Ideas for non-refrigerated lunch/snacks?

[KellyF]

Hello All,

My family is all on board with the Whole30/Whole9 lifestyle. My kids have a very healthy diet and are real troopers about trying new things.

My kids eat a LOT for their size, particularly my 10yo daughter. I run out of room in her lunch box, but still need to pack an afternoon snack for her, or she spends the last hour of school hangry. I often put nuts in a separate container, but am looking for other ideas. We live in FL and so many fruits/veg get nasty quickly, so I need non-perishable kind of stuff, as she doesn't have any more room in her backpack for another lunchbox.

For sake of clarification, I don't believe this is an issue of not having anough to eat for lunch - it is just her metabolism. An example of what I send: 1 and 1/2 chicken thighs with a seasonsed olive oil sauce or ghee (for fat), 1/2 cup green beans, 1 med cucumber, sliced, and a portion of fruit. Sometimes the fruit is whole, sometimes I make it into a smoothie with coconut milk. I swear, I don't know where she puts it all.

Any ideas on what else I can put in her backpack?

Thanks.

[Junelily]

Have you tried making dried fruit? I have a small dehydrator and make homemade fruit rolls or dried fruit for my daughter, but you can also do it in the oven. Along the same lines, you could also make jerky. I made some for my kids with a marinade of coconut aminos and pineapple juice and they loved it.

If your looking for something you don't have to make yourself, my kids like those squeeze packets of applesauce that they carry at Trader Joes and Whole Foods. The ones I found just had apples as the only ingredient. They are a lot cheaper though if you can find the bigger box at Costco. Good for when you're in a pinch but probably not the most filling thing.

I live in the northwest so apples are my go to fresh fruit and they travel well.

Good luck! Sounds like she's a great eater.

[Tom Denham]

When I travel, I carry a one gallon ziploc bag of macadamia nuts and raisins mixed together. I graze on them for up to a week. Another portable idea is pop-top cans of tuna or salmon. I see small sizes in the grocery store occasionally. The only thing is she would have to eat the whole can when she opened it, but the small size should work.

[Julia]

"tacos to go" marinated dehydrated chicken and veggies so delicious

[Noelle]

What an awesome diet your daughter has!

The thing that leapt immediately to mind was jerky. My favorite emergency/travel snack is bits of beef jerky, coconut flakes, and raisins mixed together like trail mix.

[Robin Strathdee]

How about ants on a log?

[Moluv]

"tacos to go" marinated dehydrated chicken and veggies so delicious

What!?! Oh my, now that sounds like something my kids would eat. Do you smash the chicken out thin like jerky or just cut it in little chunks? It's funny how beef jerky doesn't make me think twice but the thought of dehydrated chicken is MINDBLOWING.

[Moluv]

When I travel, I carry a one gallon ziploc bag of macadamia nuts and raisins mixed together.

Do you call this "million dollar trail mix"? But seriously, where do you get that quantity of macadamias? I only ever see them in smallish bags/cans?

[KellyF]

Thanks for all the input!. Jerky sounds right up her alley! Must go put dehydrator on kitchen wish list......

[mommysfitlife]

We pack snow peas, carrots and sliced peppers with guacamole or other dipping sauces. Also mini nutbutter and banana (if she eats bananas) sandwiches are nice and bacon or nuts can be added to those for crunch. We do freeze dried or dried fruits or a combination of both, kale or zucchini chips (home made), dried string beans. You can make your own lara bars. My kids also like cucumber bites made using cucumbers and putting something in between (meat, guacamole, etc.). I also take mini-peppers and stuff them with things like guacamole, meat, nut butter sauces, etc. I make their lunches at night and then they just carry them to school so they go into lunch time without being refridgerated but there never seems to be an issue with it.

[PaleoBubbleGum]

This blog has a lot of paleo kids lunchboxes (but for a preschooler), take a look around and see if anything would work in your situation.

I bring a thermos with a broth soup, and it stays very hot until lunchtime when I'm working outdoors in our freezing cold winters. Once I eat it it's still almost too hot to eat. I'm in the north east, it should work even better for you for keeping soup hot, since you're in florida.

I leave at 7am and eat at noon.

My thermos also does a great job keeping food cold in the summer. I would recommend you buy a Miss Bento lunchbox thermos, it will keep food cold or hot, and I bet that thermos lunchbox will be useful to your daughter until way after she graduates high school ;-)

I don't believe this is an issue of not having anough to eat for lunch - it is just her metabolism. An example of what I send: 1 and 1/2 chicken thighs with a seasonsed olive oil sauce or ghee (for fat), 1/2 cup green beans, 1 med cucumber, sliced, and a portion of fruit. Sometimes the fruit is whole, sometimes I make it into a smoothie with coconut milk. I swear, I don't know where she puts it all.

How about 3 and a half chicken thighs, with [the same or] less vegetables? It looks like a decent amount of food for a growing pre-teen, I just think a growing pre-teen would need a lot more fat and protein (which the chicken thighs will provide).

[MrsStick]

I will say that my Miss Bento is no longer big enough for my food needs as an adult. I feel like I eat a ton but my weight/body comp is still lower than it once was...