We are a brown bag family. When it comes to school lunches, we prefer to send our schol-age child with a homemade lunch, and he prefers that, too.
Our reasons for providing him with a home made lunch are: it is less expensive, I can better control the nutrition and steer away from colors and preservatives, there is a short amount of time to eat lunch and he doesn’t want to spend part of it waiting in line, and he is always hungry after a school lunch–complaining that there is not enough food. A typical lunch brought from home may include one of the following as the main meal: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, inside out pizza, ham sandwich, turkey roll-ups, or grilled cheese. Drinks include milk, chocolate milk, orange juice, apple juice, grape juice or water.
As part of the brown bag lunch, or in our case an insulated cooler, I make sure to include plenty of nutritious snacks. He gets a brief snack time mid-morning, and the extra snacks also help fill him up and give him a variety of things to eat. I know that if he doesn’t get a chance to drink all of his milk, he will at least have some calcium in the form of cheese or yogurt, for example.
Here are my favorite picks, store bought or homemade, to include as healthy school snacks. They pack easily, can be eaten quickly and hold up well.
Grapes
Mozzarella cheese or cheese sticks
Apples
Muffins
Crackers
Pretzels
Goldfish crackers
Thin slice of leftover pizza
Corn bread
Carrot sticks
Healthy cereal
Granola bars
Yogurt in 6-ounce cups
Fresh green beans
Oatmeal cookies
Fruit cups
Boxed chocolate milk
Peanut butter and raisins on celery
Half a bagel with cream cheese
Whole grain pasta with a little melted butter or olive oil
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