Non-Perishable Nutritious Lunches for a 4 year old

We send PB&J or grill cheese, or cheese crip, or tater tots and hot dog with a ketchup packet. mini carrotts and ranch, cheese nips, corn dog, frozen burrito heated up in the morning or pizza rolls, ham & cheese sandwich. Just to mix it up a bit! :)

There is no way to be a perfect mother, but a million ways to be a good one!

Try making sandwiches using tortillas or pita bread for a fun change. My son LOVES hummus sandwiches on pita with cucumber slices inside. He also really like fruit slices with a yogurt for dipping. You can send almost anything if you put blue ice in there!

Cherry tomatoes, carrots, frozen blueberries in a food canister to help keep it cold, frozen go-gerts. If you are able to add a freezer pack, cheese is great. You don't have to buy anything fancy, but use your cookie cutters to make some fun shapes - works with peanut butter sandwiches too. We have lots of shapes and my girls take turns picking out them out. Pretzels, trail mix, raisins, mandrin oranges, jello, nuts.

When my oldest was going from 1/2 kindergarten into 1st grade I helped with lunch duty the first week of school. I am so glad I did. I would have so over packed her lunch. They really don't need as much as I think we can give them.

I hope this helps and I am going to check back because I am sure other Moms will have some great suggestions!

KarilouMomof2 is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com living in Tempe. Her daughters are 9 and 6.

PB&J is usally the safest bet, but sometimes I'd send my kids with a ham & cheese (use mustard - never mayo!) sandwich. Or I would forgo the sandwich, and do ants on a log - celery stuffed with PB - or cheez whiz and send raisins on the side... carrots sticks were always a favorite with prepacked ranch. To keep everything cold, I would freeze their capri sun overnight. It thaws out during the day, and keeps the food cold.

You might even ask him and see what he says. I always try to provide variety for my daughter with the meals, but actually I have learned that she could eat the same darn thing day after day and she would actually prefer that. Some kids simply prefer the predicitability over the variety.

WalMart has -- I don't know exactly what they're called -- little chiller things about the same size as a deck of cards. You put them in the freezer, and then you stick one into an insulated lunch bag, and everything stays cold.

That opens up a bunch of menu alternatives.

I buy block cheese (colby, swiss, chedder, monterrey) etc. and slice it in small cracker-size pieces and give them some crackers (I usually have a few styles on hand) and they make little cheese & cracker sandwiches.