{The Lunch Box Life :: Menu Ideas}

So, we have almost reached the end of term one for kindergarten. WOW! I know I had two days a week at prep last year with my 'big' boy to practice this new 'lunchbox life' idea. But the five days a week was definitely a new idea. And I am LOVING it!

Each day I have to pack lunch and what his school calls "Fruit Break". This has to be fresh fruit/ veg as a snack at 9:30. It has helped students attention and healthy intake also.
This is a typical example:

 
On Wednesdays (only for term 1) the students have half days and so those days I only pack fruit break and morning tea.


A few tools that have helped so far have been:
- Finding the right lunchbox (we love the ones from nudie)
- A compact size thermos
- Silicon cupcake 'patty pans' (these can be quite expensive, but instead of paying $25+ for 1 dozen, I found them for $2.50 at the dollar store)
- Cookie cutters of random shapes/ sizes.
- Air popcorn popper (you can pick these up for about $15)
- Mini cutlery (I often find normal size hard to fit in. So whenever I come across them I save them for the lunchbox).

Here are a few lunch ideas that have been successful in our house.

Idea 1: Ham and Cheese Crust-less Quiches
These are made much easier in this nifty little thermos I found at trade secret for $5 (when buying our cool straw cups). When making dinner the night before, whisk an egg and any fillings you have on hand and put into a silicon cupcake 'patty pan'. Put into oven with dinner and cook them and then heat up in microwave before putting in thermos in the morning, or you could serve cold also.


Idea 2: Chicken Salad Sandwiches
These were mentioned in a previous post about BBQ chickens. It is such a delicious idea made very handy by using the cute little mini dinner rolls for little people.


Idea 3: Morning Tea Assortment (Wednesday Idea)
Here I used the silicon cupcake patty pans to create a 'bento' style buffet. Here are a few corn chips, strawberries, crackers and 'robot' cheese. He loves it when I leave notes in his lunch box and this day I did it on his banana and he thought it was hilarious :)


Idea 4: Full Lunch Box Set-up :::: Option 1
The Strawberry Cubes are found with the dried fruit in the supermarket and for the Chewy Raisin and Oat Biscuits recipe, click here.


Idea 5 : Full Lunch Box Set-up ::: Option 2



Idea 6: Full Lunchbox Set up ::: Option 3



There are many other options that have been winners, so I may do a sequel to this post later.
However, in the meantime, what are your winners in your lunchboxes? Share your ideas below, on the Homemade Facebook page or on twitter .

Lauren x