So. . . school lunches

[Aerynne]

What do you pack for your kids? At least one of my kids will be in school next year so I need ideas. Cheap, vegetarian ideas with little to no dairy. I'd be okay with eggs, though- dd1 likes hard boiled eggs and I will get her some from local hens.

I will probably be using EZ lunchboxes, a wide-mouth thermos, and an ice pack in an insulated lunch bag.

Also I would love ideas for easy-to-clean, fun drink containers to compete with all the kids who will probably bring Capri Suns and juice boxes (which I refuse to purchase)

Realistically my kids will be making their own lunches, but I know I need to start with some guidance and have good things around.

[twoplustwo]

[mamaKristin]

Hummus is great

My kids use Contigo plastic travel mugs. I found them at Costco, and they are fabulous. Even my 6th grader used them, but I think he's not into using them next year

[WaitPatientlyOnTheLord]

Falafal balls/nuggets might be fun to dip.
Wraps and Sandwiches


Have you ever seen the blog "veganlunchbox"? Also if you search it on pinterest there is a lot there. Some of the meals are really cutesy looking which could be great for competing with the other packaged lunches, some of the ways they make them cute are not very hard to do, either (like putting food in colorful silicone cupcake cups.)

Will the school be serving hot lunches? If so, they will distribute a menu for the week/month/semester whatever. One of the veg families I worked for tried to coordinate the kids lunches with things their peers would be eating and that worked well. The "laptop" lunch boxes were really popular a couple years ago, dunno if they still are.

One thing I have to caution. Things went really well feeding the veg kids veg food until one of them started wanting to take something stinky to school (tuna fish sand- the family was actually pescatarian, but whateves) the kids all made fun of her stinky food and instead of wanting to bring something less stinky she got embaressed and didnt want to eat lunch at school anymore. So I would say to be careful of anything with a strong aroma that kids might not be familair with, including Indian foods which I know both you and I really enjoy feeding our families as the smell could cause some lunchtime bullying.

[WanderingJuniper]

2 out of 3 of my kids eat vegetarian lunches. The other one eats veg 75% of the time. We dont use cool containers and no one has ever said anything to the kids to make them feel different. We pack simple lunches that hit all the marks: protein, veg, fruit, "other". All of my kids only take water to school in a kleen kanteen.

Sample lunches are salads. My youngest loves salad. Middle likes peanut butter crackers or pancake sandwiches. She's GF so its easier and cheaper for me to make a big batch of pancakes than buy GF bread most weeks. Oldest loves hummus and a big bag of veggies or chips and salsa with black beans.

[Firebird Rising]

I really want to do better at this for Cameron at school. They have one hot lunch a week that he gets, and then I will need to make 2-3 other lunches. They get out early on Friday so I don't have to make them on that day. I know that other kids get pretty cool lunches. The school is a private SDA school with almost everyone being vegetarian. My house is vegan. My parents' house isnt...


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[Aerynne]

Originally Posted by Firebird Rising

I really want to do better at this for Cameron at school. They have one hot lunch a week that he gets, and then I will need to make 2-3 other lunches. They get out early on Friday so I don't have to make them on that day. I know that other kids get pretty cool lunches. The school is a private SDA school with almost everyone being vegetarian. My house is vegan. My parents' house isnt...


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I hope you do better than I did. Ideally I loved Vegan Lunchbox and Vegan Lunchbox Around the World, but with four kids to take care of I didn't have time to do that. Most of the time they brought an EZ lunchbox with PBJ, baby carrots, and some fruit. Sometimes they would use their thermoses and bring some noodle dish or (one of ds' favorite) lemon rice (it's Greek). So what happened with me is I didn't end up spending too much money or time, but my kids got monotonous lunches most of the time. The EZ lunchboxes were really great, though, for making sure they got a fruit and a vegetable with every lunch (that was one thing I wouldn't cave on). Sometimes I'd tuck a little piece of candy or something fun in there, but not often.

One thing that was a big hit, though, when I got around to it, was pizza rolls. You make a rectangle pizza with sauce and whatever toppings you like, then roll it up and cut with floss like cinnamon rolls. Put the rolls on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until they start to brown a little on the top. They taste like pizza but they're good finger food. Dd's friends were actually jealous of that lunch.

Now my kids are home again so we're back to not having to worry about this anymore.

[ShangriLewis]

Is he the one with diabetes?

If you can swing it, one of the divided lunch containers make it easier. Plus, he can pack it and not get overwhelmed. I love the laptop lunches although you have to be dedicated to cleaning the containers each night or have a spare.

I had a lunch list at one time divided into sections. Then they could pick something from each section.

Veg nuggets, tofu fingers, bean balls, veggie sausages are all fine cold as a "protein". Then some fruit, a veggie, a dip, and sometimes a small treat.

If they like a cold noodle salad then maybe make a big batch for dinner one night and then portion that out for a few days.

Same with spaghetti. Eat it cold or preheat a thermos and add the hot pasta and sauce.

[Mother of Sons]

A few that I've packed recently

Cheese bombs with marinara
PB on graham crackers
Pierogies
Salad
Pasta salad
Molded hard boiled eggs
Pretzels and dip
Apples and peanut butter
Lots of little sides helps a lot.

[ShepherdsWife]

If you are worried about drinks maybe an occasional organic juice box on one day of the week would help? Our health food store sells them. I use them for special treats occasionally.
Most of the time you could use one of those kids canteens that have fun animals on them. Kleen Kanteen makes a great one.

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[ShangriLewis]

We finally made Happy Herbivore mini meatloaf bites. I loved meatloaf as a child My mom used to send me with a meatloaf sandwich for every field trip.

I loved them. They made a good meatloaf sandwich, as well. I didn't think I would like them at all. Bonus, they are super cheap to make.

http://happyherbivore.com/recipe/meatloaf-bites/

She makes them in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=28&v=K7_Yej6mK_I

[Aerynne]

I used to love meatloaf, too. So these are a good substitute? Yum! Maybe I'll make them for dinner this week.

[ShangriLewis]

Yeah, I liked them much better than other loaves I have tried. She has a tempeh based one, as well. I liked that one but I have to order Tempeh from Azure and I wanted something I could make from ingredients I can get locally.