Easy, quick vegetarian packed lunches

[SubliminalDarkness]

So DS1(who is 8 and in 3rd grade) has decided he wants to be a vegetarian. He's brought it up several times over the past few years. He's said for years that when he grows up he wants to "end hunting." His motivations are absolutely 100% about not hurting animals. He also cares very much about being 'green' and eating healthy, but those are things our whole family cares about. As for the animals.... Well, the rest of us eat meat, but we do eat local, naturally raised meat.

Anyway. Point here being.... I need ideas for what to send in his lunch for school. Since kindergarten he's almost always taken a sandwich, fruit, and something else like crackers or pretzels. He doesn't like PB&J(but I am going to buy Nutella and see if he'll eat that with peanut butter). He also doesn't want to eat fish, as that "hurts animals." He's ok with consuming dairy products and eggs(we also have chickens).

So I need ideas. So far since he began this(about a week ago) he's mostly taken cheese sandwiches for lunch(his idea). But I can't imagine he'll want to eat that every day or that it's a good thing for him to eat every.single.day. He doesn't have a lot of time at school to eat lunch, so it needs to be quick, and not too messy.

Oh, and I cook everything from scratch, except things like pasta which I buy dried. I'm not quite at the point of making that from scratch yet. lol

[HollyBearsMom]

A thermos is your friend! W/ a thermos you can send in virtually any leftovers you have so think of dinner as lunch for the next day. These are on a regular rotation in our house since our son likes to bring to school and I like to bring to work

*pasta w/ sauce
*mac n cheese
*soups/stews
*veggie casseroles/lasagna
*veggie gyoza/dumplings w/ fried rice

While he is not a veggie he also loves to bring these to school

*avocado rolls (very easy to make but we also buy at a local sushi place)
*hummus and veggies/chips for dipping
*salsa and chips
*guacamole and chips
*hardboiled eggs/egg salad


He will eat anything in a rollup. Do you make your own tortillas? Yum! A current fave is sunflower seed butter and banana rollups. His school is nut free but any nut butter would work. On the weekends he likes it w/ almond butter. He also likes these rollups too:

*refried beans, shredded cheddar and salsa
*hummus, sliced avocado and cheddar
*sliced hardboiled eggs and Russian dressing

[wytchywoman]

HollyBearsmom pretty much covered all my ideas, lol. I did want to tip you off to this blog though:

http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

She has a lot of good ideas and recipes for lunches.

[neptunemama]

Another idea for the thermos is beans. My dds love cannellini beans warmed up with olive oil and salt. Or garbanzos done the same way w/thyme added also. Or black/pinto beans warmed with cheese added to the beans directly, and sometimes packed separately so they can add it themselves.

[SubliminalDarkness]

I got smart and sent him today with a bagel and cream cheese. Thanks for the ideas! Lots of good ones. I'll have to buy some stuff the next time I go grocery shopping.

[EviesMom]

Some things we've done are:

Hard boiled eggs
Pumpkin butter sandwiches
White bean spread sandwiches (this is cannellini beans, olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper, smashed up and used as a sandwich spread)
Hummus Sandwiches
Pasta Salad
Edamame beans
Veggie hotdogs, cooked, but then served cold in the lunch
Chips and salsa
Cold chickpea and quinoa salad
Nuts, depending on your school and their policies
Banana dogs (hot dog bun with peanut butter/sunflower butter and a banana still in it's peel. At lunch the kid peels the banana and puts it on the hot dog bun. It's yummy and DD thinks it's fun!)