Ugh, not looking forward to making lunch every day next year when my oldest starts Kindergarten. I am so not creative. This year, lunch is optional at preschool and since I have to make lunch for myself and my other daughter I have only let her stay three times so far this year. Every time I pack peanut butter and jelly, apple slices and a veggie. I am concerned about other options spoiling in her lunch box during the morning, perhaps a little too much. I don’t let anyone else prep raw meat or chicken in my kitchen for fear of contaminating surfaces and making us all sick.
Thanks for the great pics and inspiration! Sorry I don’t have anything great to share. 🙂

I struggle with making lunches. My son wants PB&J every-single-day… if I would allow him to sustain himself on nutella, peanut butter, jelly, and honey, he would be perfectly happy. My only rad lunch discovery is that my kids like V8 and costco sells mini cans of V8… voila, veggies!

I have always been of the opinion that food is beautiful and artsy. My husband thinks I’m nuts after I take photos of my zillionth loaf of bread, but it’s so gosh darn pretty! Nici, can you also post the corn chowder recipe?? Thanks!!

I try my best to shop locally & would love to buy more Montana brands! Do you find them at the Good Food Store or a local chain? We try to stock up when we’re in Misspula but can’t seem to find many Montana brands where we are. As a 21 year old with food allergies, I’m always packing lunches & totally agree on presentation! In fact, one of your instagram with beets reminded me just how much I love them! I tracked some down my next time shopping! Yum!

I’ve been meaning to make my own yogurt too – but haven’t quite done it yet. When I do – I’ll use this recipe: http://www.annies-eats.com/2012/03/08/diy-greek-yogurt/

(It’s not my blog – just one I use for a lot of baking and a few yummy vegetarian recipes).

Totally pinning this. Thank you so much!! I always love the lunches you post on IG!

We love Laptop Lunches for older kids… I’ve been using the same box since my 5th grader was in 1st grade and now I have two kids using them. It’s a worthy investment (and the ladies who run it are just down the street from where I used to live, so I always want to spread the word on their awesome lunches). I like how they can pop it all open, assess what they have to eat, between snack and lunch, and nothing gets lost in the bottom of a sack. We love their lunch jars (thermos), too.

What a fantastic collage all those lunches make! I so enjoy seeing on IG what Margot is having for lunch. I always used to put notes in my kids boxes but haven’t for ages. Must start again. I have definitely lost my enthusiasm for packed lunches over the years. I have 5 school aged children and a husband for whom I also make lunch every day. Another reason to love the school holidays, no lunches to pack! Husband has to fend for himself then.

Can I ask you, does Margot get any grief from other kids for her lunch? Mine have been told they have smelly breath if I give them houmous! My 6 year old has a container of chopped mushrooms and cucumber for his veg tomorrow and as I was packing it I wondered if he might get a few remarks. I’d love to know what Margot would say. I’m sure she’d come back with a very smart remark! Sarah x

My husband being Japanese, we always have seaweed around and have been feeding it to our daughter since she was about 9 or 10 months old I think. She loves it, too! It does have a lot of minerals and the Japanese say it’s good for your hair, and I may be crazy but I think her thin, spotty infant hair really filled in nicely after she started eating it!

For you, mama, maybe try roasting some sheets in the oven or over the stove top, then brushing with sesame oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.

Or just stick to sushi 🙂

We live in Japan so my daughters’ lunches usually contain onigiri (rice “ball” with either tuna or salmon filling, wrapped in nori (seaweed)), freshly cut fruits and vegetables and then some senbi (unsweetened ricecrackers). They also get nori just to snack on and they love it. Once a week there is pizza day at school so they get pizza but I send them with fruits and vegetable as well. And then I’ve made cinnamon rolls (almost sugarfree), bananabread and something special like that on Fridays.

Our mornings are quite hectic but after 3 years now, I’m getting pretty good at finishing everything before we need to go out the door at 8.10.

Thank you for sharing your pictures, they are very inspiring

Oh what a great post! So inspiring to see all of the wonderful, healthy lunches you make! I love the variety! I have a 23 month old baby girl and I make lunch for her for daycare every day- I am always on the prowl for new ideas. I often get “stuck in a rut” and run out of ideas so this post is fantastic!

I always try to give her one veggie and one fruit at lunch (plus staples like pasta, sandwiches, etc.)
Some of our favorites staples are below (lunch is usually a combination of these):

-Sweet potato slices baked with a little olive oil and garlic powder (sounds weird but she loves it!)
-Edamame/Peas or Lima Beans
-Barilla Plus pasta with white bean tomato sauce
-Butternut squash ravioli
-Black bean and cheese quesadillas
-Turkey and cheese sandwich on whole grain bread pressed on panini press
-Almond butter sandwich
-Beets (I love the brand Love Beets sold at Whole Foods- vinegar infused beets are a fave!)
-Asparagus cooked with olive oil, lemon and some parm cheese
-Honey roasted carrots
-Cucumber slices and/or pretzels with hummus
– Kind Bars- she especially loves the Apple Cinnamon kind
-Gnocchi with swiss chard and tomato sauce (sautee the swiss chard with garlic, add tomatoes and sprinkle with parm cheese- one of her favorites. She loves the swiss chard).

I have been really lucky in that she tends to be fairly adventurous with food. My secrets are garlic, olive oil, lemon and a sprinkle of parm cheese. She will eat any veggie if cooked with those ingredients! Tonight i cooked some raw spinach that way and she devoured it. 🙂

Thanks for the inspiration!

My daughter loves the dried seaweed as well. The lunch photos are great…I’m definitely going to pin this post, as inspiration for next year’s (kindergarten) lunches. Thinking we’ll make some of the pumpkin biscuits tomorrow…my fresh pumpkin puree needs using up and my kids LOVE biscuits. I’m jealous that you can leave snacks on the cupboard. My kid is such a hoarder..they’d be gone in an instant (guess she’d do well in a natural disaster :p ).

Very good.Thank you very much

Mucho, mucho thank you for this jolt of positive lunchbox inspiration! All your hyperlinking was very helpful and may have added some serious good karma to the virtual lunch you pack for all of us. Thanks!

I love the interaction on this new blog of yours! I loved packing your & Travis’ lunches~mainly because you both so appreciated them. I always thought that during lunch that a little bit of me would be there with you! xoxo, your mama

This is a test to see if I can leave a comment….tried before, but didn’t work.

This is so great, thank you for posting recipes! I follow your pictures on IG and am inspired by your lunches! I also pack our girl’s lunches everyday and put a little note either in the lunchbox or I write on a container if they happen to have something disposable that day. We discovered thermoses this year too and LOVE them! It is so great to be able to send something hot for lunch.
Some favorites are:
-Veggies (typically carrots, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers -all colors, broccoli, cauliflower) and hummus are a favorite-Spaghetti (homemade sauce and, if we have them, homemade noodles.) Our sauce recipe is delic if anyone is looking for one!) and noodles
-Chicken and couscous (sometimes I will make this with veggies if we need extra flavor or servings)
-Little sandwiches cut into shapes
-All fruit and I recently discovered a great dip – honey and peanut butter blended together, it’s a little sweet but oh, so creamy!

Thanks for the post, it gave me some great ideas!

I’m going to ‘Favorite’ this one for good ideas for food! Thanks, Nici.

I love this post so much.
I dont need to pack lunches yet, but I truly can’t wait! I am so excited!
But what we eat at home. Lots of chick peas and black beans. We put them in quesadillas, along side cut up veggies, in soup, into salads… if there is one thing my kids will always eat, its beans.
We do plain yogurt mixed with frozen fruit that we thawed first, so the juices make it extra yummy. I love the idea of mixing jam and whatever else with yogurt.
Fruit salads is always a crowd pleaser. Cut up a few pieces of fruit and voila!
Again, love this post and love the comments. So great to get ideas from others!

I wish you would pack my lunch every day!!! We are really, really boring and this makes me want to do better. I’m just so thankful my kids eat veggies, but you take it to a WHOLE NOTHER LEVEL, my dear. Not sure if someone mentioned this, but you can get guacamole in indiv packs so that is good with meat slices or veggies.

Sister, you just became my lunch packin’ guru! I’m taking notes. 🙂 x

I love these and look forward to seeing them on IG. Your girls really do have a mature pallet.
We started using the Planet Box this school year and my son loves it as much as I do. Packing his lunch is one of my favorite nighttime activities. And I feel just like your Mom did….. it’s my way of “being there” for part of his day.

My girls and I tried that seaweed at costco a few weeks ago. Eww www not a fan either 😉
awesome lunches she eats.

We make this yogurt all the time, using our crockpot and whole milk. I love that it can be made in such a big batch and so easy!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.ca/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html

Thanks for the inspiration !!!

I wish you packed my lunches for me everyday.

So inspiring- thank you! What thermos are you using? I’ve had bad luck with leaking and cleaning my past two 🙁 We love Kids Konserve containers- they are light, stainless steal and truly leak-free! We’ve had the same set for 3 years now and they are holding up great! I should try their thermos..

How do you save your bookmarks in Firefox when transferring from one computer to another?

One more thing that I want to share at this time is that, whatsoever you are using free blogging service but if you don update your blog on daily basis then it no more worth. reduce weight http://frutaplantahgjk.b13.hu/

Thanks for your write-up. One other thing is individual American states have their particular laws that affect householders, which makes it quite difficult for the the nation’s lawmakers to come up with the latest set of rules concerning foreclosures on householders. The problem is that each state provides own legislation which may work in an adverse manner with regards to foreclosure policies.

Hello my family member! I wish to say that this article is amazing, great written and come with almost all vital infos. I’d like to look more posts like this.

naturally like your web site nevertheless you have to take a look at the spelling on quite a couple of of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I in finding it extremely bothersome to inform the truth then again I will surely come again again.

Everything is extremely open getting a precise clarification of the issues. It was definitely informative. Your internet website is extremely helpful. Thanks for sharing!

Needed to put you a bit of remark so as to thank you more than again for your stunning guidelines you have shared in this case. It’s been truly generous of individuals like you to create freely what numerous individuals would have provided for sale as an e book to help make some profit on their own, especially given that you might have done it within the event you considered necessary. These creative ideas additionally served like a easy way to realize that numerous individuals have a similar interest exactly the same as my personal own to figure out significantly much more in terms of this problem. I think there are some much more pleasurable moments up front for people who discover out your website.

we like to honor numerous other world-wide-web websites on the internet, even though they aren?t linked to us, by linking to them. Below are some webpages really worth checking out

You are my aspiration, I own few web logs and infrequently run out from brand . “No opera plot may be wise, for individuals don’t sing when they are feeling sensible.” by W. H. Auden.

Whenever the girl was a little one, Nicoletta was basically sucked in by way of the woman’s granny to make sure that the woman’s new mother might possibly remarry. michael kors for sale http://michaelkorsbagsforsales.weebly.com

i’ve been taking the fruta planta for 3 weeks and 3 days and have shed a few lbs after i mean a few less then 5 but any way i bought this 3 ballerina tea from the chinese store it says it makes you go everytime you drink the tea my question is can i do both products and solutions

I’ll immediately take hold of your rss feed as I can’t to find your e-mail subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please allow me recognize so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.

Hello, i think that i saw you visited my web site so i came to a??return the favora??.I am trying to find things to enhance my site!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!

I’m there along with you on this.

This is five star materials you’ve written right here. It’s attention-grabbing, advantageous and informative content material you simply don’t see frequently nowadays. Thanks for sharing it. acne treatment http://www.acnecyst.net

Thank you a lot for giving everyone an extraordinarily nice opportunity to read posts and weblog posts from this website. It is generally very excellent plus jam-packed having a great deal of enjoyable for me personally and my office acquaintances to go to your website around the least 3 times each week to read via the fresh advice you’ve. And definitely, I’m whatsoever times pleased with all of the amazing information served by you. Particular four tips on this web page are ultimately the extremely best I’ve had. anonymous proxy http://www.danproxy.com

 we’re also article simply freelance text a short article for many people type, Beginning with the apple company contour The gown was comprised of black or white embelleshment and fine nylon uppers paneling, Gaining printed a fast paced one

I understand your comments ought to there’s some successful top of the range fashion accessory vistas specifically in sth cameras “That’s not me quite a spender onto costumes

I love such buy neverwinter astral diamonds..