How to Make Lunches Your Child Will Eat

Hint: Get them involved!

Are you tired of making lunches that just end up in the trash at the end of the day? Do you feel like a burnt out mind reader because their response to “What do you want for lunch?” is “I dunno…”. My girls would go through phases where they loved tuna sandwiches or bagels and cream cheese, and that’s all they would eat.  Then, all of a sudden, they hated it! When I tried introducing new things or giving them their favorite dinners (as leftovers the next day), it all came home after school. ARGH!

Why is it so difficult to pack a simple lunch?

Then one day, I just had enough. Rather than rack my brains and waste money on tons of food that they threw out, I turned the tables on them! 

Here’s what I did: I created a lunch menu for every day of the week: Monday through Friday. Then I asked them to fill in exactly what they wanted for lunch each day AND they had to make a list of all of the ingredients needed to make all of their lunches on our family grocery list that I posted on the fridge. 

Now THEY had to think about what they wanted to eat for lunch. What happened next was nothing short of a miracle. They actually got creative and thought about those incredible lunches that their friends’ mothers made for them. As long as they didn’t include candy or sodas, I gave them free reign to choose their lunches.  Jaclyn ordered fruit rollups, Fuji apples, and bagels with lox and cream cheese.  Nicole loved roast beef sandwiches with tomatoes on the side or open-faced tuna sandwiches and Clausen dill pickles. As they got older, their lunches included yogurt with cottage cheese or granola, carrot sticks with Ranch dressing, and exotic fruit like kiwi, mangos, and pineapples. I was happy to buy everything on their lists; no complaints on this side!

By making them choose their lunches and order all the ingredients, they owned their meals. If they were hungry at the end of the day, they simply added more food to their lunch boxes the next day.  No longer did they throw out entire lunches and they seemed to enjoy them more.  By the way, they started making their own lunches without me even telling them to because they knew what was in the fridge and they wanted to be sure they got what they had ordered (from the grocery store).

I hope this helps as you begin a new school year with your kids!