sour.
A
tossed green salad works well in a plastic container with salad
dressing in a separate Tupperware midget cup. For teens who like to
toss containers, you could still send a salad in a paper or Styrofoam
soup and cereal bowl, covered with aluminum foil. Salad dressing could
be wrapped in a small piece of aluminum foil or bought in individual
size servings. Try packing carrots, celery, cucumbers, grape tomatoes,
avocados, and veggie kabobs as well.
Invest in
disposable snack containers in the snack size and single serving size.
If you already have Tupperware midget cups, they are perfect for
sunflower seeds, peanuts, almonds, raisins, dried apricots, salad
dressing, and peanut butter for dipping apple slices. Fresh or canned
fruit can be prepared and put into serving size containers and stored in
the refrigerator for about a week. Buy a seedless watermelon, or a few
cantaloupes. Then cut up the entire melon right away, filling smaller
containers for lunches and larger ones for meals at home.
If
you think it's too expensive to buy healthy food, just begin by
purchasing healthy whole grain bread, natural peanut butter, good
quality apples and more of other fruits and vegetables. Next cut out
junk food, juices containing added sugar, and all soft drinks, and you
will have cash reserves to spend on beneficial food that will build
healthy cells, rather than tear them down. Colds, sinus infections and
flu may even decrease, which will save not only visits to the doctor,
but expensive medications, makeup school work, makeup tests, plus lots
of unnecessary misery!
Do research where you shop
to see if you can save money by purchasing the economy size containers
of nuts, applesauce, raisins, yogurt and canned fruit to fill your own
serving size containers. If so, enlist the help of your children in
filling the individual containers. It can be fun. Your children could
also help to bake lunch items and wrap them too. If that's overwhelming
to you right now, you may want to start off the year buying a few
individual servings, and switching as soon as you catch your breath.
When
I buy apples in the grocery store they are often bruised and sometimes
waxed. Better choices can be found at a nearby orchard. They have less
bruised, non-waxed and much better tasting and less expensive apples!
Have you ever seen a tossed apple core after a child (or grownup) has
eaten the apple? There's usually lots of waste! For better odds of
less waste, remove the core at home with an apple corer, and spray with
lemon juice to prevent browning. Wrap in plastic wrap. A sliced apple
sprayed with lemon juice and stored in a zipped bag or container is
great for dipping into peanut butter too. There is a great time-saving
kitchen tool that will core and slice apples with one push!
An
even more fun and nutritious way for a child to eat an apple is to pull
a "Walking Apple" from her lunchbox! You can be sure your
child's friends will want to see how they are put together and make them
as well! Core an apple, fill the core with peanut butter and raisins
or sunflower seeds. Dip the peanut butter ends in sunflower seeds or
nuts, or stuff each end with a dried apricot. The title, "walking
apple," comes from the convenience of being able to eat an apple while
taking a walk, without having even a bit litter to toss. These can be
made ahead and kept wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge several days
in advance. Have your children get them ready for their lunches! A fun
and nutritious way to eat an apple!
Here are
some fun ways to eat vegetables as well! Wash and dry celery ribs and
spread peanut butter on a rib. Dip the peanut butter top in toasted
unsweetened coconut or cover with sunflower seeds to prevent the peanut
butter from sticking to plastic wrap. Raisins on a peanut butter filled
celery stick can be called, "ants on a log!" Use cream cheese or
pimiento cheese to fill ribs of celery. Another fun way for younger
kids is to wrap a few goldfish crackers separately for the
child to put on the filled celery at lunchtime, so it looks like "fish
swimming in a river." So you see, you and your children can even have
fun when packing lunches!
Make a large batch of
granola and add dried fruit. Package it for a healthy snack or dessert.
Store in the freezer. Granola eaten with yogurt would be a delicious
and healthy addition to any lunch.
Bake banana nut
bread, pumpkin bread, or other quick breads, cutting down on the sugar
(or use honey). After it cools, slice it into serving sizes, wrap
breads in plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag in the freezer. Make
apple crisp, cutting back on the sugar (use half the amount and add a
little Stevia). Freeze the apple crisp in individual containers and
use for a tasty addition to quick lunches. Bake large batches of
cookies or bars, wrap one or two in plastic wrap or put into snack bags,
and freeze together in a large freezer bag.
Prepare
and store a couple weeks' worth of snack lunch items to keep on
hand. If you have freezer space, consolidate the freezable lunch
items, possibly storing them in a rectangular plastic tub that can be
pulled out to retrieve snacks easily as lunches are packed. Keep adding
to the stash as you use up the previous snacks. If storage space is a
factor, during the winter, something like a large metal popcorn tin
works great to store smaller lunch items in the garage, basement, or on
the back porch or deck. By using a metal can with a tight fitting lid, you should have no problem with critters having a party.
Keep
an eye on sales for possible lunch items such as fresh and canned
fruit, mini carrots, celery, grape tomatoes, peanut butter, yogurt, 100%
juice, dried fruit, soups, nutritious bread, crackers, tortilla chips,
salsa, nuts, jams and other lunch items. All Fruit is a jam
made with all fruit (no sugar), and is often on sale. Check clearance
items, but only purchase if it's a good buy and something that will be
used. Dollar stores carry zipped snack bags, sandwich bags, Glad
containers, brown paper bags, as well as many of these other supplies.
Try to refrain from a lot of sugary snacks and foods containing
artificial coloring and preservatives, which do not promote good health
or learning.
Soups can be heated in the
morning and carried in thermos bottles. Cold or hot drinks can also be
taken in a thermos. Include their favorite casseroles or leftovers
too. Many school cafeterias and offices also have microwaves available
for students and employees to heat food, which eliminates the need of a
thermos.
Pack tortilla chips in a zipper bag, and provide
salsa in a small covered container for dipping. For a turkey tortilla,
spread cream cheese on one half of a tortilla. Add a little salsa, a
layer of turkey, and a sprinkle of grated cheese. Fold over and wrap in
plastic wrap to hold it all together.
For peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches, spread a thin layer of peanut butter on both slices,
with jelly in the center to prevent soggy sandwiches. These freeze very
well. You may have heard that mayonnaise should not be frozen, but the
only reason is because it may separate a bit. There is no health
risk. I have frozen sandwiches with mayonnaise many times and the
mayonnaise looks and tastes fine. Sour cream or cream cheese may also
be used as a substitute or even mixed with mayonnaise, with dill weed
added for extra flavor. Green lettuce can be sent separately in a
zipped bag to be added to a sandwich. Iceberg lettuce contains barely
any nutrients, so go for the green.
Many
sandwiches can be made ahead of time and frozen. Cheese, chicken
or turkey sandwiches freeze well. Eliminate or go easy on lunch meats
and hot dogs because of nitrates and preservatives. In an
extensive study Dr. Ted Broer reported that children who ate three hot
dogs each week had nine times the chance of getting leukemia compared to children who ate no
hot dogs. Of course, that's not to say this is the cause for every
child who has ever had leukemia, but it is something to seriously think
about!
My children and I used to make sandwiches
"assembly line style," using the entire kitchen table. The sandwiches
were carefully cut in half with a serrated knife. One half of a
sandwich was stacked on the other half and wrapped in plastic wrap, with
the filling showing. The sandwiches were all kept in a bread bag in
the freezer until the night before they were needed. We usually packed
lunches the night before in order to save time in the morning, as we had
to get out of the house quite early to carpool across town. Some
families I know have totally given the responsibility of assembling
lunches to their children, and that has worked well for them too.
Keep
in mind the time your child has allotted to eat her lunch. Include a
napkin, a Wet One, or even a damp paper towel in a baggie in her
lunch. From time to time add notes, cartoons, and coupons for a
favorite snack or special activity for when they get home. Use notes to
remind your child and husband of your love and prayers for them. Tell
them how proud you are of them.
Now some of us, including myself, need to work on refreshing our husband's
packed lunches, making them less predictable, monotonous, repetitious
and boring! It is my prayer that these tips and ideas will be helpful
in making life a little easier for you and your family.
