The Best Homemade Kids' Lunches on the Planet: Make Lunches Your Kids Will Love with Over 200 Deliciously Nutritious Lunchbox Ideas - Real Simple, Real Ingredients, Real Quick! (Best on the Planet) Kindle Edition

Some fun ideas, but these recipes are LOADED with sugar/sweets. Have not used the majority of them for that reason.

I have to say this is quite possibly one of the best collections of lunch ideas I have seen. I pack lunches for 2 of my four kids. Of course, these are my two pickiest. One is 17 and the other is 10. I have very few ideas of my own that they will eat. The 17yo is getting easier but I still have been at a loss on variety. The 10yo wants more variety, but when I ask, he wants things that he only wants hot and won't pack well when hot (like fish sticks - bleck!) because they will get mushy.In most cookbooks or collections of meal ideas, I'm lucky if I like 10% of the recipes. I don't branch off the norm too well myself, but much more open than these two kids. I would estimate that I find a good 75% or more recipes in this book that I would like, and I think these two kids would like many of them as well. There are several recipes for breakfast on the go, cold lunches, hot lunches, leftovers lunches, smoothies, and snacks on the go. There is a good variety of ingredients. Several also have notes for prep, serving suggestions, and ingredient substitutions. The recipes are excellent for those who want to use all organic ingredients, and for those like me who have very limited options in the area where I live. There are also recipes to make a healthier, homemade version of the processed stuff, such as chocolate syrup. A few weekly meal plans are included at the end to use as an example. And one of the things I absolutely love is the chart at the end. It lists all of the recipes, has blank stars to rate how well you like it, a box to indicate any notes regarding the recipe (such as ingredient substitutions, who likes the recipe, etc.) and a place to mark if you wish to make this recipe again. There is also a section at the beginning on ideas for packing lunches. The format is very easy to read. The recipes are well spread out, some photos of recipes are included, and the book overall is very visually appealing.Laura herself was also very helpful. I know very little about how flours react in a recipe, other than your basic white flour. One recipe that I really want to try called for almond flour. I know nothing about it's texture or how it performs, but I have a child with a tree nut allergy and know that I can't use it. I emailed her through her blog and she was able to answer my question on a substitution.I would definitely recommend this book for anyone needing some help with variety in school lunches. There are plenty of recipes here that can help in pretty much any situation. The recipes are fairly simple. And the recipes are not just for kids. I'm looking forward to making many of them for me to take to work.

This book is a life saver, it takes normal day to day meals to a new level by adding new twists to switch up old and boring routines your kids might have lost interest in time. For example they have roughly 10 different recipes to add pizzazz to plain old PBJ sandwiches, which my kids kind of got bored of, and now they are loving almost every single recipe and get excited to see what new and brilliant recipe this book has to offer.Sidenote: even my wife and I found ourselves indulging our own bellies with these delicious "kids" recipes, what can I say haha.Now the book doesn't have a picture for every single recipe which I myself find it not of high importance, as to where most parents complain about not having enough pictures to show their kids if they would like to try it (shouldn't be a problem if you know what your kids like and dislike).Instructions and ingredients are clear and straight to the punch, you will not regret purchasing this book, and it also makes a great gift for new and even experienced parents.Hats off to the chef 👏****P.S****I noticed so many comments stated that majority of the recipes were full of sugar and sweeteners. Now you don't necessarily need to add sweets to every dish and plus there are plenty of organic and healthy alternatives for sweeteners and sugar.For instance instead of regular sugar I purchase coconut sugar which is available in Walmart; and for sweeteners or recipes with honey I prefer using raw blue agave sweetener, but here's the thing about blue agave, it has about 60 calories per tablespoon, compared to table sugar which has 40 calories per tablespoon. So to save on calories, you'd need to use less, which is absolutely possible, since agave is sweeter. So you wouldn't need to use much of it since it's naturally much sweeter in taste than traditional sugar. For instance my wife used to drink her tea out of a big mug with 2.5 tablespoons of regular sugar, which was about an additional 100 calories, since we switched to agave she only needs one tablespoon and it still tasted as sweet and 40 calories less.

I can not tell you how this changed our lives! A bit dramatic perhaps, but true. I have a three year old daughter that has an immune disorder and is now in the midst of Celiac testing (abnormal blood test, endoscopy coming). I also have a son with an immune disorder and autism. I have been packing their breakfast, lunches and snack for daycare since my daughter was 18months and my son was an infant. No high fructose corn syrup, no dyes, no preservatives or things I can't pronounce, no more than 20g added sugar a day...this cookbook (and your blog) has helped so much. We are eating healthier and happier now. we all thank you!

I like looking for new recipes to try out with my kids. I like this recipe book because the recipes are quick, healthy, and easy to prep. I love how in the back is a rating section where you can rate the recipes you tried and leave little notes for future reference. My children love it because it makes lunch time whimsical and fun. I've made a double batch of pancakes and was able to take the left overs and create pancake sandwiches. My children love it when I serve them lunch and it's not a boring sandwich. The recipes are so kid friendly my 4yo helps me make lunch.

My kids, 13, 11 and 10 are actually using the book to plan their own packed school lunches. They had me at "peanut butter and jelly pinwheels" and "ladybug" snacks. They made a grocery list on their own. I'm elated it does not include commercial snacks. It is an easy to follow no-nonsense book for busy moms and tweens and teens who care about what goes in their lunchbox. If you're at a loss as to how to make your kids lunches healthy AND fun, this book is for you.

I'm a bit disappointed with this book. I 'tried a sample' of this and her book on snacks and read in the introduction of the snacks book that it was while writing this book that the author found out her family had to make dietary changes, one son can't have gluten. I thought this would mean there would be plenty of gluten free options but no, it's mostly sandwiches which, yes, of course you can use gluten free bread but if you've tried them you'll know they aren't very good. This book is great if your family have no dietary restrictions. If there's anyone out there packing great lunches for a child who can't have gluten, write a book, I'm sure I'm not the only Mum desperately looking for inspiration!!!

This is a lovely book with some fantastic ideas,however,I have had to rejig some of the meal ideas as they do use hard to track down ingredients such as 'evaporated cane sugar','half & half','ground flaxseed', not things carried by your everyday supermarket.That said,I have used several ideas from the book for lunch & dinner which have all been greeted with enthusiasm & clean plates.........can't get better than that!

Good clear recipes which I am slowly working through. Good collection. Fast delivery. Thank you.

The book is very informative, full of great recipes, printed on thick paper. At the end of the book, there is a list of meals where you could rate each one and make notes.My personal dislike, that not every recipe has a photo. In my case it was a crucial requirement for the book because I planned to show the photos to my kids, to explain them the ingredients so that I could minimize the waste while I'm going to experiment in the kitchen.There are enough recipes containing peanut butter, which can be replaced with sunflower seeds butter.The book had some useful tips how to choose equipment for lunch, like for example, it has to be easy for your kid to open jars and lids, etc.There are some great tips what to do with leftovers, how to store food, how to plan meals.

The book is really good, have a lot of recipe, some have pictures, some do not. Menus are kid-friendly, but only downside is there were a lot pf peanut butter recipes which school doesn't allow due to allergy reason. So wouldn't recommend people if they are looking to do a nut free food for children to take to school as lunches.