Let’s face it, school lunches don’t provide for our children the nutrition we hope they do. The meals contain processed foods, mystery meats, and french fries are considered the vegetable. Don’t even get us started on the fact that the only drink choice is milk unless they have a doctor’s note. Our kids take water with them to school but if they eat school lunch they are forced to take a milk and drink it. Many kids (including ours) just open it and pretend to drink it so they don’t get in trouble. The programming of needing to drink milk begins at such a young age.

To avoid all this trouble and to ensure that our kids are getting all the correct nutrition they need, we try to send them to school with a lunch box as often as possible. For inspiration, we found a great book that we love called  Vegan Lunch Box! It is full of fun ideas for your kids’ lunch boxes. One of our favorite ideas is to create your own Lunchable type lunches. This will work for meat eaters too. All you need is your favorite deli meats or fake meat slices, slices of casein-free cheese and cookie cutters. Have the kids help cut the slices into various shapes using the cookie cutters. Add crackers, fresh fruit, a bottle of water or organic juice and you are done! You can prepare several slices on Sunday and store  in the refrigerator for easy to take lunches throughout the week. Add a couple of Newman’s Own cookies as a special treat.

Don’t forget to surprise your little ones with a quick note reminding them that you love them!