Food Stuffs *part 2*

Ok, so how about some irony. Last week I wrote about not wanting to partake of school lunches; this week we got a letter from the school board that we qualify for the Free and Reduced Lunch program. Sooooo, I've been trying to weigh this conundrum in my mind and the other day I decided to try and see if *A* would agree to "buying" her lunch maybe one day a week if it was something she might eat. Yesterday they were having chicken sandwiches, tater tots, and lime (weird) applesauce. Not terribly appetizing but something I thought we could get away with and save $ on one lunch this week. So I approached her with the idea and she promptly replied, "Mom, all they have is junk food!". Um, ok. How can I possibly argue with that. I did end up convincing her to just try it for one day and it seemed to go fine, but she hasn't been interested in doing it again yet. I was even looking ahead on the lunch calendar and saw they are having cheese pizza on Monday, but nope, no dice.

So, tonight I bring you some of my recent go-to, meat-free, healthy lunch and snack items (Kindergarten eats lunch at 10:45 am so I also have to pack an afternoon snack). Hope these are helpful, I'm sure as the weeks progress I will be adding more, so maybe I'll post a sidebar link for future reference. Feel free to add more suggestions in the comments and I'll add those to the master list as well. Oh and I reject the notion that school lunch needs to center around a sandwich with some stuff on the side. We do that, but often I'm just happy if we have a protein or 2, some fruit or veggies, and a healthy carb. So we mix and match the items below often for variety and convenience. None of them are terribly ground-breaking or novel, mostly this will just serve as a list to remind me of what to pack when I'm in a rut.

Good 'ol Stand-by PB&J
Grilled Cheese
String Cheese/Babybel Cheese
Yogurt, plain, vanilla, often with granola on the side to add in. Our new favorite easy yogurts are the Horizon squeeze tubes because they were on sale and had a coupon at Kroger so we stocked up.
Bagel with cream cheese (with or without sliced cucumber)
Veggie roll-ups (cream cheese spread on a tortilla rolled around carrots, cucumber and/or pepper slices)
Cheese Quesadillas
Cheese and crackers - our favorite is goat cheese and Triscuits
Apples and peanut butter
Dried fruit, we're still loving our stash of dried cherries from Michigan
Trail Mix, I love to use up the last bits of snacky things and throw them all together into a trail mix
Peanuts
Pistachios
Pita Chips
Annie's snack items, Cheddar bunnies, etc.
Leftovers from dinner
Mommy-made muffins
Nature Valley granola bars (or ones from Trader Joe's)
In-season local fruit, right now it's apples, cantaloupe and watermelon
In-season local veggies, currently we're overloaded with cucumbers, zuchini, and peppers. Unfortunately this child keeps trying but still hates tomatoes, so the dozens of cherry and grape tomaotes we get from the CSA are not an option.
Tortilla Chips

Ok, that's good for now. I'm hoping to experiment with cracker-making this weekend since I didn't get to it last weekend. Oh and here's a great post about yogurt making, we tried to make yogurt a long time ago but couldn't get the temperature right. I'm liking her suggestion of how to get it just right so maybe we'll have to try it again soon.