Think outside the box this year for school lunches!  A sandwich toting child can expect to eat 1,260 sandwiches by the time he completes sixth grade or 2,340 by the time he graduates from high school.  Peanut butter + jam+ every day = BORING

Here are a few compiled ideas from several contributors:

Skinny Dips

Kids love dips.  How many times have you seen a child suck the dip right off the carrot or chip and stick it back in the sauce, again and again?  Cater to their dipping instincts by sending healthy dips in a lunch.  Simply put dip in a reuseable container with a tight lid and send in the lunch box with a sack of dippers.  Here are a few suggestions for healthy, skinny dips:

Ranch Dip

Blend 1 cup of cottage cheese and 2 tsp of dry Ranch dressing mix in the blender until smooth.  Dippers:  cucumber sticks, leftover cooked chicken, rolled slices of ham, carrot sticks, bread sticks, whole grain crackers, broccoli flowerets, or celery sticks.

Peanut Butter & Honey Dip

Mix 1 cup of peanut butter and ¼ cup of honey in a bowl.  Dippers: Celery sticks, apple slices, bread sticks, crackers, bananas, or pretzels.

Fruit dip

Mix 1 (7 oz. jar) of marshmallow crème with 1 (8 oz. pkg. of cream cheese) and ¼ cup orange juice.  Mix well and serve with fresh fruits.

Pizza Dip

Prepared pizza or spaghetti sauce makes a perfect dip (you can even use your leftover containers of dip from a pizza delivery or take-out).  Dippers:  string cheese, crackers, slices of pepperoni, whole grain crackers, or breadsticks.

Fresh Salsa

Is there anything better for you than fresh tomatoes, onions, and peppers?  Maybe if you add an avocado and a little lime juice!  Serve with tortilla chips or taquitos.

It’s a Wrap

Simply replace bread with a tortilla.  Roll up your sandwich fixings in a flour tortilla and cut in half diagonally. 

Send a tamale wrapped in a corn husk or a burrito warmed and wrapped in foil.

Stick-It

I remember when my little brother asked my mother to please put his corn back on the stick for him.  There is something about food on a stick that makes eating fun—popsicles, corn dogs, ice cream bars, and corn-on-the-stick are all childhood favorites.  Here are some other food-on-a-stick ideas.  (If you’re worried about stick wars at the school lunch table substitute drinking straws or coffee stirring straws for bamboo skewers.)

Fruit kabobs:  Any sturdy fruit (apples, oranges, kiwi, pineapple, grapes, strawberries, etc) will make a good kabob.  Just dip fruit that will brown in fruit fresh or lemon juice first to keep its eye ap‘peel’.

Meat and Cheese kabobs:  Alternate cubes of meat (ham, chicken, turkey, roast) with cubes of cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, provolone, pepper jack).  You can even slide a grape tomato or two in there for color.

Salad Kabobs:  Similar to a meat and cheese kabob with cubes of meat, cheese, and tomato but add broccoli or cauliflower florets, thin carrot disks, cucumber slices, or other items found on a salad bar.

Roll It and Roll It and Mark it with an AB or C

Sometimes two pieces of thick bread seems too dry.  Try using a small dinner roll for a sandwich instead.

To make a jelly roll sandwich, place a slice of bread (with the crust removed) inside a folded piece of waxed paper and flatten with a rolling pin.  Spread the bread with a thin layer of your topping (tuna or egg salad, peanut butter, cream cheese and a thin slice of ham or turkey) and carefully roll up the bread in a jelly-roll style.  You can seal it closed with a dab of butter or cream cheese or a toothpick

Leftovers

A leftover slice of homemade or pizzeria pizza makes a nice lunch the next day and takes 0 effort. 

If your child has access to a microwave (many do now) consider sending a small container of leftovers from last night’s dinner.

Pocket Full of Pizza and Pitas

Pita pockets are a nice change from sandwiches.  They are sold in the deli section of your grocery store.  You can fill them with a variety of fillings—tuna, egg, or chicken salad is but a beginning.

Pizza pockets are not too difficult to make either.  Simply roll out your favorite bread dough recipe or frozen bread dough.  Cut into 4” x 6” rectangles.*  Spoon 2-3 Tbsp of your favorite topping inside of rectangle.  Fold over and seal edges tightly.  Bake at 350 degrees until nicely browned.  When cool, bag pizza pockets in a plastic bag or plastic wrap and store in refrigerator until ready to use.  Some of our favorite fillings are:

Sloppy Joes or Shredded Barbecue Beef

Ham and Cheese

Pepperoni or Sausage and Pizza Sauce

Cooked Diced potatoes with Steak Cubes

*Pampered Chef sells an item called Cut and Seal which also works well.

Souper

Add alphabet noodles to your favorite soup recipe and send it in a thermos. 

Drop a cooked hotdog into a thermos of warm chili and send a bun along in a baggie for a chilidog. 

The Dries Have It

These items add crunch and texture to a lunch box:

A little bag of granola sent with a container of yogurt

Dried fruit and fruit leather

Pretzels

Whole-Grain Crackers (plain or filled with peanut butter or cheese)

Graham Crackers

Fortune Cookies (filled with craisins and peanuts)

Nuts

Trail Mix

Small bag of popcorn

 Mooooist and Refreshing

String cheese

Yogurt (send a little bag of granola to eat with it)

Pudding (homemade is a whole lot cheaper—just pack in a recloseable container)

Just a Little Twist

Try making a club sandwich for a change—a slice of bread, sandwich spread, thinly sliced meat, another thin slice of bread, sandwich spread, cheese, another slice of bread.  A child only needs to eat a half of a sandwich when it’s made this way.

Cut your sandwiches out with a cookie cutter.  This is the way our teenage daughter (who is very tired of sandwiches by the way) likes them best because it gets rid of the dry crust and makes the sandwich a manageable size.

Spread peanut butter on muffins or fruit breads (apple, banana, and huckleberry) instead of white or wheat bread.

Lunchbox Pet Peeves

To prevent a soggy sandwich, use cream cheese instead of mayo.  Bag the lettuce, tomato, or pickle in a separate bag and assemble before eating.

Keep yogurts firm and cool by packing a frozen water bottle or juice box in the lunch box next to it.

Likewise, send a frozen juice box in your child’s lunch for an icy drink.  Or, send a small drink container with dry drink mix (Tang, etc.) and let your child add the water and shake.

Keep honey from crystallizing and leaking through the bread by stirring peanut butter and honey together before spreading.

A dull lunch is dreaded by all.  Adhere Contac paper to the inside of the lunch box lid and you will have an instant white board where you can write messages or play an ongoing game of tic-tac-toe with your child.  One father I know wrote a jingle or joke on the outside of his daughter’s lunch sack every day.  I looked as forward to her lunch sack as she did!