Making your own packed lunches to send to school for the kids can be daunting. However, if you take a look at the school lunches served in the cafeteria, where pizza counts as a vegetable, you’ll want to prepare your own! The best school lunches are made of real food.
LUNCH SERVED AT SCHOOL
The school lunch program started as a way for “homemade” hot lunches to be served to children, rather than them walking home for lunch. Big companies caught on to this idea as a way to make money, and out the door went the idea of caring about children’s health. Now, hot lunches contain very little nutrients, but a wide variety of additives, sugar, and carcinogens.
School lunch ideas
Just like meal planning, you have to plan for school lunches. On the weekend, make sure you have what you need on hand for the week.
Use a variety of real food.
Lunch ideas: sprouted grain bread & nut butter with fruit slices, hummus and veggies to drip, variety of fruits and veggies, sliced organic cheese, crackers, homemade treats, apple sauce packs. From time to time, I purchase a few approved processed snacks to have on hand for school lunches.
THE RUNDOWN
Lunch 1: apple sauce pack, mango, Annie’s bunnies, pumpkin seeds, homemade peppermint bar
Lunch 2: homemade crackers (recipe coming soon), pineapple, dye free chocolates, carrots, pretzels.
Lunch 3: sprouted grain bread, pineapple, oranges, homemade bar, pickles!
Lunch 4: sprouted grain bread with almond butter, raw honey & bananas. Pineapple, Annie’s farm cookies, homemade granola, popcorn.
Lunch 5: turkey roll ups, crispy chick peas, pickles, pineapple, Annie’s farm cookies.
Lunch 6: brown rice chips, peanut butter & celery and apples, cheese slices, sun drops.
what is your favorite school lunch?