Seeking Healthy Food Choices for On-the-go Lunches

My daughter takes a lunch box to school and it sits around for a couple of hours before she eats. I put in a cold bottled water or juice box which keeps the contents cool. The healthy snacks I pack in with the cold drink include 1) strawberries with the leaves only cut off; 2) sliced minicucumbers; 3) string cheese; 4) pre-packaged carrots; 5) fat free pudding packs - for the calcium; 6) pre-peeled clementine oranges in a baggie; 7) granola - I like barenaked because it is chunkier and easier to eat with fingers; 8) natural fruit bar or fruit roll up; 9) whole small apple; 10) peanut butter that is pre-packaged in small container for on-the-go.

A few things my kids like are:
- hummus and pitas
- rice crackers (big box from Costco stays in the car)
- Annie's Cheddar Bunnies are healthier than Goldfish crackers so we get those
- string cheese
- healthier markets and Costco have Fruit Leathers which are way better than Fruit Rollups (although more sticky, so keep a baby wipe handy)
- go to the bulk section of the market and get some trail mix, sesame sticks, granola, dried fruit - all these things can be kept in containers in the car.

As far as eating out, many Subway sandwiches are $5 now, and more often than not we end up at a sit down restaurant sharing an adult meal because it's cheaper and better food from a nutrition standpoint than eating at fast food chains. Just don't ever think that your toddler is too young for any "adult food". The more variety you introduce now the more well-rounded and nutritionally balanced he will be as he gets older, and when you make a new meal at home he won't think it's weird and be afraid to try it.

I too wanted to highly recommend the laptop lunch. I sell it at my store and have one personally for my 1st grader. I have had more than one parent tell me how their "picky" eater will eat foods packed in the laptop lunch they wouldn't normally eat on a plate, something to do with the compartmentalization. On a second note california innovations sells a great insulated lunchbox that fits the laptop lunch PERFECTLY!

It IS tough, isn't it??? - I am a mom/grandma that has spent years transporting children- and fast food is bad--- ''lunchables'' are worse -- so much money for so little food value-

So here's my best finds
fast food- Burger king now offers Mac n cheese - also sliced apples
Wendys' has better food, and offers baked potatoes - messy but really good with their Wendy's chili-
Kentucky Fried Chicken has snack sized chicken sandwiches that are the right size for little children

Grocery stores - now carry fruit and cottage cheese pacs,
the little pacs of sliced deli meat give protein ( and salt, and additives) - I carry a jar of Peanut butter in the car and plastic spoons - as I can give a spoon of p'butter to boost the protein value ( with offers of a cookie if the p-butter eater is careful)

Blessings- as you can imagine the inside of my car looks like little children spend a lot of time there- but they DO - so what?

( and I am sitting with a pad to get more good ideas - you ladies never let me down!!!

love,
Old Mom
aka J.

Usually I'm trying to plan my day so we will be home at lunch. Yes, there are times that we had to eat lunch somewhere else. I do usually go for a sandwich place, a buffet type place or a restaurant that I know. Our lunch choices there are places where you can choose what you will have on your sandwich, or you can pick up your food (I go for soup and salad) or somewhere where we can eat roasted chicken or backed salmon. Hope I was helpful.

During the summer we eat out at the park or the beach a lot. This is what we usually pack:

PBJ - very portable and if you just use a teeny bit of jelly not a big deal. If you put thin peanut butter on both slices then just a bit of jelly--it won't soak in so it's like you have a lot more than you really do

Cheese: there are lots of organic cheese sticks out there or baby belle or Tillamook makes wrapped snack sizes (Tillamoo)

Cut up fruit: I usually pack about three small containers of different fruits

grapes are good - no cutting (depending on the age of the child)

once the clementines & mandarin oranges come back those are great to have for snack attacks

My son won't eat raw veggies (or hardly any veggies frankly!) but snap peas are a good one

There's a great product called "Just Peas" which are just dried peas - he likes those a lot. They make a lot of different things (the bananas/strawberries are a fave as well)

I would just say if you're running errands pack a lunch and if you don't need it--most can turn into lunch or snack at home anyway.

Good luck

We have similar problems, with the addition of food sensitivities. Ugh. I've started using OBENTEC Laptop Lunches - their website has some great ideas, along with a wonderful product (although pricy). They are available at some Whole Foods (Redmond is out, Bellevue still has stock)

The favorite snack at our house right now are the Pecan Nut Crackers from Blue Diamond (I think that is the brand).

T.