Healthy lunch box round up

So I was tired and lazy and have not posted each lunch daily, so here are the ones I have missed…

Ham & romaine lettuce rolled in whole wheat tortilla, yogurt with granola, apple slices with peanut butter and water. Oh and a couple M&Ms my parents got the kids against my request (we are about to be hit with Halloween candy.)

Peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat cut into hearts, orange slices, grapes and homemade sweet potato chips.

My son also had a PB&J on whole wheat but I cut his into a Mickey Mouse shape. And I ate the extras off their sandwiches… No waste! 🙂

See other lunch box ideas.

Keep checking back daily for more healthy lunch ideas.

Today’s (and yesterday’s) healthy bento lunch box: breakfast for lunch & PB and banana

I forgot to post yesterday’s lunch. Such a busy day! I think it was her favorite lunch – breakfast for lunch. She LOVES breakfast!

I packed her pumpkin waffles, maple syrup, boiled egg, Canadian bacon rolls and mixed berries. Pumpkin waffle recipe here. They are soooo good.

Today’s lunch was by request, it was a peanut butter and banana roll up, blueberry yogurt, pineapple and Pirate Booty. Pirate Booty you ask? It’s an all natural “popcorn” style snack with aged cheddar cheese flavor. Pretty good and no icky stuff, even if it is processed, but it’s an occasional treat so I don’t fret. Oh her little treat is chocolate covered almonds.

My son had the same only strawberry yogurt and no chocolate covered almonds.

See other lunch box ideas.

Keep checking back daily for more healthy lunch ideas.

Today’s healthy bento box lunch: pizza bagel!

Today my daughters school served pizza bagels for lunch, so I thought I would send one in her lunch box too!

Pizza bagel with all natural pepperoni on whole wheat bagel, orange slices, fresh pineapple chunks, honey Dijon almonds and a few chocolate chips as a treat. I made the pizza bagel with a whole wheat bagel, used a heaping tablespoon of natural pizza sauce, arranged pepperoni on top, then shredded desired amount of mozzarella on top of that. I put in the toaster oven on 400 for a few minutes until cheese was melted. Whaalaa! Lunch!

See other lunch box ideas.

Keep checking back daily for more healthy lunch ideas.

Today’s healthy lunch box

Today’s lunch is yogurt with granola, nectarine slices, and a peanut butter and banana roll up sandwich. I had planned on a hard boiled egg as well, but she opted to eat it for breakfast with her whole wheat pancakes. Her snack is a fresh plum.

The banana roll up is easy to make. I grabbed a whole wheat tortilla, spread peanut butter all over it, placed. A banana in the middle, then wrapped it all up.

See other lunch box ideas.

Keep checking back daily for more healthy lunch ideas.

Today’s lunch

Today’s lunch was a little light since my daughter has a field trip this morning and is getting a snack there.

So we had the rest of our PB&J sandwich from yesterday (need that fiber!), hummus and pita, carrots, grapes and star fruit.

My son had pasta with mixed veggies, hummus and pita, carrots, grapes and star fruit.

See other lunch box ideas.

Keep checking back daily for more healthy lunch ideas.

Today’s lunch: veggie pasta

Today’s lunch theme was fiber. My daughter sometimes has tummy trouble and needs a little more fiber than normal to keep things moving. No fun when you are just 6 and need more fiber like a little old lady! But there are certainly worse things, and this we can do something about fairly easily. She is also lactose intolerant, so cream cheese, many cheeses, etc. can’t go into my daughters lunch box. But I would use something like cream cheese sparingly anyway.

I packed veggie whole wheat pasta, mandarin oranges, organic frozen blueberries, and organic peanut butter and organic strawberry jelly sandwich on sprouted grain bread. Pretty much everything here is a good source of fiber, less the jelly. Mission accomplished!

When packing lunches, I avoid processed foods, and offer fruit and veggie options, whole grains, a protein, and be sure there is a source of fiber! I don’t always succeed at getting the veggie in there, but do my best. She’s not the best veggie eater, but will do carrots with homemade ranch dip. Pasta is a great way to sneak in veggies, either whole like I did, or if they balk, try to purée the veggies and use as a sauce with a little olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

Pasta recipe can be found on weelicious.com. I used mixed veggies instead of just peas and added a little basil for added flavor.

See other lunch box ideas.

Keep checking back daily for more healthy lunch ideas.

Today’s lunch: chicken fajita quesadilla

Last night we used some leftover chicken in quesadillas. Today we packed the rest in our lunch box. I’m a little jealous there was not enough for me to have some for my own lunch! Leftovers are a great thing to utilize in the lunch box. My daughter even loves cold lima beans or peas in her lunch box. Ever eat cold pizza? Toss it in your child’s lunchbox and you will be a hero. If you make yr own pizza sauce, you can hide some really nutritious foods in there like spinach, peppers and onions.

Anyway, on to the lunchbox.

My daughter had the chicken fajita quesadilla, sliced apples with peanut butter, mixed berries and some tortilla chips. Oh, and some chocolate covered almonds for a treat. I tossed the apple slices in orange juice and let sit for about 10 mins, slightly rinsed with water and patted dry to help prevent browning.

My son had the fajita quesadilla, tortilla chips, apples and peanut butter and romaine leaves in his box. He just likes plain leaves, no dressing… Hey whatever, right?

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Today’s lunch: Mexican soup

Leftovers. Definitely use leftovers when practical or possible. I bought this awesome insulated Thermos Food Jar for packing hot foods like soups or rice and beans.

Today’s lunch is Mexican corn and bean soup (get the recipe from weelicious.com), whole wheat crackers and mandarin oranges. And of course our thermos of water. This bottle is a Thermos Funtainer as well. It’s insulated and always still has ice in it when she gets home from school!

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Today’s lunch box

I am going to start sharing my kids lunch boxes in hopes that it may give parents other ideas about healthy lunches. What got me going was a few weeks ago having lunch with my daughter and seeing some of the lunches other kids brought. My friend and I are health food eaters and feed our family this way. Our daughters both have the PlanetBox lunch system and we pack it full of lots of fruit, beans, proteins, and veggies. Everything is fresh, homemade, healthy and delicious!

One mom who was having lunch with her son, made him hide his lunch after seeing my daughters and our other little friend’s lunches. It was funny, but it occurred to us while she was asking all kinds of questions about the lunch box and food, that most parents don’t know how to pack a healthy lunch.

Aim for color: fresh fruits and veggies, a protein, a grain. Actually, the PlanetBox has 4 compartments and each holds about the correct portion size as what the USDA recommends for these basic food groups. I hate to break it to you, but a healthy lunch does not include pre packaged food, white bread, Fritos, etc.

So, that’s what’s getting my started on sharing my lunches. I hope it will inspire some healthier lunch box choices!

Today’s lunch was a egg sandwich on a whole wheat tortilla, pear slices, raspberries, sliced carrots with homemade ranch dip, and a few chocolate covered almonds for a treat. And as always, we had water in our stainless steel water bottle. She is thankfully not a big juice drinker and prefers water!

Use whole wheat bread, tortillas, etc. They offer more nutrients and have more fiber than white bread and flour tortillas. Tortillas are also a great way to make sandwiches more interesting.

I soaked the pear slices in a lemon juice and water mixture then rinsed well to keep them from browning.

I made the ranch dip using this recipe from weelicious. Its healthy and amazingly good!

See other lunch box ideas.

BPA, PVC and lead free lunch boxes for back to school

Lead as you know is toxic to children (and adults for that matter), so it’s important that the place their lunch is stored in is lead-free. PVC is toxic as it contains phthalates and lead. Lead can also be ingested from your child touching the bag and then their food. And BPA is the hormone disrupting chemical found in plastics whose toxic effects have been hitting the news and blogs for the last several years.

Before purchasing a lunch box for your child, read the label. Make sure it is not made of PVC. Nylon, polypropelyne or cloth are much safer materials. Look for tags that say PVC-free. You also want to avoid BPA if you are purchasing a water bottle or food storage containers.

Crockodile Creek Countries lunch box.

Here is a list of BPA, PVC and lead free lunch boxes.

The Cool Tote is a replacement for the traditional brown bag. It’s made of nylon thus lead and other toxin-free.

Crocodile Creek. These are SO CUTE, and my favorite of the bunch. I saw these at Whole Foods and they are very well-made and have very cute traditional style, zippered lunch box and kid-friendly designs like dinosaurs, the solar system, horses (purple for girls) , trucks/vehicles (boyish), girls from around the world, flowers, countries with animals, farm animals  and a sunflower.

Laptop lunches are good for those who don’t like their food to touch. There are little compartments for separating food.

LL Bean has a critter lunch box line that is really cute and lead and PVC-free.  They would be great for a tween who wants something stylish without licensed characters.

The Lunch Pak by Fleurville is a backpack design, but does have a handle to carry like a traditional lunch box. They also offer a lunch buddy which is more of a traditional lunch box style.

Mimi the Sardine has cute cloth lunch totes that are PVC and lead free. There are several designs such as the ladybug, monkey/elephant/flower pattern, bugs and mice (my favorite).

Munchlers look like zoo animals and they fold out into a placemat, also very cute. They are insulated and come in several designs including a yellow tiger, white dog, green bunny and pink panda. My daughter has the white dog.

ZAK Designs offers several licensed character insulated lunch boxes that are lead free and lined with PVC-free material. Note, they just mention “PVC-free lining” so leads me to believe the entire lunch box may not be PVC-free. Some of the characters available include: iron man, Wall-E, The Little Mermaid, Tinkerbell, Spongebob Square Pants, Diego, Spiderman and many others. Wal-Mart and Target carry Zak lunch boxes.

California Innovations is a nice lunch bag that Wal-Mart carries. It’s stylish no-nonesense bag and free from any characters or crazy prints.

Lunchopolis is another zippered, traditional style, no-nonesense lunch box.

Citizens Pip is a new one available only online from what I can tell. The cool thing is you can customize your lunch box with accessories — separate food compartments, stainless steel bottle, cloth napkins, fork/spoon set, and of course the lunch bos itself!

Kid Konserve is a similar to Citizens Pip’s customizable lunch box system and available on their website.

Thermapod is another similar concept to the laptop lunch. However, it is one piece with 4 sections, which may not be desireable for some.

ReusableBags.comhas a whole section also dedicated to lead, PVC, and BPA-free lunches. I bought two ACME lunch bags — one to carry bottles in for my son to daycare (it fits three Dr. Brown bottles) and one for me for the milk I pump for him at work (it fits six medela bottles).

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