Hellobee Boards

I have to pack a lunch for T and I usually pack: yogurt, piece of fruit, some snack item (granola bar, crackers, cereal bar, pretzels) and often times pack leftovers in a thermos. If you buy the right type of thermos and fill it with hot water first and then put the food in hot, it stays warm.

how about deli meat? turkey, ham, or bologna

Yogurt is good

DS likes jerky

I also give DS Fair Life chocolate milk - it has low sugar and extra protein

I always pack leftovers for lunch - protein, grain, two sides of veggies, and a fruit. We use a PackIt freezable lunch bag to keep his food cold, and he is used to eating food unheated (one of the things you have to learn when you have food allergies and not having accommodations outside of the house). Sometimes I pack soups and warm foods in a Thermos for him.

Proteins that we do--our kids are in daycare but we have to pack lunch for them--deli meat, leftover sausage, edamame, cooked shrimp.

Other items include cheese, cheddar crackers, raw mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, fruit (apple slices, chunks of frozen mango that thaw in their bags, clementines, strawberries, blueberries), cooked cold tortellini.

Their lunch sacks are insulated, but otherwise they are not kept cool until lunch time. It's only 3-4 hours from taking the lunch out of the fridge until they eat it, so we're not worried about spoilage.

We have a Yumbox that seems like a nice set-up for standard school setting. (We got it for LO1 who refuses to use it currently Right now, he has small containers that he dumps onto a plate at daycare. We're saving the Yumbox for regular school.)

Will she do a Lunchables type thing where she'll eat crackers instead of bread? You could send salami or turkey pepperoni and cheese with crackers, or jam and some kind of nut butter with crackers or rice cakes, or hummus with pita triangles or pita chips with other veggies to dip.

Cold pasta salads could be good and made in advance in batches. Fun pasta shapes, chickpeas, baked tofu, chunks of cheese, veggies, olives, etc. in a vinaigrette style dressing or pesto. Or an Asian style noodle salad with soy-ginger or sesame dressing.

Potstickers taste pretty good cold. As do corndog mini muffins (just make mini muffins using cornbread mix and add a piece of hotdog to the middle before baking and send a packet of ketchup). You can do the same for pancake batter and breakfast sausage with some jam as a breakfast-for-lunch type thing.

I agree a Thermos might be worth investing in if you want to send a warm meal for lunch, like mac n' cheese or soup or stew.

We are so boring. Luckily my son will eat a sandwich -- I literally make him a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich every day! Ugh. Need to branch out.

One other idea for veggies:

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015211-lunchbox-harvest-muffins

We make these alot and have cut some of the sugar and fat successfully. They are a kid hit around here! And freeze well.

Oh, I've also made these for my son:

http://markbittman.com/recipe/vegetable-pancakes/

I just add a tad more flour and add 1/4 cup of grated cheese like Parmesan to make them bind better. I steam/cook/microwave the veggies and squeeze out all the excess water first and then make the batter portion (I usually just use frozen veggies like chopped spinach, corn, peas, some grated carrot, etc). It makes a decent sized batch and with the cheese and egg, its pretty substantial. I make a double batch and freeze them and then pop them in the toaster oven for 10 minutes when I want to eat them. They taste fine at room temp and are dip friendly.