PBJ again?
By Tawra Kellam
http://www.notjustbeans.com

School's been in session for several weeks now and you have already made 50 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Is there anything new that the kids will eat that isn't the expensive pre-packaged lunch kits? Tawra Kellam Provides ways to jazz up those lunches and save money in the bargain. Here are some lunch bag tips that help guarantee your kids will eat their lunch.

Those snack bags of munchies cost a lot! Make your own by:

~Pre-packaging chips, pretzels, animal crackers etc. into sandwich bags at
the beginning of the week. (Have the kids help on the weekends.) Keep them
in a big container/basket and just throw them in the lunch box in the
morning.

~Let the kids create their own pizza lunch kits- Toast bread and cut out
little circles with a biscuit cutter. Add a small container of pizza sauce,
cheese and other toppings.

~ Make up fruit gelatin and pudding and put in small plastic containers for
the week. Make a large batch of granola bars, cookies, pumpkin bread, banana
bread, muffins and then divide and put them in sandwich bags and freeze them
in sandwich bags to be pulled out when needed.

~Brownie bites are simple to make. Bake brownie mix in mini-muffin pans and
put three "brownie bites" in a sandwich bag for each child's lunch. They
freeze well too!

~ Fill thermos (not glass) half full the night before and freeze. Then
remove from freeze and fill the rest of the way. The juice will be cold when
they are ready to drink it and it keeps their food cold too.

~Clean vegetables, slice into pieces, bag. Have them ready for lunches and
snacks a week at a time saves money and time.

~Purchase cheese in blocks and cut up into pieces and put in sandwich bags.

~Save the napkins, catsup and mustard packets you get from take-out. Use in
lunches.

Before you make another peanut butter and jelly sandwich, check out
www.notjustbeans.com for more recipe ideas.

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