Lunch Ideas

[wish]

My dd1 is currently in public K and my dd2 is in a Waldorf preschool. For preschool the lunches are supposed to be very healthy, natural, low sugar, no junk etc. But since dd1 started public K I have been falling off the wagon. I'm slipping into the convience foods. DD1 is allowed to have them at school and I'm starting to find that just throwing a bag of chips in a lunchbox is easier than homemade banana bread.

But truly, I need to get back to basics and start making healthy and homemade lunches again. I would love some ideas for wonderful "waldorfy" type lunches you might send for your lo's. My mind just isn't working!

On a side note:  dd1 doesn't like to take any kind of pb sandwich to school bc they make her wash up really well (not that it's a bad thing) due to allergies of other students. For some reason this stress her out, so we aren't sending any pb items.

Thanks!!!

[lyrebird]

This is a great question, I’d love to hear people’s ideas, starting K next year – it’s been hard enough getting two lunches together a week.

So far my thoughts are something like (not sure how "waldorfy" they are though:

Monday: left over Sunday pizza?

Tuesday: sandwiches (vegemite, cheese and cottage cheese seems to be his favourite combo)

Wednesday: Daddy-made hommus (with carrot and celery sticks and cut up bits of bread) OR  spinach and bacon slice – very tasty

Thursday: run out of ideas - sandwich

Friday: hommus again

Snacks:

• Every day a piece of whole fruit to put in the fruit bowl for shared fruit platter
• Twice a week: a fruit muffin
• Twice a week: yoghurt (preferably mixed at home: I make with chopped fruit and honey and a small amount of toasted muesli on top, otherwise store bought
• Crackers and cheese
• Nuts and dried fruit
• Extra chopped fruit (watermelon, mango, grapes, etc.).

I'd love more ideas on grain salads or something.

[nanette0269]

Nuts are not allowed in our school at all.  But, consider sunflower butter and/or soybean butter.  We use sunflower butter, and when topped with a bit of homemade jelly, the kids cant taste the difference.  Without the jelly, there is a slight taste if tasted alone, but with their whole grain bread, i dont think they can tell.

Today's lunch included:

half sunflower butter sandwich on whole grain

strawberries

blueberries

canned green bean slices (the only can item i will buy...hate it, but its an easy veggie side for DS since he hates carrots)

Tomorrow:

homemade tomato bisque soup

half grilled cheese sandwich (next to the hot soup thermos, it stays luke warm, which is fine with them)

Bento boxes are great since they encourage leftovers and you feel the need to fill the space with healthy options. The kids have "lego" ones, and they do hold a ton.  They also have small sigg water bottles daily.

We've tended to put in leftover pasta, leftover pizza, chicken strips (made with grapeseed oil and my homemade breadcrumbs).  I try to always add 3 fruits and at least 1 veggie.  DD loves carrots with ranch dressing, but i dont give that to her more than twice/week.

Yogurt is also not allowed (standard store bought), but we often substitute the danimals little tiny ones, which are technically fromage frais, not yogurt.  They are tiny enough not to fill them up on just one item, but we keep them in the freezer, pop them into their lunchbags and buy lunch time, they are perfectly cool but defrosted.

As for homemade banana bread....a foodsaver is really helpful here.  when i make bread, i make a TON, so i freeze each loaf in a foodsaver bag and it keeps remarkably well!

Other standards in our house (at least one of these is added daily):

* Apple slices, dipped in cinnamon (hides any browning and they are more encouraged to eat them rather than a whole apple

* baby dill pickles

* olives

* raisins

* dried cranberries

* romaine lettuce with ranch dressing

[donttrustthesystem]

In my 3 y.o.'s Waldorf lunch I attempt to send something that balances what they have for snack that day.  For example if it's millet or quinoa day (which they have with tamari roasted sesame seeds), I will send lentils with carrot sticks/red bell pepper slices on the side.  Every Tuesday I make roasted sweet potatoes in the morning (no heated oil) for her lunch.  Other times I just put together whatever veggies I have.  If I'm really in a pinch / hurry I send her a glass container of bee pollen and a spoon, which she loves and is a complete protein superfood, with some cut fruits in a glass container on the side.  She loves that.  If I ever feel like sending her "chips" I get a small glass container and rip apart untoasted nori into chip sized shapes.  This is a very mineralizing nutrient dense food.  Other high nutrient delicious foods are hemp seeds (again send with spoon) and pumpkin seeds (soaked and sprouted)-- either of these would be good with cut veggies on the side also.

[tedsmama]

Bento Boxes have really helped me stay on top of packing healthy lunches that my son will eat. We use Laptop Lunches which are bright and fun and make packing healthy, bulk foods a breeze. It's actually fun finding new items to fill the different containers with bright, fresh items. In addition to offering the products, Laptop Lunches has a great website that even sends our weekly menus which are all very healthy and provide great inspiration. All this month, they have been sending out fun holiday bento ideas which has been a lot of fun and I know they have some kind of free December shipping promotion going on, so I would recommend checking them out before the end of the month. Good luck with making over your lunch routine!