Kroger – A New Look At School Lunch
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Kroger. I will be compensated for this post. All opinions expressed are mine.
School is back in session for my girls, and they are not ones to eat school lunch, so I am always looking for different things to pack in their lunchbox. I recently went on a shopping trip to our local Kroger and for under $50 I was able to come up with several different alternatives for the ordinary sandwich.
First let me say that my girls are peanut butter freaks. I am just so thankful that none of them are allergic to peanut butter. Using peanut butter, I was able to come up with several excellent recipes. But don’t worry if you are not peanut butter fans I have some lunch box ideas that does not have peanut butter involved. So here you go.
First up is peanut butter and jelly sushi rolls. You need two slices of bread and peanut butter and jelly for this one. I chose peanut butter that came with the jam already. Cut the crust off the bread and with a rolling pin flatten your bread out and spread it with peanut butter and jelly. Roll into a roll and slice into bite size sushi roll pieces. Now that is one delicious treat.
To go with this, I put a small cup of yogurt. Instead of buying the individual containers I bought a big container and used the plastic container I had on hand to make different sizes. Add to this Kroger’s number and letters crackers to dip into the yogurt.
To make this lunch more nutritious add fruit kabobs. I took a wooden skewer and placed a strawberry, cheese square, grapes, alternating a fruit between each cheese piece. You can use the yogurt to dip your fruit in as well.
Another great use of peanut butter is with bananas. I made banana and peanut butter sushi rolls. I took a wrap and cut it in half. I then spread plain peanut butter on the half and then placed one-half off banana sliced in half in the middle of the wrap that was covered with peanut butter and I rolled it. After I was one rolling it, I cut it into bite size pieces.Pair this with some Goldfish Crackers and that makes a yummy lunch.
But worry you will not waste the other half of the banana. With the other half of the banana, spread peanut butter all over it and roll it into crispy cereal. This is also a great breakfast treat. This also an excellent lunch the kids can make themselves at school and quick to grab when you are running late. Have small containers of peanut butter and cereal ready and have children grab the banana as they are going out the door. They can dip their banana in the peanut butter and the cereal at lunch time for a unique meal.
Speaking of cereal, you can always pack some cereal in bowl with a banana or any fruit on the side. Have your child get a carton of milk from the school and that is an excellent lunch as well.
Another great alternative to lunch is a salad. I have learned that if you change out the topping on the salad, you can eat them every day. For this post, however, I chose a mix of baby greens and baby spinach and added to its sliced strawberries. Topped off with a homemade vinaigrette dressing. This is one yummy lunch. If you want, you can add chicken strips to this as well.
Another great alternative to sandwiches is to forgo the bread. Use vegetables. How about cucumbers? Try making tuna or chicken salad and placing it between 2 cucumber slices. Yummy. You can use shave the cucumbers into long thin strips and make sushi rolls from them as well. You just place the chicken or tuna salad inside and roll. Another yummy recipe. You can also make chicken salad and tuna wraps.
Here are two more ways to help make that lunch box look inviting. Apple sandwiches. Simply you take to apple rings and spread peanut butter on one. Top the peanut butter with chocolate chips and place the second apple ring on top. Yummy just the right combination of tart and sweet.
Just like the banana wraps you can also make a strawberry wrap just substitute strawberry for the bananas and use cream cheese instead of peanut butter. Yummy
But our all time favorite lunch is the Fluffer Nutter. You put peanut butter and marshmallow fluff between two Ritz crackers, and the results are dining heaven. We just recently introduced Bri to this creation, and she asks for it every time she visits. LOL
So you see you do not need to break the bank to create nutritious and inviting meals. And if you have a Kroger card you save even more. Make sure before you go shopping to check the coupon page.
Also, for a chance to win a $25 Kroger Gift card from me just go to my Kroger Pinterest Page and repin all the pins on your page. The one with the most pins wins.