Menus???

How about this? There are some good ideas on this site.
http://www.peanutblossom.com/blog/2013/08/lunchbox-recipe...

Now I am not being snarky or rude, but when my kids went to,school we made lunches. Whether it be left over, or something else. There were no websites. We just became creative. What has happened that no one can figure out lunches. Just surprises me. Again not being rude, just wondering. If iPhones, tablets and the Internet were to be shut down, could you survive?

I didn't see your other question but I guess I'm wondering why it seems so hard for you? I mean, are you asking to plan a whole month's lunches in advance? My son loves taking lunch and I just buy a bunch of snack type things and put different things in for him every day. He doesn't like sandwiches so I get things like meat (put it in a baggie), cheese sticks, applesauce cups, fruit cups, fresh fruit, nuts, trail mix, go-gurts, chips, cookies, granola bars, etc. He eats a "healthy" breakfast and dinner and I want to make sure he will actually EAT his lunch so I pack things I know he will like. I hope you find something you are looking for. Good luck.

The lady I used to babysit for had awesome lunches that her daughter (and my son) loved! (I would ask her in advance what she was bringing, and I would copy it for my son). She had fresh loose fruit every day. Sometimes strawberries with blueberries, sometimes cherries with pineapple, or grapes with kiwi.. etc... She also had a yogurt every day. Then she would have "all natural, no preserv." lunch meats with cubes of cheese - different types- and whole wheat crackers or goldfish crackers. For dessert/middday snack, she would pack one of the sweeter granola bars.

My daughters went to a school which had no hot lunches, so I had to pack two cold lunches a day for them. My youngest daughter LOVED peanut butter and jelly. She had that nearly every single day for 3 years! lol I would pack a sand. bag with some sort of chips, do a string cheese and a fruit. Sometimes I would throw in an energy bar or something of the like, and a juice box or save Sunny D bottles and put my own juice inside it. (hint - freeze about 1/2 inch of juice in the bottom of the fruit juice bottle and in the a.m., fill it up the rest of the way.. the frozen juice will keep the rest of the juice cold all morning). Gogurts are awesome frozen, as they help keep the lunch cool and are a perfect slushy yumminess by lunch time. Fruit snacks are good, if you buy the ones made of actual fruit.

My older daughter was an oddball! lol She liked soup nearly every day (in a thermos it's perfect by lunchtime) or dried Ramen (yeah, I know...) and she liked chips, a juice and rarely fruit unless it was a fruit rollup. I would put in a PopTart, which she loved just out of the packet.

So, you see, it's not hard, really, just stock up on the healthier things your little one likes. If things come home on a usual basis, then you know that shouldn't be repeated. Also, you'll be told if you made a yummy lunch - trust me! :)

You can always print your very own menu squares and plan ahead, if that helps you keep your wits! ;)

Have fun and sorry this was so long. I didn't mean for it to be! :D

L.

I always just packed my kids what they liked to eat.
Seems like a monthly menu is a lot of extra work, I'm not sure how this would be helpful (?)
Keep sandwich stuff on hand, fresh fruit, cheese sticks, crackers, nuts, things like that and you're good to go. You can get a thermos if he likes to eat soup, pasta or other "leftovers" for lunch.

I use menu planner for all my meal planning. It's a great ap.

I did respond to your other question. I have to say, I think you are over thinking this. I don't personally do menu planning ... at all, so maybe that's part of it. I tend to wing it. Most kids really are not going to want much variety at all. Think of a couple of proteins you know son likes, fruits and veggies and a dessert. He can buy milk at school, or you can toss in a juice box or a bottle of water.

It's ok for it to take a couple of weeks to figure out what he will like and what he will eat. The first few days he could be a bundle of excitement and not be able to eat much. Kindergarteners don't often have a lot of time to eat, so it can take a few tries before you come up with a lunch that is reasonable for him to eat in a short amount of time. Some of his favorite foods may not appeal to him when they've been sitting in his lunch box all morning. There are just many factors that can be at play. You might hit a home run the first week, but it could take some playing around to get a lunch that he really likes.

You sound like a planner, so it might be hard to read a post from a non-planner. But I think it will help if you try to relax. He's going to be just fine! You'll figure out 2 or 3 good lunches for him, and everything is going to be fine!

Cozi has a meal planner built into the program. It's a great all-purpose program and then you can use on-line or on your phone and it also lets you build in meal plans. One of the cool features is that you can install an "add to Cozi" button on your browser and when you see an idea or recipe you like, you can click the button and it add it to your recipe box in Cozi. I don't print my calendars so I don't know how it looks printed.

Go to any and every school, head start, child care center, private school, you can think of and print off their menu's. Then look at them for a format that fits your situation.

When I owned my child care business I went online to free child care forms places and downloaded the menu that looked the best and I filled it in on the computer then printed it out for the parents and cook.

I used the states cookbook for many of my recipes and could buy my groceries in bulk depending on what I needed.

Here are some sample free menu forms that you can fill in with your choices.

http://www.thedaycarelady.com/menus.htm

http://www.childcarelounge.com/printables/printable-forms...

http://www.simplydaycare.com/daycare-menus.html

http://pinterest.com/childcarelounge/child-care-printables/

http://www.mybookezzz.com/child-care-blank-menu-printable/
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This is the menu that I used in my center. It helped me always make sure I had every food required for the kids filled in.

http://www.dss.state.la.us/assets/docs/searchable/OFS/Chi...
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This one is really good

http://www.adaycare.com/menu.html
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This one has sample menu after sample menu, weeks of them.

http://www.nfsmi.org/ResourceOverview.aspx?ID=203
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Another sample menu

http://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/nutrition/cacfp/docs/...
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I hope this is what you were wanting. Ideas for menus and downloadable menu's to put it all on.

As someone else said, Cozi does have that feature.
I also downloaded lunch menus from some public and private schools' websites and then tinkered with them to fit my daughters' needs (one is a vegetarian athlete, the other must be gluten free).
Don't freak out about any moms here who give you flak about asking or even asking again. We all have our strong and weak points. I used to really stress over making school lunches in the weeks after my younger daughter was diagnosed with gluten sensitivity. A friend gave me a quick guide and my stress-level plummeted. In time, I didn't need the guide at all.
You're asking for advice, not someone to come to your house and pack the lunch so all anyone who doesn't like it has to do is simply ignore your post and move on.