Sometimes it feels like your life is on repeat: packing the same peanut butter and jelly sandwich and juice box in your child’s lunch everyday.

When the school weeks drag on and your taste buds get bored, try these sandwich alternatives.

For hot meals like macaroni and cheese or soup, buy a wide-mouth thermos that your child can easily open herself. You should also find out if your child’s preschool will heat up food, as many do, and this will greatly increase the number of meals you send. Pack leftover pasta, macaroni and cheese, chili, soup, quesadillas, or hotdogs and beans.

Send breakfast for lunch - pancakes or French toasts sticks, a bagel, or eggs on an English muffin would also make great, reheatable lunches.

Roll cheese outside of cold cuts instead of bread. Also experiment with different breads, such as pitas, flatbreads, focaccia, bagels, English muffins, and baguettes. You can even send your child with a selection of veggies and lunch meats, including turkey and ham strips, shredded cheese and lettuce, sliced peppers, and chopped tomatoes so they can fill their own pita or wrap.

Wrap fruits and vegetables in a paper towel to keep them from getting soggy. To keep apple and pear slices from turning brown in your child’s lunchbox without making them too sour for your child, squirt them with pineapple juice or lemonade.

Similarly, put condiments in between the meat and cheese instead of on the bread and pack tomatoes and lettuce separate from the sandwich to ensure everything stays fresh. You can also save small packets of mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup from take out restaurants to add to lunch bags so your child can add her own condiments at lunch time.

Try new condiments to change the whole sandwich; hummus, pesto, apple butter, and mashed guacamole all make sandwiches more fun. If your school allows peanut butter, try different combinations - use mashed bananas, honey, marshmallow fluff, or even mini chocolate chips for a special treat. Also experiment with different types of nut butters and new flavors of jelly. 

Make fun kebabs out of meats and veggies or fruits. You can also make "sushi" by rolling lunch meats and cheeses with celery sticks in the middle. Simply slice into round.

Cut sandwiches into strips and send sauces for your child to dip into. Your child can also dip veggies into salad dressing, fruits into yogurt, or baked tortilla strips into guacamole.

Make seasonal salads featuring ingredients like nuts, dried cranberries, apple slices, raspberries, unique cheeses, pears, fresh veggies, beets, chickpeas, grilled chicken, shrimp, or homemade croutons.

Bake savory muffins and slip in chopped veggies or ham and cheese.

Make a tray of cheese, crackers, apple slices, and grapes.

Ways to keep food cool other than an ice pack:

Use frozen bread for sandwiches in the morning.
Put in a frozen juice box, which will keep food cool and melt in time for lunch

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