Back to School is coming! If you need help organizing check out these two posts Back to School Organization and then this post My Back to School Organization. In the My Back to School Organization I share how I took the ideas from Back to School Organization and applied it to my home.
Today I want to focus on Sandwich-less Lunch ideas. In my Beach & Boating Snack Ideas post I shared how my family does not like sandwiches. The school that my twins go to is a charter school and they do not have a hot lunch program, so every single school day we have to pack lunches. Wait, one day a week they can buy pizza but for the other 144 days we have to pack lunches. This causes a dilemma in our family since sandwiches aren't an option. In the middle school/high school they do have microwaves that are available to use but nothing that takes over 3 min. to cook. The under 3 min. rule knocks out any tv dinners, etc. since they take more than 3 min. and they are so full of preservatives anyway. I have been pinning away some recipes that I think would make some good lunch ideas and I will share them here with you. I want somethings I can make ahead and freeze in portion sizes. Here are some of my pinned ideas.
Don't these look good? I think my sons would like them and they could be
made ahead and frozen.
made ahead and frozen.
The blog I found say these are better than Bagel Bites. I bet! These would be freezable as well.
One of my twins would love these, the other wouldn't touch them. But again they could be made ahead and froze.
My boys love corn dogs but I don't buy them often because of all the fat. These could also be made and froze.
These look good for some variety. I'd even love these for my lunch.
These look interesting. I haven't had these but I have had the Lasagna Wontons.
I Love these! Easy and good.
What a great idea! I think these would be perfect to make and freeze.
Now this couldn't be made and froze and you couldn't use cups but could use Rubbermaid containers. I think it would be a great variation and easy!
I'm going on a cooking spree next week. I want to make a batch of everything but the taco dip and get them in the freezer. Schools a coming! I want to be ready.
Do you have any sandwich-less lunch ideas?
Do you have any sandwich-less lunch ideas?
UPDATE:
I found a few more ideas I wanted to add that I think my boys would like.
Meatloaf in a Muffin Tin
My boys like meatloaf. These would be great protein for them and you can cook ahead and freeze.
I found a few more ideas I wanted to add that I think my boys would like.
Meatloaf in a Muffin Tin
My boys like meatloaf. These would be great protein for them and you can cook ahead and freeze.
Pizza Crescent Rolls
Another variation on pizza, just to shake it up a bit.
Another variation on pizza, just to shake it up a bit.
BBQ Chicken Pizzas
These look really good! I love BBQ Chicken pizza.
Tamale Cups
We love Mexican food so this will be a great addition to our rotation.
Macaroni & Cheese Muffins
Ingenious! What a great idea. Easy to make & freeze.
Pizza Quesadillas
Another variation of the pizza theme.
Cheese Quesadillas
You could add chicken if you kids like it.
Chick-fil-a Nuggets with Honey Mustard Sauce
OK, I'm not going to lie, these look like a lot of work to me but I love Chick-fil-a so I'm gonna give them a try.
Mini Spaghetti Cups
I have had several questions on how to keep food hot if there is no microwave available. That isn't an issue we have so I did a search on Google and came up with this:
www.ehow.com
INSULATED THERMOS. An insulated thermos can easily keep foods, such as soups, stews, chili, and even pasta, warm for a few hours. Before placing the food in the thermos, it is best to fill the thermos with boiling water and let it stand for a few minutes. Then, drain it and put the food it. This will temper the thermos and help keep the food warm for a longer period of time. Once closed, the thermos should remain closed until lunchtime. This works very well. Check out the links below (in the additional resources section) for some excellent products designed to keep food warm.
INSULATED LUNCH BOX. Although typically not as good as an insulated thermos, an insulated lunch box (or bag) is another way to keep foods warm for a few hours. Unlike a thermos, larger foods, such as chicken nuggets, can fit in one of these. Wrapping the hot foods in tin foil inside of the insulated lunch box will provide some addition insulation. Check out the links below (in the additional resources section) for some excellent products designed to keep food warm.
Hope this helps some of you!
Back to School Organization
My Back to School Organization
Sandwich-less Lunches
Make Ahead Breakfasts
Freezer Slow Cooker Meals
Back to School Clothing Checklist
80 comments:
As an educator can I ask you a favour? Please don't talk about back to school yet. Back to school is ages away. Ages!!
Thanks!
Sarah
http://acatlikecuriosity.blogspot.co.uk/
Loves these ideas!
- Adele @ Mammy Made
These are great Barb - I'm so tired of catering to 3 different little palates and their likes and dislikes... so I'll def be giving a few of these ideas a try.
I also like to make plain cupcakes (little mini ones ) without frosting - I put a handful of choc chips and a mashed up banana in the batter and then once cooked and cooled - I freeze them. In the morning I pop one into each lunch box and by lunch they are fresh and yummy ( i gave it a try just to make sure they didnt go mushy)And its a little "sweet" treat to enjoy.
what a great collection of ideas!
Great for single guys/gals! Having "regular food" in smaller portions helps for serving individual meals and freezing them. Thank you!!!
These all look yummy, but my only concern is that they would probably taste better warm. And would probably not taste good by the time my kids would get to eat them. Too bad they can't warm their lunches at school.
You are correct they would taste better warm. My kids do have use of a microwave so that's not an issue for us. I'm sorry I couldn't help you. School lunches are a pain to figure out. Have a great day! Barb
Thanks for adding my bbq chicken pizzas to your roundup Barb!
Now I'm hungry. They look so yummy. Thank you for adding it to the Our Favorite Things Link Party
Absolutely! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment. Enjoy!
Wow, all of these look delicious! I'm popping over from the blog hop and I'm now a linky follower!
These all look great but the link for the lasagna wontons isn't working. I was really excited about trying those....
So sorry about that Lynn, I fixed it!! Enjoy, they are very good.
Sherry, thanks so much! I really appreciate your support. Barb
I blog my packed lunch, and a lot of other people do, too--and I try to never pack a sandwich. (If I do eat a sandwich for lunch, I just don't tell the world.) It's sort of a fun little challenge for myself. One of my favorite sites for lunch packing ideas is bentolunch.net, which sponsors "What's for Lunch Wednesday," a collection of weekly links to said lunch packer's blogs.
Enough commercial.
If you have the right supplies (and there are a lot of options out there--Laptop Lunches, Easy Lunchboxes, Planet Lunchbox, Lunchopolis, Rubbermaid Lunch Blox, ToGoWare Tiffins--but whatever works for you, no reason to have a whole collection), it makes it a lot easier.
I really like pinwheels of various kinds. They can be mostly done the night before, although I don't know how they would freeze. Some pinwheel thoughts:
Tortillas and cream cheese (with or without deli meat and/or veggies)
Tortillas and hummus with veggies
Sliced deli meat and cream cheese
Or do cheese and crackers (a la Lunchables, but cheaper and better if you just pack cheese and crackers) or peanut butter or any other kind of spread (olive tapenade, hummus, tuna salad, etc.)
Salad is nice sometimes. As with thinking beyond sandwiches, think beyond leafy. Think cucumber, carrot, beet salad--there are lots of different options. Pasta salads can be made pretty hearty--I really like doing tortellini with some cubed cooked chicken and cherry tomato halves tossed with pesto, for example. And then there are rice salads, and quinoa salads, and tabouleh...
I could go on and on. I love the things you've linked to here, and I bet you'll find a lot of inspiration the more you pack!
This is awesome! I am always looking for things to put in my son's lunch. Thanks for the tips.
New follower from musings of an imperfect mom
You just might have saved my life. Lunch is the most stressful meal for me, because my toddlers cannot eat sandwiches yet. I love that most of these can be frozen, and I'm going to try probably all of these.
These aren't just great school lunches but perfect no-hassle lunches for the hubs to take to work. Thanks for some easy ideas.
Not for all.. Here in Colorado just got home from back to school night . 1st day is august 1st!
Those are my mac n cheese muffins - thank you so much for featuring them! I hope you try them out, my kids loved them.
Barb, your blog is AWESOME!! My kids started school last week so this is just what I need!!
Natalie, thats awesome!! I'm so doing that!!
These look like GREAT ideas...My only concern is how they keep? My sons' school doesn't allow for reheating or anything, so a few of these I would have questions about.
Any ideas/help? Thanks! :)
Never Mind! :) I seen a response/question similar to mine. lol Thanks :)
How do these items go over when served cold? Not sure my kids would eat them cold and they aren't allowed to warm up their food.
these are all great ideas, but if anyone lives in texas and has an HEB close by, they have the HEB seasoned frying flour, this is the best ever!you can make the chick ful a nuggetsvery easily just by marinating the chicken w the flour n buttermilk for 2 hrs in fridgethen frying in peanut oil... perfect! you can also make blooming onions with the same process!
These are such good ideas! I will have to try these out on my kids (they get so sick of sandwiches!). I'm hosting a back to school link party on Friday and would love for you to share these! It's called Gimme Five For Friday and there's a new fun theme each week! Hope to see you there!
can't wait to make some yummy lunches for my daughter!!! thanks!!!
That's a lot of great lunch ideas. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! Thank you for stopping by! What great ideas you shared. Your blog is awesome and I'm now following you. Thanks again! Barb
Thank you for stopping by and sharing that suggestion! Wish I could get my hands on some. Thanks again! Barb
These are all such neat little ideas for back to school lunches! Alot of these could be fun for a football party too, since they're smaller portion sizes:)
Great ideas! Not just for lunch but for after school snakes instead of chips or cookies. Thanks for sharing!
Holly
This is a great idea! It's featured at Pin Inspiration Thursday! http://www.addhousewife.com/2012/08/pin-inspiration-party-81.html
I made several of these and others for my husbands 50th birthday. We did a casino so finger food and small bites were perfect. For the wanton tacos I used tortillas instead. Just cut out a four inch round using a biscuit cutter or glass and pizza cutter. Wrap four or five rounds in a damp paper towel and microwave for 15 seconds to soften then put in muffin tins. Fill and bake.
Awesome, these would be perfect for when we take our own lunches to work too! Thanks for sharing at The Fun In Functional!
All great lunch ideas!! I wish my daughter has access to something to warm up her lunch! LOVE the taco dip in a cup!
Thanks so much for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer.. From Dream To Reality!!
These are great! I found you on Serenity you and am now a happy follower, I have a really picky eater who would eat PBJ every day if he could so I am working on shaking it up a bit thanks
I would love it if you would come by and link up at by Best of Your Best Blog Hop http://www.missinformationblog.com/2012/08/its-best-of-your-best-blog-hop-and-win.html
How long can you freeze these for?
Such great ideas, Barb! We get so tired of the sandwich rut...this is awesome! Thanks so much for linking up to Mop It Up Mondays last week!
{HUGS},
kristi
Wow! I could actually get a head start on school lunches and at home snacks!! Laura from Real Momma stopping by to say thanks for linking up to the Best of your Best Blog Hop!
Thanks for all your links, I actually went and bought all the stuff today for the pizza muffins and the sausage pancake balls, can't wait to try them.
We homeschool but I like to plan our lunches for the week so I am not scrambling at lunch time and it makes our day go smoother. These look like excellant ideas as I am trying to get away from sandwiches (although my kids love them!). We have made the chicken nuggets and yes they are some work but my kids think they are the best thing ever!
Hey, I have a recipe blog (www.futureskinnybitchrecipes.blogspot.com) where I made nuggets that taste like Chikfila too...one of my first posts. And I made those mini chicken pot pies recently too, and the recipe is on the blog! There's also philly cheese roll-ups, homemade granola bars, bbq chik pizza muffins, sausage balls, etc. I'll be pinning your ham and cheese pockets and meatloaf muffins too! Thanks for the post!
Just wanted to let you know that I featured this today on my blog! You can check it out here: http://practicallyfunctional.net/2012/08/features-from-the-fun-in-functional-10/
So I have a question It looks like most of these are meant to be eaten hot. How do you handle that since most schools don't have microwaves for kids to use. I know my kids would never eat a cold hot dog they would say it is gross.
But none of these are very healthy.
I've made the pizza balls at the top of the post for my boys' lunches. They loved them, and they are good cold! I love the thought of the mini meatloaves. Going to try those this year!
Thank you for the great ideas! I am new to packing lunches and freezer cooking. Sorry for the redundancy but I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. If you freeze ahead, you'll pack an item frozen then the kids can heat up in a microwave? Since the portions are small, I assume it would only take 1-2 minutes to heat up since there would be thaw time too. Thanks for helping a new mom!
Thank you so much for these ideas, i will be useing them for when our kids go back to school!!!!
This my second time stopping by, i think I found you through pinterest? Thanks for sharing!!!
I am also a follower of your blog now:)
I thought you were going to say something about the use of "froze".
I came across this from pinterest, and decided to check it out - how humbled I am to see my tamale cups listed! Everything looks great!!
I see an awful lot of heavy meat, cheese and bread snacks. Sure it's not a sandwhich, but sounds like more calories and fat per snack. (not to mention nitrates and pigs butts in the weiners) I'm sure there are ways to make them lighter, but it's a good start for something different in kids lunches.
Great idea..!! Brilliantly you shared an important topic with us. I just impressed to get this thinking which is so helpful in our daily life. Thanks and keep it up...
pizza categories
I was thinking the same thing. We don't eat food like that for dinner very often and probably wouldn't serve for lunch either. I saw the cute picture and thought it would be healthier lunches. I do really like the taco cup idea....but my kids wouldn't eat it...kinda picky ;)
I am honestly really surprised that no one else has is mentioning this. I know kids can be picky eaters but really? Half the things on this list are another take on pizza and not even healthy pizza with some veggies. No wonder there is an obesity epidemic in our country.
Thank you for sharing these. My son just started kindergarten last week. He wanted to eat lunch at school, but has decided he doesn't like the school lunches and wants me to make him lunch. These will really help me to be able to vary what I send with him! :)
Based on the photos, it seems like there are some good ideas here. Unfortunately I can't read a thing on the page because of the font. I had to zoom my screen to 300%. :-/
Uh, strangely, as soon as I posted this comment, the font changed! Crazy. Anyhow .. I can read it all now and appreciate all the great ideas. I love making school lunches creative!
She's trying to appeal to the kids and their palates. Generally, most kids don't want to eat vegetables, so that's probably why she didn't include them.
My son eats the tray lunches at school... He likes them and we get breakfast and lunch for $0.70 on the reduced rate plan. However, he is 12, taller than me and has been wearing men's clothes for over a year! He's high energy and therefore, high appetite. These make great snacks and mini meals for him that he can heat up in the afternoons and will tide him over until I get home from work. Thanks so much for sharing!
Well that's just not true. It has a lot to do with the parents and if they don't eat vegetables, why would the kids? I grew up eating vegetables because my parents didn't make a different dinner then what they were having, and I wasn't allowed to leave the table until I at least tried some of everything on my plate. If it was spinach salad (which I thought I hated) that night, it didn't matter how much I bitched/cried about it, I wasn't getting something else for dinner and I wasn't getting anything later that night if I didn't eat dinner. Your kids are only picky if you let them be and they'll grow up being picky eaters and not getting the proper nutritions they need.
be sure that you actually fit the meat loaf to the cupcake tin hole. they don't expand to fit it... and wind up looking like rocks. not that I know this from experience or anything...
when you make the cupcake meat loaves be sure to fill the entire cupcake tin section with meat... it won't spread to fill the area... and it will end up looking like, oh, rocks. not that I would know or anything...
Thank you do much for these ideas-my sister jus forwarded me the site because I had posted the same dilemma, and asked for suggestions... My daughter will not touch a sandwich, and she has previously gone to a pre-school that provided lunch. Now that she is starting Kindergarten, I had a little panic attack when I realized I had no idea what I was going to feed her! I looked everywhere on the Internet and could find nothing very good-this has been the best site yet. Thanks again!
Where are the fruits and vegetables? These all look delicious, but not very nutritious.
These aren’t the only things in the lunch. This is the main meal. We supplement with fruits and vegetables. Barb
I make cresent roll hot pockets with all kinds of ingredients: I use 2 (triangular rolls which make a rectangle for each hot pocket). I personally use the low fat rolls.
I grill chicken breast (cut into small bite size pieces), red peppers and onion on my George Foreman Grill. I add this into the center of the rectangle and add a little petite diced tomotatoes and motzarella cheese, and bake according to cresent roll time. Sort of like a calzone.
You can also do this with taco stuff,ham and cheese etc.
One more cresent roll suggestion.
When I have left over pot roast, I cut it up into bite size pieces.
I also chop up the left over carrots and potatoes and onion from the pot roast. I add a bit of garlic, and rosemary. Then I mix it all up with a can of Tomatoe soup and add a bit of flour to thicken it. You can add this mixture to the center of the cresent roll rectangle and top with shedded sharp cheddar cheese. Pull the roll over and pinch sides and bake according to cresent roll directions.
This is brilliant! My kids cannot reheat lunch items, but your tips for keeping food warm are so helpful that I'm going to give some of these a shot. And to be able to freeze ahead of time is just phenomenal! If they don't work for lunches I'll be making them for after school snacks! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
Great ideas! I make a Mexican version of mini meat loaves and they're amazing!!! 1 lb of ground beef, 12 crushed saltine crackers, 1 egg, 1 cup of shredded cheese, 1/2 cup of salsa. Mix all together. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray. Cook at 425 for about 25 min. Top each with a little salsa and shredded cheese and put back in the oven for about 5 min or until cheese is melted. My kids and husband devour these!!!
Awesome! Thanks for all the food ideas :)
Where are the recipes? We want to make these but don't know how to. Thx....
Click on the name of the recipes. They are hyper linked and will take you to the recipe.
Hello, new follower here! I would love to have you link up with my Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week!
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/10/upcycled-chicken-coop-clever-chicks.html
I hope to see you there!
Cheers!
Kathy
The Chicken Chick
Love this post! I am a homeschool mom of 2 and my kids hate sandwiches, I am always trying to find new recipes to make for them for lunch 7 days a week. Great ideas!!
Cant wait to try these.
Although I have been making stuffed mini meatloafs for years (which we all love here) I add stuffing in them (so good).
Anyways, my kids dont like sandwiches at all. And pb is banned here in ontario (due to allergies) so it gets so hard. My littles will love these warm or cold.
Thanks so much
This is actually amazing! I really can’t handle it. It looks SO GOOD. AHHH.
And, click on my name, you will find a fresh food domain. Thanks for sharing!
One way to keep food hot for hours.... Get a small cooler. Pour boiling hot water in it, close and let sit for 20 minutes. Empty, and immediately fill with food. Close. This will keep things hot for ages. I use this method when doing huge dinners with only one oven or stove.
Post a Comment
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving me a comment!! I appreciate your support.