Alternatives to Brown Bag Lunches at School

Alternatives To Brown Bag Lunches at School

What qualifies as a brown bag lunch? Well, it is carried from home to school or work or wherever you intend to go. But, brown bag lunches don’t have to contain a sandwich, drink, and a snack to be official. Here are some alternatives to lunch meat and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for your brown bag lunch.

Kids like sandwiches but they also like variety. That variety comes in the form of a new main dish every now and then. The same goes for adults. Some people love to eat the same thing every day for lunch each day of the year, but most would like to tantalize all their taste buds.

Younger kids do well with small things. Food cut up into pieces is more manageable and can be eaten within the time frame of the lunch period in many schools. Kids get thirty to forty minutes to eat but that doesn’t include getting to the cafeteria and finding a seat or socializing.

Choose crackers instead of bread. Crackers resist the sogginess that so often plagues a regular loaf bread sandwich. So that there is less mess and more eating, use a cracker to shape the cheese and the lunchmeat into the same size and shape as the cracker. The pieces can be placed in separate sections of a lunch tray or different sandwich bags, but this way makes for quick creation of the stacked crackers.

In chillier weather, sandwiches and crackers may not bring as much comfort as something a bit warmer. Fill a thermos with warm soup. Chicken noodle, tomato soup, vegetable beef, and creamy soups are all good at lunchtime on a cool day. The soup will stay tepid until the child can pour it out and eat it around midday. You can even find a type of thermos that allows your child to drink their soup right from the container, avoiding any mess that might ensue from pouring.

Dinner in my house leaves very little leftovers, however many families find just the opposite is the case in their home. Cooked food left in the refrigerator for three or four days is money down the drain. Use those leftover meals as lunch the next day. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes is a tasty treat for the next day. For a child, a meatloaf sandwich without the potatoes could be better still.

Keep in mind that time for lunch is limited at school so anything that can be eaten cold or at room temperature without using a microwave are favorable choices. Mix a couple of dishes together. If you had spaghetti one night, mix the sauce with macaroni for lunch. Think of some alternatives to sandwiches and jazz up lunch this week.

Alternatives to Brown Bag Lunches at School

What qualifies as a brown bag lunch? Well, it is carried from home to school or work or wherever you intend to go. But, brown bag lunches don’t have to contain a sandwich, drink, and a snack to be official. Here are some alternatives to lunch meat and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for your brown bag lunch.

Kids like sandwiches but they also like variety. That variety comes in the form of a new main dish every now and then. The same goes for adults. Some people love to eat the same thing every day for lunch each day of the year, but most would like to tantalize all their taste buds.

Younger kids do well with small things. Food cut up into pieces is more manageable and can be eaten within the time frame of the lunch period in many schools. Kids get thirty to forty minutes to eat but that doesn’t include getting to the cafeteria and finding a seat or socializing.

Choose crackers instead of bread. Crackers resist the sogginess that so often plagues a regular loaf bread sandwich. So that there is less mess and more eating, use a cracker to shape the cheese and the lunchmeat into the same size and shape as the cracker. The pieces can be placed in separate sections of a lunch tray or different sandwich bags, but this way makes for quick creation of the stacked crackers.

In chillier weather, sandwiches and crackers may not bring as much comfort as something a bit warmer. Fill a thermos with warm soup. Chicken noodle, tomato soup, vegetable beef, and creamy soups are all good at lunchtime on a cool day. The soup will stay tepid until the child can pour it out and eat it around midday. You can even find a type of thermos that allows your child to drink their soup right from the container, avoiding any mess that might ensue from pouring.

Dinner in my house leaves very little leftovers, however many families find just the opposite is the case in their home. Cooked food left in the refrigerator for three or four days is money down the drain. Use those leftover meals as lunch the next day. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes is a tasty treat for the next day. For a child, a meatloaf sandwich without the potatoes could be better still.

Keep in mind that time for lunch is limited at school so anything that can be eaten cold or at room temperature without using a microwave are favorable choices. Mix a couple of dishes together. If you had spaghetti one night, mix the sauce with macaroni for lunch. Think of some alternatives to sandwiches and jazz up lunch this week.

Eco Friendly Laptop Lunch Bento Box-PBA Free

Healthy Additions for Your Brown Bag Lunches

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Healthy Additions for Your Brown Bag Lunches

The best thing about a brown bag lunch is that you create it yourself. Whatever you want to add can be thrown in the brown bag each day. For those who are trying to stay healthy, adding a few extra things to their lunch bag is a necessity.

Brown bag lunches of the past almost always contained a fruit. Moms dropped a shiny red apple or a blemish free orange in the bag. Remember how it used to crush the sandwich in the middle every time? Fruit is now, just as it was then, an essential part of a brown bag lunch. The best part is that now it can be packed without flattening the main course sandwich!

One way to keep from denting your delectable sandwich is to slice the fruit. Apples do turn brown fast so douse them in some lemon juice after you cut the apple to stop the browning process. Kids may look at those apple pieces with a funny expression if they open the container and see brown spots. The chances of them actually eating them decrease so keep them looking good and you’re kids are more likely to gobble them up. Oranges don’t turn colors but choosing seedless varieties lessens the chance of swallowing a seed and possibly choking.

Other good fruits are raisins, dates, prunes, and dried fruits. Dried fruits are sweeter because the drying process concentrates the natural sugars. Kids will think you added something special and they are getting away with something eating that overly sweet fruit. This will probably get them to eat more of the healthy stuff which is great for you. They don’t have to know you didn’t sweeten their fruit with unnecessary sugar in order to get them to eat it so you’re secret is safe.

Instead of chips, try some pretzels. Hard pretzels aren’t just the dark brown twists with salt on top. Pretzels come in sticks, small twists, little nuggets, and a variety of flavors like honey mustard, honey, and cheddar. Even Pringles created a thin crispy pretzel stick that makes an easy to munch snack.

Nuts have always been ostracized because of their fat content. But, as we all know, all fats are not equal and the fat in nuts is good for you. Almonds are good to eat but many people prefer peanuts or pecans. The fat content is higher in those two types of nut, but you don’t have to eat an entire container. Fill a bag with a serving or two of nuts and eat them as a snack before or after lunch.

Pudding and applesauce are also a great addition to a brown bag lunch. They can be purchased in pre-packaged portions from the store. These types of snacks provide a sweet treat in specific proportions. You can find these goodies in sugar free forms as well to add to the healthy factor. Jell-O also comes in these types of single serving containers which sure makes it more appealing than the jiggly stuff we used to get in school.

Who says that healthy additions can’t be fun or tasty? Once healthy brown bag lunch foods tasted like cardboard; they now have flavors that kids and adults both enjoy.

Eco Friendly Laptop Lunch Bento Box-PBA Free

Oven Roasted Potato Logs

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Oven Roasted Potato Logs

What You Need:

4 russet potatoes, cleaned and cut into logs
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 C butter, melted
1 C seasoned bread crumbs

How to Make It:

Cover the potato logs with the melted butter.
Place the bread crumbs in a shallow dish.
Roll the potato logs in the bread crumbs to completely cover.
Place the olive oil on a cookie sheet or shallow baking pain.
Lay the potato logs in a single layer on the prepared sheet.
Bring the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Roast the potato logs 15 minutes.
Turn and continue roasting for 10 more minutes or until a golden brown.
Place in thermos that has been pre warmed.

Serves 4

Don’t forget to add the ketchup, sour cream or ranch dressing to the lunch box for a dip.

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