Lunch Ideas for Kids

This weekend while sorting through a pile of papers I discovered a lunch idea list I used for my kids one summer during their summer day camp.  Since pre-packaged meals are so expensive and that tends to be what my kids wanted I decided to just make my own.  The kids actually enjoyed the homemade versions as much as they did the prepackaged ones.  It can be so difficult to find a good variety of foods kids will actually eat so I thought I'd share a few of them here.

• Homemade Lunchable® 
• Favorite Lunchmeat cut into squares, triangles or other desired shapes
• American cheese folded in half then folded in thirds...gives 6 cheese pieces per slice
• Crackers of your choice
• Homemade Pizza
• Pita bread sliced into desired shape
• Pasta sauce put into small container with spoon*
• mozzarella cheese 
• pepperoni

*We also purchased VERY cheap metal spoons to put into the kids lunches so we could re-use them over and over to save on the cost of plastic ware but also wouldn't upset us much if we lost one.  

• Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches with a thin spreading of peanut butter on each slice of bread so the jelly doesn't soak into the bread
• Nachos
• Tortilla chips
• Cheese dip in a small container.  
• Turkey or Chicken salad wraps
• Homemade chicken salad (mix chicken, mayo, chopped apples or grapes and a little garlic and onion powder)
• Flour tortillas
• wrap chicken salad into wrap and add lettuce or tomato if desired
• Pizza wraps
• mozzarella cheese and pizza or pasta sauce wrapped into a flour tortilla 

I also would include a snack as well such as:

• Fruit: watermelon, grapes, fruit cup, mandarin oranges, apples, cantaloupe, etc
• Pretzels (to save, buy a large bag and split into small bags)
• Cheese cubed (buying blocks and cubing will save money)
• Pudding (can be homemade to save!)
• Goldfish crackers
• Carrots and Ranch
• Granola bar
• Raisins