School gets going and sometimes it is hard to come up with fun lunches the kids will like. Check out some of these ideas from Simple Solutions Diva:
Chicken Soft Tacos – Let the kids assemble their own soft chicken taco for lunch! Place all their favorite ingredients in small, separate, plastic containers. Things like guacamole or avocado slices, shredded cheese, salsa, and leftover shredded chicken work great — they can wrap it up in a whole wheat soft tortillas and feel like they are the chef!
Sandwich Sushi – Sometimes it is not about the sandwich, but the presentation! The night before, take your favorite filling – PBJ, chicken salad, turkey and cheese – and layer it in whole wheat soft tortilla. Tightly roll the tortilla up and seal in plastic wrap. In the morning, unwrap the plastic and slice the sandwich into pinwheels. Place in a plastic container like sushi rolls and include wooden chopsticks.
Shake It Up Layered Salad – Layer/assemble a salad in a mason jar or tall plastic container. Be sure to place the dressing at the bottom of the container first, to avoid wilting the salad greens. Also, you want to leave a little room at the top so when there is room to shake things up (and disperse the ingredients! This is also great for adults!
Lunch Dip Day – Assemble a simple tapas-style lunch – a little bit of everything! For protein, use things like single serve hummus, sliced chicken, black bean, corn and red pepper salsa, avocado or guacamole, yogurt dip. Assemble dippers/scoopers like whole wheat or bean tortilla chips, baby carrots, red pepper slices in a separate container. They can much away at a little bit of everything!
If you want a GREAT Black Bean, Corn and Red Pepper Salsa, check out my recipe here!
Now we have these great ideas for lunch, but how do your kids lay everything out to assemble? On a dirty school lunch table? Nope! I like creating a disposable placemat out of parchment paper or wax paper. A small sheet will do!
Now, my kids are older, and they really don’t like taking a lunch box to school – they go old school with a paper bag lunch. But I get worried about things getting too warm. So, I started freezing their small water bottle (or you could freeze a juice box) to use as a freezer pack that is melted by the time they sit down to eat.
Another great lunch idea, if your kids like soup or chili, is to send them to school with a small thermos that will keep their soup or chili hot.
How to Take Lunch To School (or work!)
Lunch Blox by Rubbermaid – These are a cool way to carry salads & sandwiches to school or work. They come in a variety of sizes, but I really thought the Sandwich Kit and the Salad Kit were unique – they come with a freezer pack that fits between the components to keep everything cold!
You can find Lunch Blox on the Rubbermaid site (Click Here), or you can also look at Target, Pulbix or other grocery stores.
French Bull Packit Salad Cooler – I thought this was so neat! The entire bag freezes to keep salad cool up to 6 hours! They have a variety of sizes (sandwich, entree, and more!), but I snagged the salad bag! (And it can hold the Rubbermaid Lunch Blox salad kit!)
You can find it on Amazon.com – Click Here: PackIt Freezable Salad Cooler Bag with Zip Closure, Ziggy
Thank you to First Coast Living (WTLV-TV/NBC 12) for inviting me on to speak about Back-To-School!
