So you know I’m all about injecting a bit of style when I can, right? That doesn’t mean we don’t eat off of paper plates or that my house is ready for its fashion shoot. I just try to steer away from uninspired choices as often as I can. In that vein, I try to make interesting lunches for myself quite often and encourage you, through this blog, to do the same. Not only do we deserve the extra effort, it preserves something for us stay-at-home moms, IMO.
In talking with my neighbor the other day, she mentioned that our schools have banned peanut butter completely due to allergies. What?! You can’t even send a PB&J to school with your own un-allergic child? Since peanut butter is practically its own food group at our lunch table, I got to thinking about some other lunch ideas for her. And then I realized, hey! What a great opportunity to make lunches special for our kids. Passing along a little HMM love to my child (when she gets to be school-aged and requires a packed lunch) is a nice little side benefit to this little obsession of mine. So pack one of these ideas, throw in a note and a nice cloth napkin (which earns you green points!) and your kid might just eat his lunch. How novel!
Main Idea (choose 1 of these peanut butter free options)
- Whole wheat tortilla spread with pizza sauce and shredded mozzarella, then rolled up
- Morning muffins
- Whole wheat tortilla rolled around sliced bananas, almond butter and honey
- Cream cheese and jam on a mini-bagel
- Banana Butterscotch Muffins (make with whole-wheat flour)
- Turkey or ham and cheese rolled around pretzel sticks
- Cheese ravioli skewered onto toothpicks along with cherry tomatoes and slices of pepperoni
- Hard boiled egg
- Bowtie pasta mixed with chopped veggies and Italian or Ranch dressing
Sides (pick 1 or 2 of these)
- Applesauce
- Yogurt mixed with berries and topped with granola or cheerios
- Shelled edamame
- String or cubed cheese
- Carrot sticks
- Cucumbers and pita chips with hummus
- Chips and salsa
- Any kind of fruit
- Raw broccoli with raspberry dressing
- Raw almonds
Treat (choose 1)
- Pudding cup
- Small cookie
- Couple of Fig Newtons
- Animal crackers
- A few Hershey’s Kisses
To make your life easier, invest in a couple of bento box sets (I like these from Lap Top Lunches). I ask you, what kid wouldn’t want of these lunches? What mom, for that matter?
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