Will is in his second year at his Montessori preschool, which means he has lunch-bunch three days a week! I love the extra special time I have with Andrew on those days. I don’t love waking up in the morning wondering what I’m going to pack him for lunch!
To keep me motivated and inspired, I’m making fun school lunches into a personal challenge. I’m hoping to pack three lunches each week that are a good balance of easy, healthy and delicious, and then post recipes and photos here to help inspire people looking for their own school lunch ideas for the next week. I love sharing what I make for Will because it adds motivation to create meals worth sharing, it helps other parents looking for ideas to pack school lunches, and it pays forward all the meal inspiration I’ve gotten online!
Here are Will’s lunches from his first week of school:
Lunch 1: Sun-butter and jelly sandwich on Ezekiel bread, homemade applesauce, strawberries.
I love this meal because it’s so simple and Will ate almost the whole thing. I tend to pack more fruits than vegetables for school lunches, because Will is more likely to eat fruit without someone coaxing him than he is vegetables. When I do pack veggies, I make sure they’re his favorites. (Carrot sticks and kale chips come to mind!)
Ezekiel bread is a sprouted grain bread packed with nutrition available in the freezer section of most grocery stores. I love it because it’s high in whole grains, protein and fiber, and because it’s frozen so I can always have it on hand without it going bad. It’s so good for him that I make a concession and cut off the crusts.
If you’re packing applesauce, consider mixing in some flax seeds or chia seeds!
Sunbutter is a great alternative to peanut butter because it’s nut-free and safe for schools where children have nut allergies. It’s also delicious.
Lunch 2: Soy Hot Dogs wrapped in Blankets, Ketchup, Strawberries and Grapes.
I used a recipe from Vegan Lunch Box to make vegan “pups in a blanket”. The book provides a simple dough recipe, and I rolled it out and cut it into strips so Will could wrap his own soy hot dog. This sounds labor intensive, but it can be done the day before and stored in the fridge. Making part of lunch in advance turns it into a fun afternoon activity with the kids and reduces stress in the morning. I liked the dough recipe from Vegan Lunch Box, but honestly, any biscuit recipe would work. You could also use refrigerated pizza dough. (I tend to avoid the refrigerated crescent rolls because they’re not that healthy.)
I baked his Vegan Pup in a Blanket for 18 minutes at 375 degrees – you just want the dough to get lightly browned on the bottom and the soy dog to get hot.
While the soy dog cooked, I filled Will’s thermos with boiling water and let it sit for ten minutes to warm up. I dried it thoroughly and then put the hot dog in (I had to cut it in half).
Add a side of ketchup (sorry, preschool teachers) and some fruit, and he’s good to go!
The best part? Andrew and I now have our lunch prepared, too! The extra soy dogs are all wrapped up and oven ready 🙂
Lunch 3: Hummus with Carrots, Apple Slices with Sunbutter, Dried Cherries.
A smaller lunch: Will (and many other preschoolers, I’m sure) doesn’t eat a lot of food in one sitting. His stomach is small, and he has a morning and afternoon snack in addition to his three meals. Last year I would often send him lots of “options” for lunch to make sure he had plenty of food to eat. A lot of food came home, to be saved for snack later.
This year I’m going to try to send him more appropriate quantities with fewer choices. If he’s hungry, he has three good food items to eat. He doesn’t need five mini containers to open and decide between every time he has lunch bunch!
Hummus: Sometimes I make my own hummus using the recipe from the Oh She Glows cookbook, but I buy as much hummus as I make.
Carrots: Lately I’ve started to avoid baby carrots in favor of buying my own and cutting them myself. They last longer in the fridge, usually taste better, and can be cut into thinner and longer sticks which are easier for Will to bite and chew. I prep them in advance and store them in a Pyrex container submerged in cold water in the fridge.
Apples: Will eats more when I slice them, but slices oxidize and turn brown if you cut them in advance. Tossing them in a little lemon juice helps keep them looking fresh.
