Mealtime Mama: What to pack in those pesky lunch boxes!

Since it’s the first day of school for many Northwest Arkansas kids, we thought we’d turn our attention to lunch boxes. Specifically, the goodies that go into them. Isn’t it hard to stay inspired throughout the school year? If you’re like us, you end up packing the same thing day after day.

With that in mind, we thought we’d start the year off right and grab some ideas from our Northwest Arkansas friend Christy Walker (here’s her blog) and a few other mamas out in the blogosphere.

Christy is always coming up with the cutest, healthiest foods to go into her daughters’ lunch boxes.

Here’s Addie’s lunch for today:

This LunchBot is packed with Chobani Greek yogurt for kids, a Larabar fruit and nut bar, Triscuits, cherry tomatoes, pistachios, grapes and a peeled hard-boiled egg sporting a bunny face (made with egg shapers, which you can snag from Amazon).

And here’s Addie’s younger sister, Caroline’s, lunch box:

Brand new kindergartner Caroline’s lunch is packed with a mustache-shaped sandwich, a Kashi blackberry graham bar, a cheese stick, cherry tomatoes, pretzels and a raspberry/blueberry mix.

Christy really loves the LunchBots stainless steel food containers line. CLICK here to see some other what-to-put-in-a-lunchbox inspiration from the LunchBots photo gallery.

As far as other ideas for what to put in the lunchboxes, we really love the ideas we found on the Six Sisters’ Stuff blog. Click here to see them all, but here’s one of our faves:

Phineas and Ferb Sandwich!

The Snack Girl blog has some great ideas for healthy lunch box snacks, which we typically have to pack as part of the lunch. Click here to see all the snacks. Here’s one of our faves from her site:

DIY “pizza lunchable” from Snack Girl

We would love to see what you’re packing into YOUR kids’ luncboxes this school year. Send us a pic so we can share with others in this Mealtime Mama space. Email us: mamas AT nwaMotherlode DOT com. We all get bored making lunches, so let’s inspire each other!

And one last thought: For great snack/lunch options that are also super HEALTHY, visit Ozark Natural Foods!

4 Comments

  1. I love these! Thanks for the links. My son gets a home-packed lunch most days because of a wheat and food coloring sensitivity, and it definitely becomes a chore to figure out what to pack when sandwiches and crackers are out for him, and peanut butter is out because of his classmates.

  2. These lunches are so incredibly creative! I particularly love the mustache sandwich. I sorta want one of those for myself!

    Amy
    @Chobani

  3. Laurie,

    I’m so happy this year that my daughter can take peanut butter again. She gets to choose who to sit with at lunch and nobody’s allergic.

    Amy,

    We love the mustache sandwich, too! We have a local store called The Mustache and you can shop there online for all things m-related 🙂

    Rhonda,

    We may be switching. The Lunch Bots are really appealing. Except for the washing out every night 🙂

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