Recipes and ideas for school lunches

We've got a 16 year old son, he's far too lazy to make his own lunch and mornings are usually a panic (picture son running up the path to the car, shoes and socks in hand, school bag open and stuff falling out, mother leaning on the horn as they should have left 15 minutes ago).

Any good ideas for lunch food and snacks that are fast and easy to prepare and tasty enough that he'll actually eat them will be very welcome and greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Jeremy

My daughter has some pretty sophisticated taste buds for an 11 year old. She'll eat rambutans and fried calamari, but when it come to lunch, she reverts to childhood. Here is a typical menu for her school week-

Mon- peanut butter sandwich
Tue- peanut butter sandwich
Wed- peanut butter sandwich
Thu- peanut butter sandwich
Fri- peanut butter sandwich

Occasionally, we can squeeze in a corned beef sandwich, but that's about it.

Is he too lazy to cut up a banana and put it on a peanut butter sandwich that's already made? It might be okay if you put it on yourself when you make it in the morning, but I'm not sure. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are awesome.

Nutella's always good, too!

Two words:

Lunch money!

Cheers,

Adam

Milbink said:

Two words:

Lunch money!

Cheers,

Adam

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Nah, that's what we are trying to avoid. He quickly scans the healthy options on the menu so that he knows what to ignore, and heads over to the deep fried chocolate cake, pies, pizza topping, mayo and ketchup.

Cheers

Jeremy

Mmmmm. Deep fried chocolate cake.........

He's got you guys trained pretty good! Just kidding, but seriously. Let him go a few days without lunch and he will realize how important it is when his stomach is grumbling after lunch time.

My 10 year old daughter is only allowed to buy lunch once a week, otherwise my sets out some sandwich bread and lunch meats out and my daughter makes her own.

AACJ said:

He's got you guys trained pretty good! Just kidding, but seriously. Let him go a few days without lunch and he will realize how important it is when his stomach is grumbling after lunch time.

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Tried that. He just goes without. Doesn't concentrate at school (nuffink new there), comes home in a foul mood, gobbles down a dozen weetbix and breaks wind viciously for the next six hours.

Sorry, I must have given the wrong impression if you guys thought I was doing this for his sake.

Cheers

Jeremy

Must Dash said:

Tried that. He just goes without. Doesn't concentrate at school (nuffink new there), comes home in a foul mood, gobbles down a dozen weetbix and breaks wind viciously for the next six hours.

Sorry, I must have given the wrong impression if you guys thought I was doing this for his sake.
Cheers

Jeremy

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I understand now!! My condolences!!

AACJ said:

I understand now!! My condolences!!

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Thanks. But right now he's closer to your part of the world than mine. He's playing rugby somewhere around Vancouver. If the wind is drifting the wrong way, you may notice a slight whiff of stale socks in the air.

Cheers

Jeremy

What does he like to eat?

Hard to make suggestions, without having some sense of what his tastes are.

The only way to avoid the morning panic is preparation - fruit washed, veggies sliced, and salads (ie. tuna, chicken, salmon, etc.) made up the ight before. Also, any tuperware, cutlery, should be washed and ready to go the night before.

Unfortunately, almost all of the convenience foods that are advertised for parents seeking a solution for the lunch time blues are nothing short of crap - loaded with fat, salt, preservatives and minimal nutrients.

As I said before, if you give me a sense of what your son likes/doesn't like, I'll try to come up with some suggestions.

they started selling a semi decent tomaca here in glass jars,
tomaca is easy to make and is quite good, its basicly natural tomato paste with olive oil and garlic, add salt, pepper, and its a nice spread to mix with ham or tuna,

anyways, prep tupperware before going to bed, and have it ready in the morning, btw, at age 16, the bum should have the ability to make his own lunch,

In my house we have built in the lunch making time with their "get ready for bed" time. This way it has simply become routine for them to pack their lunch. They have plenty of options to choose from, cold cuts, leftover Sunday roast sliced, even leftover chicken or fish turned into sandwiches. We also make sure there is plenty of fresh fruit and Nutri grain type bars around.

My olds boy now 13 has become very creative. He makes things like chopped ham and pickle, shredded fish with onion and mayo, chicken salad. All from leftovers.

Surprisingly, they don't opt for PB&J to often. I was raised on a tight budget and we always had leftover sandwiches, some of the best there is. Because I like them so much, my kids have come to favor them as well.

I give them each 6.00 a week for lunch as well. This allows them buy lunch one day a week and two milks each day the rest of the week and or pocket the rest.
You would be surprised at how often they don't buy a full lunch.

This has worked well for us over the last 5 years now.

Good luck!

thirdeye said:

Surprisingly, they don't opt for PB&J to often. I was raised on a tight budget and we always had leftover sandwiches, some of the best there is. Because I like them so much, my kids have come to favor them as well.

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Leftovers are my favorite food. I can't think of anything I prefer fresh over leftover and cold out of the fridge, except french fries. Pizza, soup, burgers, pork chops, chicken wings, hoagies, any type of casserole, spaghetti (on bread to make a spaghetti sandwich)... I wish I could order a cold burger in a restaurant, but they bring you a lousy hot burger with a bun that's not even the least big soggy .

To the OP: I agree that your son should be making his own lunch. If he won't do something that simple, can't you ground him from (not sure if he can drive) the car, or TV, or video games or something? Sixteen is a little old to ground someone, but it's also a little old not to be able to pack a lunch.

I used to pack AND buy a lunch. Only sometimes, though. Usually just bought. Depends if we had leftovers that I wanted to get my fair share of.

He could add individually wrapped Cheese sticks, fresh fruits and pre-packaged pudding or similar with a bag of potato chips to a PBJ sandwich. Hard Salami keeps well also.

Something we used to do when the kids were in school was make a lot of lunchmeat sandwiches Sunday evening after diinmer for the week and freeze them. The kids put them in their lunches in the morning. They keep well and are thawed when lunchtime rolls around.

If you have a warehouse club store near you, they have a wide variety of individual snacks and desserts like pudding, applesauce, chips etc.
Sue

Have you seen Eat Drink Man Women? Go that route.

I don't know how to put this but I will say it anyway....

He is 16, tell him to grow up. That is what my dad told me at 12 and I grew up just fine.

Old enough to shave and drive then he is old enough to make a sandwich.

Well, I guess you are saying that vegemite sandwiches are out?

Celery with peanut butter or soft cheese spread in them. Celery and carrots with a tasty dip. Granola, trail mix, string cheese sticks, fig Newton’s. Apples, oranges, bananas. Just off the cuff...

Suzuki said:

What does he like to eat?

Hard to make suggestions, without having some sense of what his tastes are.

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Fair point Chris... and thanks to everyone for the suggestions.

We don't tend to have much by way of leftovers - we eat (and he enjoys) lots of salads, pasta, rice and fish dishes (fish is usually on the menu at least three times a week), and there is always a lot of fresh fruit in the house.

In all seriousness, the two big issues we have to contend with are:

time - in fairness to my son, it takes him about an hour to get home from school, he has sports training a few times a week, this last year and a half of school is very demanding and we tend to eat quite late (8:30 pm is usually the earliest). By the time we've finished dinner and cleared away the dishes, no one really feels like getting school food ready. We are going to have to change this regime.

competition - the pies, chips, burgers etc. at the school canteen are tough to compete against, and there's no way he's going to point his money at the healthy options.

Sandwiches are a reasonable option. Any creative ideas that will tempt his taste buds would be welcome.

Cheers

Jeremy

When i have pasta for dinner i will usually make extra and take the left overs to college cold in a plastic container. Other than that i just take a sandwich usually bread and ham.... pretty boring but gets the job done. If he likes fish you could always mix up some tuna and mayo my brother used to do this didnt take too long and i geuss if you kept it in the fridge you could make enough for 2-3 days at one go.

Swiftsteel