MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Lifestyle Expert Jennifer Ott joins Studio A with a ton of great ideas for those back-to-school lunches. 30 days of School Lunches Try these yummy main dishes with your favorite...
As parents all over town rejoice with the start of school season, they still have one complaint: the looming pressure to pack lunches every day.
How do you keep it interesting without it becoming complicated?
How keep things cold enough or warm enough until lunchtime?
How do I come up with new ideas now that school is “nut free?”
Answers all of those questions are here to help you get the school year off to a great start.
(Scroll down for a whole month of lunch ideas!)
First, no matter how interesting your lunches are, they need to be safe and tasty. Cold enough, warm enough, nothing soggy or dried out. Investing in an insulated lunch container is a great step towards keeping your food the right temperature. Ice packs work great to keep things cold, but you can easily freeze a juice box or bottle of water to accomplish the same thing as well without taking up the extra space. Just remember to keep it in a plastic baggie to keep the moisture from soaking anything else in the pack. You can keep other items cold until lunchtime by freezing them ahead of time, like yogurt or string cheese. Prepackaged items come in handy too, like fruit cups, applesauce, pudding, and others that don’t require refrigeration.
As for keeping things hot, investing in a quality thermos is a great idea, not just for liquids like soup. Macaroni & cheese, leftover stew or roast, sloppy joe’s, chili, pasta sauce and lots of other warm foods can be heated in the morning and put in the thermos in order to keep them warm for lunch. There are also microwavable warmers that can keep things in lunch bags warm, just as ice packs keep them cold. Another way to hold in heat? Aluminum foil. Wrap anything hot in aluminum foil, put it into a thermos and it should stay warm until lunch.
Second, anyone can slap some meat between two pieces of bread and make a sandwich, but what happens after that gets boring? Let’s “Unwich” your lunch! Tortilla roll ups, stuffed pita bread, crescent rolls and even pancakes can take the place of boring old bread. For example, adding peanut butter to your Sunday morning pancakes, then reheat on Monday morning and send to school with jelly to spread at lunchtime for a twist on peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Or wrapping a hot dog or pizza fixin’s into crescent roll dough can make a delicious surprise for lunch.
Hot dog puffs: Cut a hot dog in half and wrap each in a triangle of dough, folding it around the sides to enclose the hot dog. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until dough is golden. Wrap in aluminum foil and place in thermos.
Pizza puffs: Use two crescent roll triangles to form a square. In the center, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce in the center of the dough. Add shredded mozzarella cheese and your favorite toppings. Bring the corners of the dough together to form a pocket, pinching the edges of the dough together at the seams. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes until the dough is golden. Wrap in aluminum foil.
Bonus tip: both can be made ahead of time and frozen. Just microwave in the morning, wrap in aluminum foil, place in thermos or insulated lunch bag and send to school.
Third, we are seeing more and more schools go “nut free” and parents looking for vegetarian options. Fun ideas can be applesauce pancake sandwiches with cream cheese and strawberries, pitas filled with hummus and cucumbers, pasta salad, mac and cheese, veggie quesadillas, and more. A fun trick is a salad in a jar: fill a jar with your favorite salad fixin’s, starting with the dressing. Layer in hearty vegetables that create a barrier between the dressing and the lettuce, like cucumbers and tomatoes. Next add cheese and top with lettuce. At school, just dump the salad into the bowl and eat!
Finally, keeping things fun and interesting can be a challenge, no matter how good the food is. Using cookie cutters for younger kids’ meals can be a nice surprise – cut sandwiches and lunch items into fun shapes. Homemade “lunchables” are fun – sectioned food containers with bread squares, meat, cheese and other items for a “build your own” lunch. Changing up how food is packaged can keep things interesting – just like the salad in a jar. Also, if you have kids who sometimes come home with a full lunch bag – having decided not to eat lunch at all, a little incentive can go a long way. Try “cracker jacking” lunches by putting a small prize in the bottom, like a temporary tattoo or a “coupon” for special privileges, like 30 extra minutes of TV or video game time.
One last piece of advice – make leftovers work to your advantage. Double recipes where you can and freeze leftovers for quick lunches later in the week. Getting the kids involved in helping pack their lunch can be helpful too – then you’re sure they are getting what they want and you get a helping hand!
This can get you through the first month –
30 days of School Lunches
Try these yummy main dishes with your favorite sides: fruit, applesauce, yogurt, string cheese, chips, pretzels, yogurt covered cranberries, trail mix, raisins, peanuts, granola bars, snack mix, fruit cup, dried fruit, veggie chips, celery and carrot sticks, etc.
Waffle Iron Grilled Cheese: arrange 2 buttered slices of bread on waffle iron, butter side down. Add Cheese and cover with 2 more buttered bread slices, butter side up. Close waffle iron and cook on medium/high heat until brown & crispy. Wrap in aluminum foil to keep warm.
Macaroni N Cheese – heat before school & send in thermos.
Pizza puffs: use 2 crescent roll triangles to form a rectangle. Fill with pizza sauce, cheese and your favorite toppings. Bring the corners of the dough up and seal at the seams. Back on a cookie sheet at 375 10 minutes or until golden brown. Wrap in aluminum foil or cool and freeze in freezer safe container until use. Thaw and microwave, wrap in aluminum foil.
Cheese quesadillas
Peanut butter pancake & jelly sandwiches
Build your own lunchable – crackers, meat and cheese slices in divided container.
BYO BLTA – Build your own BLTA: wrap warm bacon in paper towel and then aluminum foil. Package tomato, lettuce and sliced avocado separately (spray with a little lemon juice to keep fresh). Toast bread and send to school to build at lunchtime.
PB&Honey Wrap – Tortillas covered in peanut butter & honey (add bananas for extra yum!)
Pita bread with hummus & cucumbers
Salad in a jar
Applesauce pancake sandwiches stuffed with cream cheese & strawberries
Meatball sandwich (hello leftovers!)
Hot dog rolls: cut hot dogs in half and wrap each in a triangle of crescent dough, folding it around the sides to enclose the hot dog. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until dough is golden brown. Wrap in aluminum foil while warm. Don’t forget ketchup in a small container to dip!
Sandwich cutouts – use cookie cutters to cut fun shapes into your favorite sandwich
Ham & cheese pitas
Chicken tacos: rotisserie chicken (or leftovers) chopped, heated and put in thermos. Containers filled with shredded cheese, salsa, etc. Build at lunchtime with tortillas.
Oatmeal & brown sugar. Keep it warm in the thermos and freeze yogurt to thaw by lunchtime to add extra flavor.
Greek pita: rotisserie chicken (or leftovers) chopped, heated and put in thermos. Containers of feta cheese, cucumbers, and dressing kept cold. Build at lunchtime with pita bread.
Yogurt smoothies with granola. Blend & freeze ahead of time – thaw by lunch!
BBQ Chicken pizza puffs: use 2 crescent roll triangles to form a rectangle. Fill with chicken mixed with bbq sauce and mozzarella cheese. Bring the corners of the dough up and seal at the seams. Back on a cookie sheet at 375 10 minutes or until golden brown. Wrap in aluminum foil or cool and freeze in freezer safe container until use. Thaw and microwave, wrap in aluminum foil.
Sloppy joe sandwich: wrap bun separately, heat sloppy joe mixture and send in thermos to build sandwich at lunch.
Burger bites: cut hamburger or cheeseburger in half and wrap each in crescent dough, folding it around the sides to enclose. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until dough is golden brown. Wrap in aluminum foil while warm. Don’t forget ketchup in a small container to dip!
Chili: Heat and send to school in thermos, along with shredded cheese and favorite toppings.
Pasta salad: cook noodles as usual, rinse in cold water to stop further cooking (no mushy noodles here!). Mix with favorite veggies & meat, like salami and mozzarella with spinach. Package salad dressing separately to add at school.
Taco pizzas: unpack crescent dough leave in roll shape. Slice in 1 inch circles and flatten into mini pizza crust shapes. Top with salsa, taco cheese and cooked chicken or ground beef (leftovers???). Bake at 350 until crust is golden and cheese is melted. Wrap in aluminum foil while still hot.
Soup: send your favorite hearty soup in a thermos and a separate container of oyster crackers. Great on a cold winter day!
Spaghetti. Heat spaghetti sauce and send in thermos. Cook noodles and rinse with cold water to prevent over cooking. Send in separate container to mix at lunchtime.
Roast beef pitas: Load a pita full of deli roast beef and swiss cheese
Bagel sandwich: toast your bagel and wrap separately. Heat breakfast sausage with cheese and wrap with aluminum foil. Build sandwich at lunchtime.
Caprese pita: Sliced mozzarella cheese, basil leaves, fresh tomato and salad dressing, all packaged separately. Fill pita bread at lunchtime.
BONUS 31ST IDEA: Pesto: warm and send to school with noodles, pita bread and chicken, tortillas and cheese, or fill a crescent roll dough with it along with mozzarella cheese and bake. YUMMY!
For demos & tips, watch my segment from Studio A on Fox 6 from last year!