When it's time for my weekly meal planning, I usually take special requests from the kids, even though I can predict what they'll ask for. They like being part of the process and feel like they're choosing what they eat that week, which means they're more likely to enjoy it. Since this past week was extra-special with school starting, we let them pick their favorites for lunch too.
Thankfully, there were no strange or impossible requests.
So we stocked up on vegetables and fruit that I could chop and prep for the entire week (carrots, cucumber, grapes, watermelon), some healthy side items (Pirate Booty, nuts, dried fruit) and planned our main item around what they wanted: leftovers from the special dinners they chose, and sandwiches.
They reported that the Mac n' Cashew Cheezy Wheezy and our Mexican Chicken Torte both tasted great hours later in the new Thermos jars we bought for this year.
And sandwich day was a big hit with other new lunch gear like the Planet Box and Snapware containers with muffin cups.
Patrick's PB&J Lunch Day in his Planet Box
Marci's "Big Girl" Lunch (just like big brother's)
After struggling to find a BPA-free water container that included a cover for the drinking area (slight germaphobe here), we are all really happy to return to Sigg bottles. The size is perfect, my son loves the design, and it's easy to clean. We've owned enough of these from pre-BPA-free days to know how durable they are too. Glad they got their act together to win back our business.
I'm calling this a great week for school lunches, and dinners. What were some favorites of yours from this week? Any new ideas to share with us for next week? Tell us below or hop over to the Feed Our Families Facebook page.
Photo Credits: Feed Our Families
Disclosure: I met the founder of Planet Box, Caroline Miros, online and she offered to share one of her lunch kits with us. I wasn't asked to write or review or necessarily do anything in return for receiving the product. My son enjoys using his Planet Box and it's passed our quality and kid-safe tests.
Our kids need to eat, whether we're prepared to feed them or not. Some days it would be great if meals just created themselves, but let's get real. At Feed Our Families we'll share new ideas, recipes and inspiration to help make meals happen in your home. 
We are still in transition for our lunches….short days and lots of “no” days but we are working on it! I love these trays and snapware. I am going to have to plan on my new lunch bags around these! Great post!
the Planet Box looks sweet! sure beats the old style lunch pale where everything seem to smash together into a glob of whatchamacallit.
Love the trays and use of muffin cups. Things don’t spill? So far on day three of lunches little man has had grilled cheese/turkey (on the forman) cut in the shape of a flower, applesauce or grapes, peas or cucumber. And wants that everyday he has “cold lunch”. He will have “hot lunch” on Thursday, which is mac and cheese day. Next week he says he wants buriitos everyday, except hot lunch day which will be asian chicken and rice.
Bobby – I like that the Planet Box keeps everything separated in it’s own little place. I think he likes the visual look of things when he opens it up…and the cool magnets.
Courtney – We put the muffin cups in a Snap Ware sandwich box that fits it almost perfectly so the contents don’t spill. That’s great that he gets to choose what he wants and be a part of the process…good job!
There’s been a lot of great conversation on school lunch gear over at the Facebook page too.
http://facebook.com/feedourfamilies
why not use Kleen Kanteen? They’re stainless steel rather than aluminum (sigg). Aren’t you concerned about the aluminum-Alzheimer’s correlation?
Hi Diane. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about with our Klean Kanteen is that the mouth piece (where he drinks from) is exposed (not covered) and their lunches get tossed around, handled, etc. So it’s likely that someone, something or ?? could touch where he drinks. For sport events & school, I prefer that the kids’ bottles have a covered drink spout. I’m funny that way.
But I use my Klean Kanteen daily & we have a bunch of them around here.