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Packing Back to School Lunches

August 13, 2013
If you are like me, with a picky eater, packing school lunch happens each and every school day. So, I wanted to share a few things that might make your job as lunch-packer a little easier and your child's lunch a little more enjoyable! 

First up are the coolest lunchbox notes ever from Lunchbox Love. These little gems make it incredibly easy to let our kids know just how much we love them and that we are thinking of them throughout the day. Knowing you can put a smile on your child's face in the middle of their school day is absolutely priceless. And, because if your children are like mine and don't want all the lovey-mushy stuff that apparently embarrasses them now, Lunchbox Love also have cards for teens and tweens, trivia cards, and joke cards! They've got all your bases covered with enough Lunchbox Love to last all year long!

Check 'em out on Facebook and Twitter and get more fun lunchbox love inspired ideas on my Pinterest board!



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We, of course, want our kids to eat healthy during the day, so packing nutritious goodness into our kids' lunches is also important. I recently discovered Balance Bar mini energy bars and I think they are perfect for kids' lunches. At only 100 calories and packed with 23 vitamins and minerals, they really are the perfect lunch treat to help our kiddos make it through the rest of the day. My son's favorite? Cookie Dough! (I'm personally a fan of the Double Chocolate Brownie!)

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We also want packing lunches to be quick and easy for us, right? Land O Frost makes that very doable with their new Premium Lunch Meat Minis. They come in turkey or ham flavors, are less than 100 calories per serving, and are gluten-free! What's not to love?

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Lastily, we need to make sure the lunchbox our kids are taking with them is keeping their food insulated during the day. Good housekeeping did a study of several lunchboxes to test them on whether or not they kept food cool after 2 hours. (2 hours is the length of time perishable food will go bad). And NONE of them past the test. Yikes! While several Lands End lunchboxes were on their list, I recently purchased this one from Lands End and was happily surprised that it did keep food cold for the 5 hours it claims to! 

And, there are some things that you can do to help make sure your child's lunch stays cold:
  • freeze whole fruit the night before
  • freeze drink boxes 
  • fill reusable water bottles half full with water and freeze the night before
  • make sandwiches the night before and refrigerate 
  • yogurt and soft cheese can be frozen
  • pack foods that don't need refrigeration like fruit cups and/or sandwiches with nut butters
Packing the lunch box with already frozen and refrigerated items, in addition to ice packs, will help keep things chilled much longer!



Macaroni Kid Roanoke received compensation and products from Lunchbox Love, Balance Bar, and Land O Frost for the purpose of this review article.