Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: Lunches

This topic has 23 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 1 month ago by Kristen.

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March 2, 2015 at 12:55 pm
JenniferM
Participant
I noticed a similar thread about breakfasts. What do you do regularly for lunch on school days? In our home, I am generally tired when we finish morning lessons and need to both have a quiet moment and fix something for lunch (also 8 months pregnant which may account for the “tired”). Usually I can concoct something from leftovers and sometimes I make a soup, but I find that lately it requires more brain power than I can muster to come up with a quick but healthy mid-day meal. I like to provide a well balanced lunch (protein, veg, starch, fruit), and usually my hard-working husband joins us. I prefer something other than sandwiches. Sorry if that is picky.
Please share ideas for lunches that can be prepared quickly or prepared ahead of time. Thank you!!
March 2, 2015 at 2:38 pm
Karen
Participant
We’re farmers….I don’t know if it’s stereotypical or not (I didn’t grow up in a farming community) but I prepare 3 meals a day. My husband wants filling food at all 3 meals, especially breakfast (because he’s put in about 6 hours already). So I cook breakfast most days. I’ve been enjoying that thread.
For “lunches” (we call it “dinner” – and I like that because it makes me feel like he recognizes the fact that I slaved over it! *L*), I use my crockpot a lot. Or my oven – using the timed-on feature.
Italian Cream Cheese Chicken
2 – 3 chicken breasts (depending on size)
2 T. Italian seasoning (I make my own)
1 stick butter
Cook on low for 4 – 5 hours. Shred chicken. Add 1 block of cream cheese (8 oz.) and 1 1/2 c. milk. Cook on low again for 1 hour. Stir. Serve over rice or cornbread or noodles. (We like cornbread the best, I think.)
FlyLady’s Santa Fe Chicken
2 -3 chicken breasts
1 c. salsa
2 c. frozen corn (or use 1 can of corn or more, if you like)
1 can of black beans ( I cook dried beans and keep in the freezer and just guesstimate.)
Cook on low 4 -5 hours. Shred chicken. Add 1 block of cream cheese and more salsa (up to 1 cup, depending on your tastes). Cook on low until cream cheese is melted. Stir and serve over rice or tortilla chips or in tortillas.
I LOVE this recipe because both are just dumping and stirring. Rice is easy to make; tortilla chips are even easier!
We like chili for dinner in the wintertime (Again, over tortilla chips).
Cooking ahead is always a good idea- but it seems to take so much time! And I’m rarely that organized.
March 2, 2015 at 4:13 pm
HollyS
Participant
Karen, we love the Santa Fe Chicken recipe too! We usually have it for supper, but that would make an easy lunch.
I try to keep lunch prep under 30 minutes. We sometimes have sandwiches, but they aren’t a favorite.
- quesadillas-cheese or with chicken, onions, or peppers. Sometimes we serve these with soup or chips & guac. I also make tacos with whatever meat/veggie combo I have on hand
- grilled cheese & tomato soup (or other choice of soup).
- breakfast–scrambled eggs and ham, fried egg sandwich, pancakes with sausage, etc.
- homemade soups (broccoli, potato, veggie, etc.) sometimes with biscuits
- hot dogs (I splurge on the all beef ones) with side of baked beans
- Ground beef with baked beans (I also stir in a little ketchup and mustard)
- tuna or egg salad on bread or crackers
- baked potatoes with leftover chilli (the microwave potato bags make these go fast)
- baked potatoes with baked fish
I serve our lunches with fresh fruit or veggies, pudding, cheese, trail mixes, etc.
March 2, 2015 at 4:39 pm
Karen
Participant
Oh, loaded potatoes – easy dinner or supper! I usually brown some beef, have shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, etc. on the side.
March 2, 2015 at 9:50 pm
elsnow6
Participant
Well, y’all are ambitious;-) We unfortunately eat a lot of sandwiches here bc it’s all I can do sometimes to be organized enough to put one hot meal on the table a day but thought I’d share some ideas anyway. I don’t have recipes right in front of me but will try to post later. My husband is addicted to Mexican food so that happens a lot here.
Cilantro-lime taquitos with refried beans &/or Mexican rice, chips & salsa. I like to dip the taquitos in sour cream & salsa.
Tacos (chicken- I sometimes just boil/bake a bunch, shred & freeze when cooking for other meals- or beef) with cheese, salsa, sour cream, avocado, etc), can do same sides as above
Baked potatoes with various toppings cheese,broccoli, bbq,sour cream, ranch dressing
Bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwiches…yummy 🙂 My hubby doesn’t like bacon though so I don’t get these much 🙁
I’ll get some ideas from my mom. ..she has way more energy & ideas than me so often cooks 2-3 meals per day. She thinks bread is a must have at every meal to help fill people up lol.
March 2, 2015 at 10:29 pm
Karen
Participant
*L* bread being a must-have 🙂
I LOVE bread…..but my husband is GF and I’ve been GF for a while now, too. So I totally eliminated bread from the house – too tempting! Now I keep a loaf of GF in the freezer and a loaf of regular (For our girls) in the freezer so that if the world starts falling in on me, I can make chicken salad sandwiches. And when life gets real bad, peanut butter and jelly! *L* Believe me, it has come to that in the recent past!
Our girls complain about it, but I often cook a bit extra so that we can have one or two meals of leftovers. I love leftovers! (not really; what I really love is that I don’t have to cook!)
March 3, 2015 at 7:34 am
Benita
Participant
I think the idea of cooking a big mid day meal is great. I have often thought of it but never seem to be able to pull it off.
You know this makes me think of my grandma- Nanny Hancock. She grew up and raised her family with a big breakfast early and a huge dinner at noon time. Then that same noon meal was reheated with a few additions or turned into casserole or sandwiches with sides for supper later in the evening.
Even into her 70’s living alone, she cooked a meat, potato, 2 veggies, a fruit and bread for dinner at noon time! She ate small left overs for supper later. She set the table just for herself and had a centerpiece!
Of course she wasn’t doing mountains of laundry and homeschooling at that time, but when she was raising her family clothes were hand washed. There was no electricity unitl her youngest child was school age. She sewed the majority of their clothing and if they wanted chicken for dinner, she went out to the woodshed, chopped off it’s head, plucked it and then cooked it! She used a wood cookstove and they had no indoor plumbing until several years into her mothering. She kept everything running during the depression and my mother says they barely noticed anything was bad during those times. Her husband was a super hard working man so she was on her own to do most of it.
And I struggle to keep it all together!! Of course my Nanny wasn’t out running a hundred errands or carting kids hither and yon. She probably only left the house once a week other than Sunday morning for Mass.
I am happy for electricity and running water. I am glad I can drive around and be independent during the week and I love that technology affords me free time she never had. I am not romanticizing all the hardships of her time, just thinking. I wonder what else we have lost to progress.
March 3, 2015 at 8:50 am
elsnow6
Participant
Benita,
I often wonder the same thing. I know there was a lot of hard, physically intensive, on your feet work in those days but seems there was a simplicity of living too. Not so much stuff around the house to “organize”, so much running around to do just for basic things like food for meals,etc. I feel pulled in so many directions as a wife, mother & counselor (even though I only work one day with typically a few hours break mid-day)- just all the varied responsibilities associated with those roles. I long for simplicity…but don’t want to kill my own chicken for dinner lol!
Here is the link to the recipe for the taquitos I mentioned above…actually called Creamy Chicken Taquitos
http://www.garnishandglaze.com/2014/04/09/baked-chicken-taquitos/
March 3, 2015 at 2:46 pm
vikingkirken
Participant
We eat a lot of rice here! Rice and lentils, rice and beans, rice and eggs (once the rice is cooked, mix in a few raw eggs and they scramble in the hot rice), peanut butter rice, rice pudding, fried rice… very easy to throw on some rice and then mix in some extras. I add frozen veggies for easy vegetables.
Tortillas with cheese is another easy one. I warm corn tortillas right over the flame on my gas stove, add shredded cheese when I flip them… if I’m tired or uncreative, we just eat that, or you can add anything you want (sliced avocados, scrambled eggs, and/or salsa are favorites here).
Eggs and potatoes–sliced or grated as hashbrowns, or made into potato pancakes.
I’ve also started making two chickens in the crockpot almost once a week. I shred the leftovers after dinner, and that makes for a nice basic protein to put on rice, salad, tortillas, sandwiches, etc. Picking two chickens feels like the same amount of work as doing one, with twice the reward 🙂 Two chickens lasts us for two dinners and several lunches. I put the bones back in the crockpot with the meat juices, water, an onion, carrots, and celery and cook stock overnight too 🙂
And I try to keep the fruit bowl stocked and cheese in the fridge for anyone who is still hungry!
March 3, 2015 at 8:17 pm
Kayla
Participant
You ladies cook at lunch time?!? Ha! I have a 5, 4, and 1 year old and our lunches are simple.
apple slices with peanut butter
carrot sticks
deli meat rolled up
cheese sticks
olives
sandwiches sometimes
I rarely make grilled cheese or something that involves cooking. Usually they have some sort of meat/ cheese/ fruit combo. If I cook I make Annie’s Mac n cheese with Applegate hotdogs.
Left overs just don’t do well in our house. I make enough for dinner for ones extra lunch for my husband and occasionally for me too.

March 4, 2015 at 6:43 am
Benita
Participant
I try to convince my kids that they don’t need a cooked lunch everyday. If they went to school or even when they go to college or join the workforce they will not be able to get a cooked lunch each day. They need to embrace the sandwich I tell them! They grumble!
March 4, 2015 at 7:04 am
Karen
Participant
My girls would LOVE to eat at your houses!!! They think non-cooked “lunches” are the best. *L* The grass is always greener on the other side, eh?
My only reason for cooking three meals a day is my husband. 🙂
March 5, 2015 at 10:08 am
JenniferM
Participant
Thank you for all your responses. I do like a complete meal at lunch, but don’t have time to cook. I enjoy cooking and baking very much and will use some of these ideas for dinner time.
To add ideas:
Our chickens are laying in abundance right now, so fried eggs with sautéed spinach and cheese is a quick, satisfying lunch, pared with carrot sticks and fruit. (we eat mostly foods we grow at home or from my husband’s fishing/shrimping/hunting). Exception: loving chocolate ice cream right now (did I mention I’m 8 months pregnant?).
Some of you mentioned recipes with chicken breasts, but I find it more economical to buy a whole chicken, boil it, then pull it apart for various meals. The “lunch” part of that is the broth that can be used for good, rich soups.
Thanks again for sharing! I love good food! 🙂
March 5, 2015 at 10:18 am
JenniferM
Participant
A bit off topic perhaps, but I’m curious why some people do not like leftovers. Leftovers can be fun.
If I have a variety of leftover meals, I arrange the containers along the counter and announce “Mason’s Buffet.”. My kids enjoy selecting their own food based on preference. Sure they may load up on carbs and meat, sidestepping the veggies, but it’s a treat.
Leftover Soup is usually good, but depends on what the leftovers are!
Fried rice is a favorite with my crowd. It seems that after a stir fry meal, I have plenty of rice with a little meat left. I chop up the meat, add a few chopped veggies, the rice and an egg or two to the pan. Soy sauce adds just the right flavor. This is not my favorite, but my kids and husband love it. It only takes a few minutes to throw together in a big pan.
Ok, just felt like giving leftovers a little lift… Bon appetit! 🙂
March 5, 2015 at 4:52 pm
Kayla
Participant
We just don’t do leftovers. I don’t know why but I’ve started just doubling and automatically freezing 1/2 of what I cook. I wish soups were a hit too but we live in Florida and my husband works outside so unless it is cold it is just too hot for soup. I love making 2x recipes though because it is the same amount of cooking and effort but 2 dinners. And having stuff frozen keeps us from going out so much.