Bored with lunch making? Try some of these great bento lunch ideas!
#1
Double Salad Wrap
Roll-up sandwich
Pasta salad
Fruit salad
#2
See and Cee
Tuna sandwich
A cucumber chain
Sliced melon
#3 Mexican Mango Madness
Bean and cheese
burrito
Sliced mango
Green salad with
dressing on the side
#4
Hearty-Breaky
Whole-wheat fruit pancakes
A hard-boiled or poached egg
100% maple syrup
Steamed yams
#5
Pocket Power
Almond butter and honey pocket sandwich
Steamed carrots & asparagus
Sliced apples
#6
Bagel Deluxe
Half bagel with lowfat cream cheese,
smoked salmon, and a face made of raisin eyes, cashew nose,
and an apple smile
Pan-fried potatoes & herbs
Applesauce
For additional menu ideas, see the
Laptop Lunch User's Guide: Fresh Ideas for Making Wholesome, Earth-friendly
Lunches Your Kids Will Love, pages 56-59. Available in our Online Store.
Using Leftovers
Don't
forget about leftovers! Packing leftovers in your child's lunch
can save you time and energy, and kids love them. When you're deciding
what to cook for dinner, think about how you might incorporate leftovers
into a lunch for the following day. Make a few extra servings for
dinner and set them aside for the next day's lunch. While you're
doing the after dinner kitchen clean-up, place the Laptop Lunches
on the counter. As you're putting away the food, pack some of the
extras in the Laptop Lunches and refrigerate overnight. Here are
a few ideas for making it work:
If you make chicken breasts,
prepare an extra serving and slice it for sandwiches the next
day instead of purchasing deli lunch meat.
If you're making a salad
for dinner, slice some extra vegetables, such as cucumbers, carrots,
bell peppers, and celery, or make an extra undressed salad directly
in the Laptop Lunch. (Make extra dressing and pour it into the
dip container.)
While you're making dinner,
boil a few eggs. Pack the eggs whole, make deviled eggs, or use
them in egg salad.
Make extra pasta, couscous,
or rice and make side salads for lunch by cutting up vegetables
and adding salad dressing.
Grill extra vegetables
and use them in sandwiches.
Make an extra baked potato
and pack it with nutritious toppings.
If you're worried that it might
seem less appealing the following day, consider packing it for lunch
two days later, provided the food will remain fresh for an extra day.
Sandwich fillings
Try some of these sandwich fillings in whole-wheat pocket bread,
on whole-grain bread, bagels, crackers, English muffins, rice cakes
or rolls, or try filling and rolling tortillas or lavash flat bread.
Cheese, avocado, and sprouts
Grilled cheese with cucumber
or sprouts
Shredded carrots, cucumbers, sunflower seeds, avocado, and
cheese
Leftover grilled vegetables
(bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini) with sliced
cheese, goat cheese, or pesto sauce
Cheddar or mozzarella cheese
with apple slices
Brie cheese with mustard
and sprouts
Cheese, tomato, sprouts
or lettuce, and pesto sauce
Leftover turkey loaf with
tomatoes, and lettuce or sprouts
Sliced leftover chicken
or turkey, cranberry sauce, and lettuce
Sliced leftover chicken
or turkey, honey mustard, tomatoes, and lettuce or sprouts
Sliced leftover beef with
mayonnaise or horseradish, sliced tomato and cucumbers
Chicken salad made with
celery, lettuce, and tomato
Tuna/cucumber/green pepper
salad with tomato
Salmon salad with lettuce
or sprouts
Shrimp salad with lettuce
or sprouts
Lowfat cream cheese, and
smoked salmon (with tomato, and red onion)
