What are some healthy items you pack for your children?
No children, just a DH. I pack for his lunch either something leftover from the night before or a sandwich/wrap made with lean lunch meat.
If you're raising a reformed picky eater, how did you reform them?
DH wouldn't eat any fruit if he had to work at it. He could handle bananas but forget the other fruits. One day I made a big bowl of mixed fruit salad, sent some with his lunch and he loved it. That's how I get him to eat his fruit..lol.
What are some cool containers you've found useful to pack their food in?
I use Glad container right now. I want to get him a lunch kit/container from laptoplunches.com Very cool containers.
What do you pack for drinks?I send two bottles of frozen water. For the ride home I have cooler bag that has a diet drink and a little nibbles.
What would you like to see on the segment?Hmmmm, I'll think about this one.
Gail
Posts: 164 | Location: Out in the sticks of NC | Registered: May 03, 2004
I forgot... sometimes I send a piece of leftover chicken. (I'll intentionally make extra chicken for his lunch.)
mmmmmm, one of my favorite lunches when I was a kid (and you'll now know where some of my less than healthy eating habits came from but I didn't eat this all that often): Leftover fried chicken A piece of white bread slathered with butter folded in half
I don't remember what else 'went' with this lunch. Maybe that was it. I do love me some fried chicken! Your city fried chicken would work though....it's yummo too.
What do I pack? (For me, since we're a kid-free household)
Wraps of any kind, grilled whatever (chicken, beef, shrimp) salads, pb sandwiches, homemade power bars, fresh fruit, bagels & pb, baby carrots, etc. I also will check to see if I can find a microwave, which really opens up my options to include leftovers of any sort.
Reformed picky eaters...
I am a slightly reformed picky eater. I eat way more different stuff than I ever did growing up. But I made changes one at a time. And told myself I can say "I don't like..." ONLY after I try it. Then it's okay to say, because I gave it a shot. I did some extra dishes now and then, but life's all about adventure, isn't it?
Drinks?
Um, an empty water bottle filled from the fountain. And I get one bottle of green tea a day for variety.
Containers?
Ziploc bags & containers, along with my 60 pc. set of plastic freezer/microwavable/dishwasher safe Rubbermaid/Anchor Hocking or whatever it is from Wal-whomever.
What would I like to see?
Some new ideas. I'm still stuck in a rut because I'm bored with food all together.
Life is like a roller coaster, with lots of ups and downs, but the curves, spirals, loops and corkscrews are what make life interesting.
I can't speak to what to pack for kids' lunches since I don't have kids, but I do pack a lunch almost every day for work, so I thought I would at least comment on the container question.
I use 3 brands of plastic containers in a myriad of sizes--Ziploc brand, Glad brand and Giant (store) brand. The Ziplocs & Glads can be pretty expensive if, as Denise mentioned, those containers aren't coming back home for re-use. However, the store brand containers are MUCH cheaper and I have found them pretty close to the durability and usability of the others. I still use some Zip & Glad containers because the Giant ones only come in 2 sizes and sometimes I need/want other sizes. They come in everything from a tiny 1 oz. round container that I use for salad dressing or dip to big square or round deep containers for salads, and I use the shallow square ones for my entrees. The small, narrow but deep ones I use for veggies (if I don't want them in with my entree) or fruits like chunked up melon or pineapple.
I have 2 small freezer packs that I swap out so there is always one in the freezer. I know one is Rubbermaid brand but can't remember on the other. They are both about 2 inches wide by 4 inches long by 1 inch deep so don't take up much room but keep my lunch cold clear past lunch hour (I pack it at 7:15 a.m.).
Personal Healthy Habits Challenge - 10/1 to 12/31/08: 1. Exercise: Get back to consistently working out 3-5 X week. 2. Food: Get back to consistently preparing healthy lunches for the week with increased veg servings. 3. Behavior: Reduce intake of sweets.
Posts: 7336 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
I have to warn you… this is the TOTAL slacker mom reply…
What are some healthy items you pack for your children? Sandwiches on whole wheat bread. That is it… sandwiches… two kinds.
1. Low fat lunch meat, low fat cheese, lettuce “shreds” (which is iceberg lettuce sold prepackaged in the produce dept with the other bags of pre-washed lettuces), tomatoes (I think he is eating them now… He might pick them out and throw them away… I can’t remember. The tomato thing changes and I can’t remember if tomatoes are in or out right now…) We compromise on the lettuce... I make him eat whole wheat... and he gets iceberg shreds.
2. peanut butter and jelly.
Fruit. (Apples, oranges, grapes, sliced pineapple - I cut the apples and peel the oranges because a) I‘m not a TOTAL slacker and b) I know that I increase the chance of the orange being eaten by about 1000% by sending it already peeled.)
(He has not asked for more food… because eating cuts into his basketball time… he eats a TON of food when he gets home… usually another sandwich and more fruit and popcorn [since we don‘t keep chips, cookies, ice cream, etc in the house during the week - not for moral reasons… for weight control reasons… we buy individual ones on the weekend.])
If you're raising a reformed picky eater, how did you reform them?
I haven’t. He WANTS white bread. And sometimes I do cave and buy white “hoagie” rolls… but most of the time it is 100% whole wheat bread. He has tried to trade them… but nobody will trade with him… my sandwiches are very undesirable to the general school population, so he eats them.
Generally, when he whines about the whole wheat bread, I say, “That’s nice. I love you, too. Have a good day at school.”
Sometimes I buy him precut pineapple for the God Awful price of $3.99 or $4.99 a container . He loves it and eats it and it expunges my guilt for forcing him to eat my “disgusting” whole wheat bread sandwiches. Plus, I used to spend that much on a #1 Big Mac Meal Deal in the past… and now I don’t… so I treat him to pineapple (pre sliced in a container in the produce section) sometimes.
Also, he is old enough to make his own lunch… and he can get up 3 mins early (since that is how long it takes to make a slacker lunch) and make his lunch if he is too picky and doesn’t like my lunch… but he likes the extra 3 mins of sleep.
What are some cool containers you've found useful to pack their food in? Brown paper bags. “Cool” container don’t come home. No containers ever come home… cool or not. Plus “cool” changes… and your child may be labeled a complete dork by showing up with last year’s cool container. Brown bags are always in style.
What do you pack for drinks? There is a water fountain at school. He is building his immune system, sharing the fountain with the other 3,999 students there.
Plus, Nelson and I went to marriage counseling when Jamie was in kindergarten over a 3 day fight about a thermos filled with milk. I’m TOTALLY serious. I’m not kidding. We are still together, but the thermos has been gone for 9 years. (The marriage councilor said we were fighting for control, not over the thermos.)
What would you like to see on the segment? KD, Please make sure to let moms and dad or grandma or who ever that it IS OK to send “Slacker Lunches”!!! My kid was totally obese and was 4’ tall and 130 lbs in 4th grade. Some of his weight problem was due to school lunches. I also know moms who buy their kids McDonalds or other fast food lunches and bring them to school. (OK... I confess... I've done this in the past. You have my permission to out me on national TV...)
Jamie is now going into 9th grade and is 5’10” and 135 lbs and a totally healthy weight. He REALLY started seeing a HUGE connection between what kids ate for lunch and their weight in about 5th or 6th grade. He has often commented that most kids NEVER eat fruit.
It actually is MORE important to send lunches in Jr High and High School because the quality of the lunches goes down as the grades get higher. Taco Bell has a contract with our school district at ALL grades. And pizza and fried egg rolls and cookies and Gatorade are cheap and sold at the Jr and HS level. Some kids literally buy chips and cookies for lunch.
It REALLY is acceptable to slap some P&J between two slices of whole wheat and an apple and call it “lunch”. Not EVERY lunch has to be photogenic or creative or the envy of every kid in the school.
And kids don’t NEED “kid food”. Nobody will take your “mom card” away if you don’t send little bags of chips and cookies. (Besides the last time I bought a box of those little bags of chips… Jamie and I ate them in one afternoon while watching the Olympics… and I KNOW we are not the only mom and kid with the “bet you can’t eat just one” issue…)
A P&J/fruit slacker lunch beats a cookie and chips and Gatorade lunch anytime.
Thanks so much for asking for our input!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: GoingSkiing,
Denise
Posts: 8722 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
KD, funny you should ask about this right now....I'm in the middle of writing an article for my blog and local homeschool group for lunches....this article will be focusing on healthy, packable lunches.....many of the families in our homeschool community are lost when it comes to packing things for field trips, etc, and they end up picking up take out or lunchables. I'm going to finish my article this weekend, and will post it here once I'm done.
Blessings,
Lori
Re-committing myself to a healthy lifestyle that will include regular (and increasing) exercise, and following the baby steps rule on food. 6/17/08
Posts: 3149 | Location: California | Registered: March 11, 2004
. He loves it and eats it and it expunges my guilt for forcing him to eat my “disgusting” whole wheat bread sandwiches. Plus, I used to spend that much on a #1 Big Mac Meal Deal in the past… and now I don’t… so I treat him to pineapple (pre sliced in a container in the produce section) sometimes.
(The marriage councilor said we were fighting for control, not over the thermos.) 
