Packing Nutritious Lunches for Healthy, Happy Kids & Husbands

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}.

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.