Ever sat in at a 3rd-Grade lunch table? Most of the kids lunches go uneaten! All of those cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches for nothin’!

School Lunches: Let’s hear it for kids’ favorite sandwiches.

There’s a reason why restaurants offer the same old fare for kids over and over again: chicken fingers, fries, peanut butter and jelly. It’s because kids have simple appetites … But restaurants need to rethink kids (why not offer them kid-sized portions of what Mom orders, for instance?)

Ever sat with your 3rd grader at lunch? Most of the kids don’t finish their carefully packed meals, some go straight for the cookies, apples get tossed in the garbage. All of those beautifully crafted cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches!

But let’s keep it real.

When you’re busy you don’t have to get all fancy:

• A sandwich with extra meat and cheese for your teenagers

• A simpler one for younger kids.

• Some fruit in there (but cut up in advance may get it eaten).

• Chips of some sort – they’re not the big, bad evil some may suggest.

• A cookie or two.

• Send a bottle of water or give them money for milk (and don’t worry how they spend it!)

• Go in search of variety but don’t stress out about it

 

TOP 10 Kid Sandwiches

1. PB & J

The number one sandwich filling for kids is peanut butter and jelly.  Some kids want it on white bread, some on wheat. A nice alternative is to make it on swirly cinnamon or raisin bread.

2. Cheese Sandwich

Make it with nice slices of sharp cheddar — not the prepackaged slices, carve your own from a block. Add your child’s favorite condiment and some lettuce. From time to time change the bread you serve it on — try a hoagie roll!

3. Bologna & Cheese

4. Ham Sandwich

5. Tuna Sandwich

Try different ways of mixing it with mayo, lemon, onion diced up really small, maybe some tomato. It’s particularly yummy on white bread although Moms might try serving it on wheat with bean sprouts.

6. Peanut Butter & Banana or Honey or Nutel

10. Turkey Sandwich