Thursday, August 5, 2010

Lunch for Kids -- First Day of School

This is it...First Day of School Eve! It was so much fun to pack the girls' lunches today. I kept it really simple, focusing on getting a wide variety of colors, textures, and shapes in their boxes. I'm missing blue/purple. Neither of them likes blueberries. Can you imagine? A kid that doesn't like blueberries! So I need to get creative in getting some blue in them. I plan to do things with pureed blueberries eventually, but I'd like some other blue foods for them to munch. Any suggestions?

Picky Eater is my second grader. She's so named for obvious reasons. However, everything in her bento box is tried and true. She has  a side of ranch salad dressing for dipping, a stainless steel bottle of juice, and a cloth napkin.

In her top compartment, Picky Eater as carrots -- some whole baby carrots and some carrot slices; grapes; and flower-shaped kebabs with American cheese and Canadian bacon.


In her bottom compartment, Picky Eater has steamed broccoli, more carrot shapes, sweet bell peppers (both whole and rings), a sweet gherkin, a small finger sandwich (egg salad on pink bread), and a mini cupcake (Apple-Carrot with Honey Butter Frosting).

Bayberry is my sixth grader. She has braces, which presents a variety of difficulties, but we get around them. Her carrots, for example, are very thinly sliced, which allows her to still eat them with braces. Also, her broccoli is steamed so it won't damage her wires. On the side, Bayberry has a bottle of juice and a cloth napkin.


Bayberry has four compartments. Starting upper right and moving clockwise: grapes and tiny carrot flowers; a sweet gherkin and a mini bell pepper filled with ranch salad dressing; a small egg salad sandwich and a mini cupcake; steamed broccoli, sweet bell peppers (some rings and a whole one) and Canadian bacon & American cheese kebabs.

15 comments:

  1. Do they like the blue corn tortilla chips? That might help with the blue problem.

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  2. I love this. Thank you so much for posting lunch ideas. I have a 2nd grader who just had 2 expander appliances put into his mouth. We are getting ready for braces. He is a picky eater, which is already a problem with lunches, and loves hard food. I have started cutting things real small, since everything gets stuck in between the top of his mouth and his appliance. Your ideas are of great help. Please keep them coming.
    Laura

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  3. Bay just had her palate expander removed with the promise of it returning some day. lol That thing was awful. Bay gagged on her food frequently. It took her a month to get used to chewing a new way.

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  4. Love the pink bread, and the pepper with dip in it!

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  5. The pink bread and cupcakes are so girly! I'll bet they get lots of oo's and ahh's from the other girls. For a bit of "blue," how about purple grapes, plums, raisins, prunes, or purple bell peppers. It might be helpful to call prunes "dried plums" instead to overcome the negative rap that they get. My friend's toddler loves the orange essence prunes from Sunsweet. Dried fruit might not work so well for your daughter in braces, though.

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  6. Purple grapes! Great idea. Thanks, Kim! Love the blue chips idea. I need to find some blue corn, as I make my own chips. I've never seen a purple pepper but that would be really neat. Prunes and plums are both excellent ideas. Thanks for the input.

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  7. I am looking forward to seeing all your great lunch ideas this year. I have purchased some laptop lunch systems to use with my first grader and 3 preschoolers. I am so excited about packing fun, yummy, and waste-free lunches this year.

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  8. Cute lunches! I do have one question, what do you do with the scrapes after you cut the food into shape?

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  9. The veggie scraps are either eaten on the spot by the kids or the dog, or they're put into my freezer bag for soup.

    Bread scraps are made into crumbs or croutons.

    Cheese scraps are shredded for topping, eaten on the spot, or added to a future recipe.

    Having said all that, there really isn't much in the way of scraps. I cut very close together, using as much of the food as possible for the lunches.

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  10. Now I'm picturing pink croutons! Oh, that is just too cute!

    I only see purple peppers once in awhile. You kind of have to keep an eye out for them. They're deep purple, similar in hue to eggplant.

    Tortilla chips are yummy dipped in egg salad. I sometimes add a little minced jalapeno to my egg salad but I'm not sure if your girls like hot peppers.

    Blackberry jam mixed into baked goods might make them look blue. Or layered on a sandwich such as cream cheese and blackberry jam. Or ham and blackberry jam on a biscuit or muffin.

    This is making me hungry! I had better go have dinner. Thanks for all the great ideas, Michelle. Reading your blogs really gets my creative juices flowing!

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  11. Very yummy-looking lunches! So glad I found your blog (through your link on another one of your blogs) and am now a follower. I like to make lunches too. It can be so much fun!

    Have a great weekend!
    www.kpolizzi.blogspot.com

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  12. how do you get the bread pink like that? i have 3 girls, who are very picky eaters they would love there bread pink :)

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  13. Click the link and it will bring you to the recipe :)

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  14. LOVE! the ranch in a bell pepper!! Def gonna try that one!

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