I remember when my oldest first started preschool lunch-bunch. He was going once a week, and I would prepare these elaborate, cute, pinterest-like lunches such as whole wheat pizza dough wrapped soy-dogs or mini-burritos.

Yeah.

It wasn’t sustainable, as you’re probably guessing. It only takes a few weeks of these gourmet lunches coming home only partially eaten to realize that it’s more efficient to make the special and exciting meals when your kid can eat them hot out of the oven in your presence, not pick at them when the food is room temperature and they’re distracted by their peers.

My new lunch-bunch philosophy is this: pack something easy, fast, and kid friendly.

My go-to lunch bunch ideas:

Fruit: They’ll eat it, and it’s fast. I love things I don’t even need to cut, like grapes or blueberries that can just be washed and are kid-friendly and ready to go. They’ll sometimes eat a whole fruit like an apple or banana, but eat more apple slices if I cut them.

Vegetables: I pack the ones they like the best. I basically rotate between carrot sticks, snow peas, red pepper (for my oldest only), cucumber. I sometimes put in one small piece of raw broccoli, which occasionally gets nibbled. I used to try to pack more creative vegetable options, but they weren’t getting eaten. It’s better for them to have some favorites they’ll actually eat.

Hummus / bean dip: They make kids more likely to eat the vegetables, because they can dip them, and they’re a good source of protein. If you can get your kid to eat white or black bean dip as well as hummus, you’ll have some nice options to rotate between. Make a large enough batch so it can be part of your lunch, too!

Crackers: I look for ones with high fiber and the lowest possible amounts of added sodium, sugar and oil. I would love to say I avoid processed foods entirely, but having a box of crackers and hummus in the fridge can make lunch packing SO much easier, and the kids love eating crackers. I look for triscuit type shredded wheat crackers with the least number of ingredients.

Sunflower butter sandwiches: The bread you pick can make a huge difference in the nutritional profile here. I try to find breads that have at least 3 grams of fiber per slice, and limited added sugar. Ezekiel bread is a good option, and Eureka makes a fantastic soft sandwich bread with 5 grams of fiber per slice. Sunflower butter is our school option because it’s a nut-free preschool. Oh She Glows has a great recipe for chia seed jam; if you don’t like the amount of sugar in the preserves/jam options at the store, this is a good way to add the healthy fiber and omega-3s of chia while controlling the amount of sugar in your kids’ sandwich. http://ohsheglows.com/2012/06/26/magical-blueberry-vanilla-chia-seed-jam/ It’s more work, but it can be done in advance, and then you have chia jam for your weekend pancakes… which is AMAZING.

Dried fruit: Great source of quick energy and kids love it. I try to buy unsulphered dried fruit and watch for the added sugar; companies do it because a) it tastes good which sells, and b) it’s a way to add inexpensively weight. My kids love raisins, dried cranberries, dried mango, dried pineapple and dried papaya. One of them will even eat dried goji berries, which are a really anti-oxidant rich food. These make a great sweet dessert-like item and add some condensed calories for fast energy if you have a kid that sometimes gets distracted and doesn’t eat enough at school.

Oat and seed granola bars: I need to get back into doing this, but we would sometimes make homemade granola bars and send those as part of lunch. They’re fun to make, and you can usually substitute any nut ingredients with seed ingredients to make them school friendly. Check out this awesome post from Oh She Glows with 21 snack recipes for school: http://ohsheglows.com/2014/08/26/back-to-school-21-portable-allergy-friendly-snack-recipes-vegan-gluten-free-with-nut-free-options/

Things I’ve stopped sending:

Burritos. They were coming home uneaten, and the thought of all the rice on the preschool carpet made me feel a bit guilty. Plus, I LOVE eating burritos, so I’d rather serve them to the kids when I’m there to eat them, too.

Pasta / Soup / Thermos foods: I love the idea of my four year old opening a warm, savory soup on a cold winter day at preschool. But they’re hit or miss on eating some of this stuff at home. Send it to school and it seems to come back. When they’re older I’d love to reintroduce more options, but right now they only have lunch bunch twice a week, and tend to eat the most when I send finger foods that they like.

Final thoughts:

I used to try to send more balanced lunches than I do now. I have started focusing on getting the healthiest calories my kids will reliably consume into them. If that means I send two kinds of fruit and no veggies one day, maybe that’s o.k. and I can put a vegetable bean soup on the table for dinner. Some days I send them a lunch I know will tide them over, and then plan to feed them immediately after they get home instead of a few hours later.

Check the lunchbox: Our school has a carry in/carry out policy that I love. Their trash comes home with them (for allergy reasons) so I get to see how much they eat each day. I try to check as soon as they get home, so I know if one of them didn’t eat much lunch. Then I can troubleshoot and figure out if they weren’t hungry then, needed more time, or didn’t like what I packed. Giving them more time to eat once they get home is sometimes all it takes. The days I forget to do this, I sometimes have a kid who is melting down at 4 p.m. and I belatedly realize it’s because they haven’t eaten enough over the course of the day. It’s good info to have! If your school doesn’t send trash home, you could always ask your kid to bring it back. It’s easier for them than walking to the trash can, so they might be more than happy to oblige you.

Another resource:

Vegan Lunch Box is a book of vegan (and sometimes whole foods based) lunches. Author Jennifer McCann started a blog and posted every day about what she sent to school in her vegan son’s lunch box, and then compiled the most loved recipes into a book. It has lots of ideas, and I’ll definitely be referencing it again once my kids are eating lunch five days a week at school and rotating my small set of selections is no longer viable.

Thoughts? Brilliant strategies for packing healthy, awesome lunches?