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Lunch Help!
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Hi ladies, I could really use y’alls help!! I love cooking for my family, and breakfast is not an issue and I have a ton of good dinner recipes. What I struggle with is LUNCH!! I never seem to be able to come up with any creative ideas and so I feel like we are always eating the same thing, and it really is tempting then when the kids and I are out running (we love to do school at the park on nice days and we do a lot of fun trips with their cousin who is also HS) to just run through the drive thru and grab lunch. So, I was wondering what you all serve your family at lunch to keep it interesting but easy.
Thanks!!
Boring stuff like mac & cheese, buttered pasta or tortellini, fish sticks, sandwiches (cheese, pb, or “make your own”), hard boiled eggs with crackers or toast, scrambled eggs w/toast, leftover pancakes made into pb sandwiches, crackers w/cheese slices, leftovers from dinner, cheese quesadillas, pizza, breakfast items like waffles or oatmeal or cereal, breakfast burritos. Lunch is also served with whatever fresh fruit they want in whatever quantity they want (one of my sons will often have a banana, apple and pear along with everything else). I sometimes through in crackers or yogurt or pretzels too.
Heather
If dh isn’t joining us for lunch, we have dinner leftovers from previous nights a lot. For example, if I made enchiladas w/ beans and rice for dinner the night before, we’ll have burritos using the beans and rice with some cheese added for lunch the next day. If I made chili for dinner the night before, we’ll have Frito pies for lunch. Whenever I know I’m going to be out of the house around lunchtime, I always pack PBJ’s with fruits and veggies for the kids. I even do that if I’m going to be meeting a friend for lunch at a restaurant when the kids are with me. It’s cheaper, healthier than most kids’ menus, and I don’t really care if the restaurant thinks it’s rude…they’re not the one paying for it!
I also make a lot of things that would normally be considered “dinner foods” for lunch. I just make less, or I make enough to have it 2 days out of the week. We used to eat out a lot, but I’ve learned to get creative and content to just be at home. I’m only jealous that you’re able to have school outside in February! It’s freezing here!
We do leftovers too. I purposely double just about every thing so we can have leftovers. Hubby takes them to work with him too. If we don’t have left overs it’s generally PB&J, scrambled eggs with veggies, apple with peanut butter, tuna salad.
We sometimes have what we call “Fichi”. It is cooked wholegrain rice in a bowl, topped with grated carrot, grated cucumber, diced fresh tomato, maybe some capsicum, then topped with grated cheese and tomato salsa. Of course, white rice would work just as well…
Sometimes, I may add some tinned red kidney beans or tuna. Makes a great healthy lunch.My kids also love vege wraps: baked beans, lettuce, diced tomato, grated carrot and cucumber, grated cheese, wrapped in a tortilla. Easy, and they love it. I personally don’t have baked beans in mine, but I add lots of avocado spread on the tortillas.
HTH
Linda
I’m right there with Lindsy and Polly. I make enough dinner for leftovers. That way I always know we are eating healthy. When there isn’t enough. Then we’ll do PB &J, apples and PB, a huge bowl of fruit, cereal (if need be), or loaded bake potatoes (a baker with things like cheese, bacon, sour cream, etc).
We are pretty carefull of what we eat and I don’t want to make things “quick and unhealthy” in an everyday trap. So I plan for it with my grocery list. And we don’t keep the others on hand. They are for special occasions like trips to the lake (my parents have a place).
And when we’re going to be out it’s a back lunch of PB&J, home made energy bars, trail mix, or something of the sort.
Good luck with your search. My best advice.. make more dinner!
Misty
These are great ideas, but HOW do you all end up with leftovers after dinner? It doesn’t seem to matter what I do–I double and even triple most recipes and still, whatever I cook, it is gone. And I only have three kids! The only thing they leave are things they dont’ like, and it’s not so easy to get them to eat THOSE things left over.
So we have to do separate things too. I don’t MIND eating similar things, so we have “days”. Thursday I make “breakfast food” for lunch. Wednesday is finger foods, etc. That way I really don’t have to think. And I can put most of my food prep time into dinner so I can watch them mow through all the food. LOL
I’m enjoying this post! I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read yours, Bookworm. I deal with the same thing here. I’ve learned to put back the left overs before we sit down to eat…so I guess you could call them “before-overs”
We do sandwiches, soups (preferably homemade from leftovers, but we do occassionally use the canned kind
), nachos, homemade pizza, …our family enjoys the Food Network, so we get neat ideas from there…they also have a magazine that isn’t too expensive and it’s fun to look through.I don’t have many leftovers from dinner either (boys can eat A LOT)!!! If I do, my husband takes them for lunch. I also do what we call egg rice – leftover rice warmed up then I throw in some raw eggs and cook until the eggs are done. I guess it’s like fried rice, but we don’t add anything other than rice and eggs. Well, sometimes we do. I also do roasted veggies (potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes) a lot. I always have homemade broth in the freezer so I do simple noodle, rice or barley soups often. They love potato soup with cheese.
I got a lot of really good ideas from a blog I read. http://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com I made the pizza pockets and froze them for lunches, they are so good.
how do I with a husband and 5 boys from 11 to 3 have left overs.. well I think one person said & I have done before.. I put it aside before we eat. Also, I know that we only allow them to have seconds and that is to be 1/2 of whatever they ate first. We encourage the kids to eat well at each meal and not to eat a lot at each meal. Also, we have learned that lunch should be ideally the biggest meal of the day not dinner. They also get a snack between breakfast and lunch and one between lunch and dinner and about 1/2 the time between dinner and bed.
Loving these ideas! This is fun.
One catch with putting food aside first is that my kids help me in the kitchen–they know full well how much there is. LOL I can’t “hold out” on them. Plus the calorie requirements of each child can be SO different. My oldest son is underweight and ALWAYS, ALWAYS hungry. It’s hard to look at that 6’6″ boy who weighs only 130 pounds when he bats those big blue eyes and says “But Mom, I’m STARVING!” LOL I think we figured out one week this summer that he was eating in the neigborhood of 3000 calories a day . . . and not gaining weight at ALL. All my meals are big meals. LOL
I am in the same boat Meagan. Dinners and breakfasts I have down pretty well. But LUNCH time is always a toss up. Besides what others have mentioned I like to make some brown rice, heat up a can of black beans, then in bowls for each person combine, rice, beans, salsa, and sour cream. It is good, cheap and nutritious..well more nutritious then what we had today…fish sticks, and french fries!!! LOL
Thanks for all the ideas.
Shelly
Sometimes, I may add some tinned red kidney beans or tuna. Makes a great healthy lunch.
), nachos, homemade pizza, …our family enjoys the Food Network, so we get neat ideas from there…they also have a magazine that isn’t too expensive and it’s fun to look through.
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