This is how their lunches usually look with silicone cupcake liners to divide up their different portions. Those grapes with the chocolate chips attached to them are supposed to be caterpillars. :) When they ask for raw veggies, I put their dip in the bottom of the cupcake liner with the veggies directly on top. You can see that today they had a pasta salad, but if I were doing sandwiches, I would cut it in half lengthwise and stack the two halves on top of each other at the end of the container where the pasta salad is.
I love their plastic containers. They are sterilite brand from walmart and have a locking, leakproof lid. The lid is slightly domed and can even accommodate a yogurt cup. Awesome. It should be noted that while the lid is leakproof, there is nothing to prevent the contents of the container from mixing all together if handled too roughly. My boys have to be somewhat careful not to throw their lunches around.
I also really like their lunchbags. I got them from Target in a 3-pack for under $10. That's right three lunchbags for under $10. They're nothing fancy, but they fit the sterilite lunch containers perfectly, and are made to be held upright so it lessens the chance that their lunches will be all tossed up.
This is what it looks like when you roll down the top and clip the ends together. It makes its own handle. I thought it was pretty ingenious. They're insulated, and actually I've been impressed with them. Most days, the boys' plastic ice packs are still cold when they get home from school. I also like that I can throw them in the wash once a week (and let them air dry).
These are some of our lunch essentials. The silicone cupcake liners are indispensable. They're the perfect size to divide all the portions up and they add fun color to their lunch ( you can see that with two boys, the pink ones don't see a lot of use) :) I have small containers from rubbermaid (2oz) that I use for applesauce or yogurt, if I'm not using individual yogurt cups. The plastic utensils are from walmart for about $1 a pair. I like that they snap together, and I'm impressed with their durability. This is our second year using them, and they look brand new.
These are the items that are nice to have, but not necessary. The mini food cutters come in handy for making fun shapes out of pretty much anything: cheese, meats, veggies, fruits. My boys love them. And, the plastic egg molds are a lot of fun. One of my sons takes a hard boiled egg in his lunch most days, and the egg molds makes them into fun shapes. You can find them on Amazon.
And last, but not least, I really like the app LaLaLunchbox. It's $1.99 in the app store. Is it a necessity? No, but it sure makes planning lunches easier, and my boys love that they get to be involved. Plus, I've noticed that since they get to choose what goes in their lunchbox, they eat pretty much their whole lunch everyday. Basically, each kid gets their own virtual lunchbox that they get to fill. The app comes with a large assortment of pictures of foods that they can choose from, but you have complete freedom to delete some or all of their programmed options and add your own. The lunchbox is divided into four sections: fruits, veggies, protein, and snacks. It encourages kids to have a well-rounded lunch. It also generates a grocery list based on their selections, which is nice. My kids have at least one food item from each category everyday, but some days they have more than one. The only thing I have to limit, because of our budget, is what they choose for their main protein dish. If one person picks something like a pasta salad or cold chicken legs, then everyone has to have that at least once that week. We can't afford to cater to ten different options every week :) But, they're free to choose whatever else they want. It's easy enough to buy however many pieces of individual fruit or veggies they request.
And that's how we do lunch. How do you do yours?
