My 8 year old hates cafeteria food... Do you have any "fun" idea foods to put in his lunch box???

we have this little thermos canister, so my daughter has a hot lunch every day...

things we pack:

-mashed potatoes

-spaghetti

-meatballs w/ sauce (and them little 1-bite buns to put them on)

-premade taco chicken (from the fridge section at the grocery store) w/ the fixin's on the side

-ghnocci (spelling?)

-chili

-creamy soups

-hotdogs (yes...hotdogs!- I slice them into 4 strips & put them into the warmed canister. be sure to pack a packet of ketchup!)

you can pack most any dinner leftover too!!

discovering the canister has been a BLESSING... our oldest hates the schools food too & wasn't eating! she likes (and I quote!) "real food"

http://www.thermos.com/Product_detail.aspx?CatCode...

you put really hot (or cold) water in it for a few minutes then dup & put your food in...it truly does keep hot & cold stuff in the proper mannor!

Who is the parent, you or the 8 year old? Who is doing the raising, the parent or the child? Who is suppose to be teaching what is right or wrong, good or bad, you or your 8 year old?

Fix your child a healthy lunch, put it in its lurch box, and tell it to eat it. NO EXCUSES! When they are old enough to pay rent, buy food and clothing, then they can take part in the decision making process. Hopefully, by then, you will have parented your child so that it makes intelligent decisions and is neither rude or disrespectful.

What you do now is what you will have later! The correct diet is the right diet! Too, stop putting YOUR responsibility off on the world! The only one responsible for your child's diet is YOU!

Your child does not hate cafeteria food, it knows that you listen to that crap and so far you have supported the crap.

Small bagel with cream cheese and jelly

cottage cheese with pineapple

homemade bean burrito (just roll a tortilla with some fried beans, try to buy a mexican brand, they taste better)

turkey wrap

the classic carrots, PB jelly,

grapes

strawberries

pocket pita bread with ham and cheese

macaroni salad (macaroni, small dice celery, ham also small) and add sour cream or mayo.

Well, this is MY wish list. My daughter prefers to take every single day of the week a PB and J sandwich!!! lol

I'm not sure how much fun these foods are, but it would seem to me things that don't mean bringing home a dirty Tupperware container would be more fun than foods that involve lugging home dirty dishes.

I always relied heavily on the following: Cheese that is packaged in smaller portions (like Cracker Barrel in "cracker sized" individual wraps). Applesauce unsweetened and in all flavors. Fruits cups with the fruit in water, although maybe kids would like the ones in gel. (Eew - not me or my kids)

Bumble Bee makes the little single-serve tuna salad that comes in a package with a little spoon and some crackers. Its not bad. There are also those small foil packets of tuna or other seafoods in the tuna aisle. Jif Peanutbutter now comes in mini-containers, and I don't know if its still around, but Skippy had peanutbutter in a tube (maybe not great for 8-year-olds with a sense of humor).

Dinner rolls, the party-sized rye and pumpernickel bread, rice cakes in any number of flavors, a baggie of Cheerio O's, any of the single-serve packets of crackers or bread sticks with or without cheese. This is gross, but my daughter used to love Vienna Sausages, which come in that little can with the pop lid.

Kids often like a baggie of grapes or a tangerine (easy to peel) or a banana (also easy to peel). Any of the many kinds of nuts, sunflower seeds, soy nuts, etc.

If you have the right thermos there's always soups or any number of hot meals that come in cans (Again, eew - but kids often like them). If there are any healthier frozen dishes you could microwave them and put them in a wide-mouth thermos bottle.

If you have a way to keep them cold, yogurts or yogurt drinks. You could add his favorite coldcut (if you folks eat them) to any of the above breads.

You could do up a batch of his favorite rice or pasta, freeze it in small portions, thaw it the night before and put it in the thermos. If he likes cheesy stuff make cheese sauces. If he likes tomato stuff do tomato sauces. If he likes Chinese food, do teriyaki sauces. Any rice with his stir-fried vegetables over it would be good in the thermos.

That's all I can think of....

My cousin hates cafeteria food to so what my sister-in-law did was she got little chicken pieces or what ever meat and she cut them with cookie cutters in to fun animal shapes and then she made a cute little smilly face fruit and jelly

send them with "cool fruit" pomegradents, peaches, left overs like baked spaghetti, or roast beef sandwiches (from leaftover roast nights) You should pat your self on the back cause your chid doesn't want to eat junk!!! the sky is the limit. Go online and get some lunch recipes, or ask your child to do some research in recipe books or online. Ask some of your co-workers for some fresh ideas to bring to your home.

First of all, good for him...lunches from home are always healthier! How about cream cheese or peanut butter on celery sticks, granola bars, yogurt cups (children's size), or whole-wheat crackers with ham and cheese in between? He'll feel special knowing that you picked out fun things just for him!

My kids loved Lunchables (too expensive) so I made my own at home and packed them in their lunches. You can recreate these very easily. Just eyeball some of them at the grocery and then buy what you need to make them.

you additionally could make an common burrito by utilising having an entire wheat tortilla, including refried beans and cheese and rolling it up after which you would be able to bake it or warmth it in a pan on the range. My daughter enjoyed this as a 365 days previous. you basically chop it into products after that. additionally, attempt making candy potato pancakes. they are candy sufficient, you do no longer % syrup yet you would be able to desire to upload applesauce to the right or yogurt. Then basically chop into products. i might additionally basically make pasta and right with a low sodium tomato sauce. notably uninteresting, yet all my youngsters enjoyed this as a newborn. it is messy to enable them to consume it with their arms, yet once you do no longer placed too plenty sauce, it is not so undesirable. or you would be able to desire to easily do a sampler: bits of total grain bread, little products of poultry, bits of cheese, chopped fruit, and so on. I additionally might scramble up eggs each so often. and that i made campbell's bean with Beaverbrook soup (because of the fact i like it) and then i might basically drain out the soupy area and supply the beans.

fun? Food does not have to be fun for an 8 year old. I usually give my 8 year old a sandwich, some carrot sticks and fruit.