School Lunch Time Already??

I'm here!  I'm alive! It's been a heck of a summer and I've gotten really behind in a lot of things and my blog is one of them, but school starts next Wednesday and I will have a bit of free time to devote to my poor neglected blog.

In the meantime, since I'm a planner, I have been gathering lunch ideas for my 3 boys (who won't eat school lunch) again.

I last posted about this subject in October, 2012 and I'm going to re-post with some updates:

What to do with a non-sandwich-eating-kiddo?  Turkey roll-ups, cheese stick, carrot coins, grapes and goldfish...

Maybe pepperoni rolls with dipping sauce, carrot coins, apple slices with caramel dip, and a cookie.

 

Sliced hotdogs with raw spaghetti pushed into the center - boil and serve Lunch Monsters! More fun lunch ideas.

I've talked to my boys, researched online, and talked to friends over the years and come up with a list of lunch ideas to work from so I had a game plan for shopping and planning each week.  I thought this would be a good place for me to share my ideas and ask you to share yours so I can add more variety to my list.


A few thermoses and plastic containers (with built-in ice packs, wheee!!) later, I have this list of lunch ideas:

*Lunch meat roll-ups with mozzarella sticks inside
*Rotisserie chicken slices
*Chicken drumsticks
*Cooked and chilled chicken nuggets
*Buttered Noodles
*Soup
*Mac & cheese
*Green Salad
*Sandwiches
*Build your own Tacos
*Pepperoni roll with dipping sauce
*Ham and cheese roll
*Pinwheels
*Cold pizza
*Cheese, sausage or turkey and crackers
*Hot dog in thermos, bun on the side
*Cold cereal with mild in a thermos
*Mini corn dogs
*Nachos
*Hard boiled eggs (slice with an egg slicer)
*Quesadillas
additional ideas for 2014:
*Nachos (chips, dipping cheese, taco meat, salsa)
*Meatballs, served cold (or hot in a thermos) with toothpicks and dipping sauce
*Build your own pizza (tiny homemade shells, shredded cheese, sauce, pepperoni)
*Pancakes or waffles with sausage links and dipping syrup
*Pasta salad, or buttered noodles
*Diced cheese and rotisserie chicken
*Wedding soup (hot in a thermos)
*Peanut butter with pretzel rod and apple slice dippers
*Cold fried chicken drumsticks
*Build your own PB & J crackers

For sides and snacks I made another list to refer to:

*gold fish
*mini toasts from the deli
*carrot coins
*apple slices with caramel sauce
*fruit
*fruit cups
*cookies
*cheese
*frozen go-gurt
*pudding
*dry cereal
*shelled peanuts
*apples rings with peanut butter
*edemame
*veggie sticks
*popcorn
*cookies
*cupcakes stuffed with frosting and sprinkled with powdered sugar (easier to pack than frosted on top!)
*rice krispie treats
*Chex mix

Here is a Printable Lunch Planner that can help you get organized over the weekend:

And here are the sweetest Printable Lunch Box Notes:

 So, let me have your list of lunch ideas!  We can help each other make yummy lunches our kids will eat!