School Lunch Day 76: Salad Boxes

I know, you think your kids don't like salad. Mine don't either. That's why when I pack veggies for lunch I don't tell them it's salad!

My kids are weird. They are actually somewhat decent veggie eaters, but under very narrow circumstances. They don't like most cooked veggies, the much prefer them raw. And they won't eat them if you mix them all together and put dressing on and call it a "salad". But, if I take all the components of the salad, and leave them all relatively separate with no dressing, then they will eat it. Whatever. That's easier anyway. 

In these lunches they have lettuce on the bottom, and then a little variety of veggies depending on what each kid will eat, layered on top and in separate sections so as to keep them mostly separated. The veggies include: sugar snap peas, celery, carrots, tomatoes, and sweet red peppers. They all have some cheese for protein, and two of them also have turkey. One child likes to dip in ranch dressing so she got a little container of it. The rest don't like dressing or dip at all. On the side they have grapes and rice crackers.

Full disclosure: nobody touched the celery. But they did do pretty well on most of the rest of it. 

I included some cute little Whinnie the Pooh character forks for fun too. 

People ask me a lot what we do with the leftover food - most of the time when the kids get home from school I have them first get out their lunches and finish what is left for their after school snack. I'll take out something that I think they shouldn't be eating by that time of day (like the turkey here), but veggies and cheese are usually just find after being in their insulated lunch bag all day.