....what to have for lunch.. AGAIN?

Growing up, my mom made my lunch for school. She always made eating fun for my brother & I. We had sandwiches shaped like a boat.... little goodies in our lunchbox at school. I don't remember buying my lunch often, but I did take change sometimes in a film canister for chocolate milk. Oooh, love my chocolate milk!!

Fast forward 25 years later, and I'm making lunches for MY kids. However, I am tired of sending the same old thing to school for them! How much PB&J can one kid enjoy? Sure, I can mix it up here & there with cutout shapes of a heart on the sandwich, or putting coloring in the Miracle Whip on Valentine's Day or St Patrick's Day, or cheese 'n crackers. Sometimes I'm more bored than they are. I don't think they really pay much attention anyways when they're eating. I've eaten lunch w/ them at school, and I KNOW they barely touch their food. I mean, why eat when you have time to gab with your friends?

Well..... while in Dallas the weekend before school started, my sister in law Tiffany & I went to Target (on our own, I might add... NO kids!), and she told me about the lunch containers of Thermos. I had seen them before, in previous years, but who wants to spend $15.99 on a small thermos?? Not me! I'm too cheap! My kids can suffer eating PB&J! Tiff went on to tell me she saw tons of kids who have this Thermos, and wanted to buy my nephew one. I decided to splurge and buy one for Maddie.... a Barbie one. I knew Katie might not go for it, and I was right. It was "BARBIE"! I got the typical eye roll and "ugh.. MOM!" I wanted to see if she would even TAKE it to school. I mean, I don't know how much longer would taking a lunch even be "cool". Well, she loved it, so I went and bought the plain jane silver Thermos.

So, what do I send the girls now? I make the individual portions of Kraft's Mac 'n Cheese, and each Thermos holds one portion. I made soup this morning, and heated it up, and it was still hot by the time the girls ate it later this morning. I've heated up a hot dog, wrap up a bun and toss in a thing of ketchup and they've had hot dogs. Sometimes I'll cook a hot dog and slice it up and throw it in w/ the mac 'n cheese. I can add salad (still working on that one), fruit salad, and basically anything as long as you have it cold or hot before you put it in! It keeps it at its temperature for hours! I could probably do better at some of those choices calorie wise, but I know if I allow Katie to buy whatever she wants at the food court at school, she's going to blow money & tons of calories are going to settle on her hips.

Point is, they're not eating the same old thing every day. I cringed at the cost of paying for these things, but if I can keep my girls happy with different foods, then I can most definitely save money & calories of them eating @ the school cafeteria (HELLO! 750+ calories for a school lunch, if not more!). Maddie used to HATE taking her lunch, so this year I rolled my eyes, allowed her to buy HER favorite character's lunch box (iCarly).... I'm so against characters on my kids' stuff. Don't ask. Anyways, she hardly buys from school anymore! Saves me $10+ a week!