School Lunch - Breaking it Down

Now that all three of my kids are enrolled fulltime at school and will be there all day, including lunches, I don't think buying lunch for all three everyday will be the way to go.  For that kind of money, I could have a couple pretty decent date nights with my husband.

So I've been looking around at what I could use for packing and what I could put in there as well.  Three kids = three different views on lunch.  One hates cheese, another hates peanut butter, and one just hates sandwiches in general.  So I developed a list that the kids will use each night to pack their lunches.  Yes, I said, pack their lunches.  The hubby and I can supervise, but I am not spending time every night taking orders.  I waitressed for 15 years and I don't do that anymore.  

Let's see...here are the lunchboxes I got for them.  They are very sturdy and the compartments won't run together.  I don't think it will keep liquid out of each compartment, but it's close enough.  It's not like I am packing juice in the lunchbox.  These are Easy Lunchboxes and I bought them at Amazon.  The great thing is they will fit into their previous insulated lunch zip-top containers.  I also bought several flat-ice freezer mats that will fit right on top of the boxes.  

We gave these a test run at Disneyland, and they were great.  The 6 year old was able to open and close it with no problem.

I made sure to buy 6 of them, so we had 2 in rotation for every kid

Then I sat down and spent some time looking at what I make and I what I usually have on hand and came up with a simple system where the child gets to pick one item from three different lists.  That will fill each compartment.  The drinks will be either G2 from Gatorade or water with Mio added in a reusuable bottle.  

So here is the list...let's hope this works!

Lunch Packing Ideas 

Choose one of these:

• Sandwich/roll or bread
• Turkey
• Ham
• Peanut butter
• Cheese
•  Bagel thin
• Peanut butter
• Cream cheese 

• Cold pasta
• Cold pancakes
• Waffles
• Boiled egg
• Protein roll ups
• Meat/chz
• Tortilla roll up
• No bake energy bites
• Pepperoni Puffs 

Choose one:

• Baby carrots
• Diced pineapple
• Grapes
• Cheese stick
• Watermelon
• Cantaloupe
• Yogurt 

and

Choose one:

Fiber 1 brownie

Goldfish

Pretzels

Cut pickle

Fruit chew

Fruit leather

Granola homemade

Z bar

Homemade muffin

Have any other ideas to add?  Would love to see what other mamas are doing this year.