[mom13and7]

I have a quandry. My daughters need to bring lunchs to school because we can not afford to pay full price for regular school lunchs. Regular price is only $1.35 for my youngest and $1.65 for my oldest but multiply that by 20 and that is outside our budget (of course, if you really look at it, eating itself is outside our budget right now). The OPS school system does a pretty good job of offering lunchs my kids like, which is great!; except when you are trying to convince them that instead of an attractive, mouthwatering, well balanced meal like everyone else, they are getting a semi-smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwich or lukish warm left-overs, an apple and maybe some cheezits (storebrand of course and slightly stale because they were bought in bulk and placed into ziplocks). Does anyone have simple, quick, nutritious but most of all, CHEAP, recipes or ideas of what to feed these kids?

[allybama]

Some things that Thomas takes to school...

- raw veggie slices and ranch dip
- turkey rollups (flat bread, turkey, cheese, lettuce, mustard)
- pasta salad
- lunch pizza (pita bread, pizza sauce, shredded cheese, green peppers, ham - all seperate, he puts it together at lunch)
- a can of soup
- rice with black beans and salsa
- caeser salad (again, seperate and he puts it together at lunch)
- tossed salad (can add tuna or sliced chicken for protein)
- sliced boiled eggs
- a bran muffin
- cold cucumber soup
- spinach and raspberry salad

[QueenAngie]

Make your own lunchables - slice lunchmeat and cheese into squares, add crackers.

Sticks for lunch - cheese sticks, ham or turkey cut into 'sticks,' carrot sticks, celery sticks. These are really easy to eat. Add ranch dressing for dipping.

Roll-ups - pickle (or celery or carrot) rolled up by cheese and lunch meat.

Rolos - flatten slice of bread w/ a rolling pin. Top w/ fav cheese slice, meat. (Or top w/ peanut butter, jelly.) Roll. Can stick in a toothpick or two to keep the Rolos rolled.

In a thermos - leftover spaghetti (w/ garlic bread on the side), spaghettios,
raviolies,
hotdog,
leftover soup,
stew.

Pig in a blanket - in the thermos, place 1 hot hotdog or a sausage links. Send along pancakes. Roll hotdog or sausage link in the pancake, add small container of syrup, ketchup, or whatever your son likes.

Big Dipper - sliced apples, celery with peanut butter.

[wenebara]

Have you looked into the school lunch programs for free or reduced lunches? You can get an application form from the school cafeteria.

[pattiewrites]

Definitely get a thermos. They are great for using leftovers for lunch. My girls love to take macaroni and cheese, soup, spaghetti... My kids get sick of sandwiches and they don't like lunch meat and its cheap and easy too.