Back to School : The Lunch Box

Late August is a great time to stock up on snacks for back to school because EVERYTHING is on sale. Stores run all kinds of buy one get one sales, and prices are at an all time low, because everyone is going back to school. I try to stock up on 7 or 8 different snacks. To keep things fresh I divide them up into individual snack size ziplocs. This makes grabbing a snack to throw in the lunch box a snap on busy mornings and is much cheaper than buying bags of snack sized chips.

This year I grabbed:
Mixed Nuts
Baked Lays
Mini Pretzels
Fruit Snacks
Granola Bars
Wheat Thins
Goldfish
Cheeze it's
Wheatables in Pecan and Almond
Veggie Straws


I keep them in a box on the floor of my pantry so they stay all together. 

As for the rest of the lunch box, I try to include:
* A dairy - cheese stick, yogurt, cheese cubes, etc.
* A fruit and/or veggie - applesauce, cut up veggies w/ranch, apples w/ peanut butter, celery w/ peanut butter, cut up fruit, etc.
* A Water Botle or occasionally a soda
* Occasionally a sweet - a cookie, pudding, rice krispie treat etc. 
* A Main Dish - Most of the time this is leftovers from the night before, or a sandwich (PBJ, PB and Banana, Deli Meat, chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad, etc. )  but here are some cute ideas from around the internet:

Sandwich on a Stick




PB and Jelly Sushi


Thai Chicken Wrap


PB and Banana Hot Dog



Monster Cookies


Happy Packing!