I'm trying really hard to get last week's lunches posted before this week is over!  I'm pleased with myself for the lunches last week, I got a little creative with trying a few slightly different things, but still kept it easy.  What a week! Halloween and parties and school field trips - I needed the weekend to recover.  But then the time changed, and not all my kids have adjusted to that yet.  Ah well, such is the mom life.  I love it anyway.

A few lunch tips for this week:

• Think outside the box a little - try a different shape or size of something ordinary.  I made mini burgers and they were a huge hit!  And mini pancakes.  It really isn't any more work, and the kids loved it.  Or just re-arranging the sandwich by cutting it small and putting it in a skewer.  

• Add a different flavor to an ordinary item - pizzadilla instead of quesadilla.  Basically it is a quesadilla, but I used mozzarella cheese and added a little tomato sauce.  

• Plan ahead and make two meals at the same time.  I made burgers for dinner Saturday night, so at the same time I went ahead and made the mini burgers for the lunches for Monday.  Boy was I happy on Sunday night to have the main part of the lunch already made!

• Keep it simple.  I've found over time that my kids at least are more likely to eat simple foods with just a few ingredients or flavors.  I think that's true for a lot of kids, although definitely not all.  I think a lot of kids taste buds are just not that developed yet, and they can find too many flavors or textures at once to be confusing.  Yes, you could put all kinds of extra goodies in the pizzadilla or quesadilla, but my kids are more likely to eat it if I leave it fairly plain.  So there's a balance to be found between making the lunch new and interesting, but not going so far different that they won't eat it.  Kids like familiarity as much as they like variety. 

As always - my favorite lunch boxes are the Easy Lunchboxes, available here.  And there are links at the end to my Amazon shop with all my favorite lunch packing essentials - be sure to check it out!