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Ready for this week’s MH? This is a good one!
Our topic this week is “Yummy Lunches
Your Assignment This Week…
Today we recorded some amazing seminars for our Ultimate Women’s Expo (join us live for all of our sessions that you can!). As we were “chatting” during the session, one of the things we discussed was the need for yummy, but nutritious lunch ideas. Well, yummy and nutritious, but also easy and affordable. So, this week, let’s all jump in and share our yummy, nutritious, easy, and affordable lunch ideas. How about it? 🙂
What are some of your family favorites? How do you make it? I am anticipating these entries! Dig in! Share your yummy lunches.
Love ya!
Cindy
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Deadline–Friday at midnight CST.
What are some of your family favorites? How do you make it?
Here are some of our favorites for lunch.
1. Leftovers (quick, easy, and cost effective)
2. Grilled cheese sandwiches
3. PB&J sandwiches
4. Nachos (chips and cheese from Sams)
5. PB on celery
6. PB on apple slices
7. Egg noodles with butter & parmesan cheese
8. Ramen noodles (my kids love this)
9. Fried egg sandwiches
10. Tuna Salad, Egg Salad, Chicken Salad – on crackers
11. Cut up raw veggies + ranch dip (more of a summer thing)
12. String cheese, veggies, fruit
13. Burritos
14. Bean soup
15. Meat & Cheese sandwiches
16. Bacon, lettus, tomatoe sandwiches
All lunches are served with fruit and/or veggies – raw (and seasonal) and frequently some type of dip. Ranch, ceasar, or PB.
I also make a very easy fruit dip.
Fruit Dip –
1 block cream cheese, 1 big jar of marshmellow creme.
mix together with mixer until smooth. Voila! Fruit dip that is so tasty I want to eat it with a spoon.
Not exciting, but very easy!
Trish Bevill
I serve lunch with
I am definetly looking forward to seeing some of the ideas on here. A quickie for me is toasted cheese sandwhiches and tomato soup…Nothing spectacular I’m afraid 🙂 The kids also really like it when I do a garden salad. Sometimes I’ll put a hard boiled egg or some leftover chicken in it.
Wow…I forgot all about Mommy Homework last week! Bummer. I guess that the time got away from me.
Anyway, it is great to be able to share all our lunches. We are always looking for new ideas.
Some of our favorites include:
Quasadillas (my sons favorite is to put Velveeta in between the flour tortillas)
Soups of any kinds, I do buy some canned soups to have just for quick lunches
The kids like me to cook up macaroni and then they put shredded cheeses on top
I will make a pot of brown rice in the rice cooker. They will eat this plain with just soy sauce.
I cut up fruit in different ways for them to have as sides with lunches. We also eat some dried fruit, occasionally, with our lunches.
My older daughter likes to “think” she works at Subway, so she will make us made to order, deli type sandwiches. I try and have extras on hand for all the fixings with those, to make them deluxe.
We have our own chickens/eggs, so we will often just have fried eggs and toast for lunches.
Julie Bertsch
I want my little girl (age 4.5) to eat more vegetables. She wants to eat a peanut butter sandwich!
So, at dinner time the night before, as I am preparing our vegetable, I put aside a small portion that has no added seasoning. I then run this portion through the blender with just enough water to puree it.
I then put the puree into a refrigerator container.
The next day, I thinly spread this vegetable on each slice of bread, spread peanut butter on top and add a small dab of honey or agave.
She hasn’t noticed once!
Some good vegetables for this are carrots, sweet potatoes, cauliflower and butternut squash. I avoid green veggies simply because the color is more easily detected.
For my sons who are older, one of their favorite lunches is simply to cook some ground beef or sausage, dice a huge amount of potatoes (white, sweet, red), add some Cajun seasoning and bake the combined ingredients until tender. I do cover the pan and I ususally stir them a couple of times.
If there are any leftovers I use them in a homemade soup or in a frittata that evening. Instant dinner!
Hope this was helpful,
Robin Mureiko
Some of the yummy lunches my kids love are quesadillas (quick and easy just take tortillas and cheese place a tortilla in a pan over with cheese and cover with another tortilla and warm up when the first side gets lightly burned flip over and lightly burn the other side cut ito wedges and serve with salsa and sr cream). My kids hate sandwiches but they will eat the fixings for sandwiches separately as long as everything is separate even the bread so I do everything separately on a plate (sometimes for a treat I cut the lunchmeat, cheeses and bread with cookie cutters for them).
We also love homemade pizzas (you can make your dough ahead of time and freeze it and defrost in the fridge the night before you need it)
Mary Damask
This time of year we like soups (and Chili)
(1) `Chicken Noodle Soup`
2C cooked chicken 1C sliced celery
1 med. onion, diced 2C chicken broth
2C cream of chicken soup 2C water
8oz. cooked noodles
1can mixed vegetables (optional)
* Place onions & celery in pot w/ water. Bring to a boil and simmer til vegy’s are tender. Add chicken, soup, mixed vegy’s, noodles and broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10min. Additional water may be needed. Season to taste. Enjoy!
(2) `Creamy Potato Soup`
6 slices bacon 1C chopped onions
2C cubed potatoes 2 3/4C milk
2 (10 1/3-oz) cans cream of chicken soup
*Cook bacon til crisp. Set aside in saucepan. Add 3T bacon drippings. Brown onions. Add onions to saucepan. Add potatoes and 1C water. Cover and cook for 15min. over med. heat. Stir in soup and milk. Heat, but do not boil.
(3) `Hash Browns w/ Hot Dogs`
2T Olive oil 4-5med. russet potatoes
1/3C chopped onions Salt/Pepper to taste
6 hotdogs, sliced
* Peel potatoes and quarter lengthwise. Cut quarters into slices.
Heat oil to med-high in large nonstick skillet. Add potatoes, onions, & seasoning. Cook, stirring frequently til potatoes begin to brown. Stir in hot dogs, reduce heat and cover skillet. Turn and stir occasionally while smothering for 10min.
(4) Hot Dog Stir-Fry
6 hotdogs 2T oil 4LG. carrots
3 stks celery 1 onion, sliced Garlic Powder
*Cut the meat into small pieces. Cut the carrots and celery in slices. Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the veggies and stir-fry for 5min. or til onion is tender. Add the hot dogs. Cook til the meat turns slightly brown. Season with garlic, S/P. Serve over cooked rice.
(5) `Chili Mac`
1lb. hamburger meat 2C macaroni, uncooked
1qt. tomatoes 1pt. water
1/4t dried minced garlic 1t chili powder
1sm. onion, chopped fine Salt/Pepper to taste
* Fry onion and hamburger together, drain. Put meat, macaroni, tomatoes, water, garlic, chili powder, S/P, and onion/meat in a heavy pot. Bring to boil, cover with lid and continue cooking on simmer for 30-40min. May need to add water and stir occasionally.
Michelle Fitzgerald
Here are a few ideas for you-
Always serve a veggie and a fruit with lunch (I don’t do very well with the veggie part of this). My kids like frozen peas or corn, raw carrots and the 2yo loves unsalted peas from the can. When they have mac and cheese for lunch they like to put corn in it.
Main dishes we do0
quesadillas (refried beans and cheddar on a tortilla shell and cooked like a grilled cheese sandwich- we do ours in the toaster oven). These are also good with other various fillings, I like ham and cheese.
soup and grilled cheese- the nice thing about soup is getting extra veggies in there.
peanut butter and banana or peanut butter and raisin sandwiches
macaroni and cheese (as mentioned above throw corn in there and can also put tuna in it)
finger foods- try to do a little bit from each food group. I have seen some people who let their children use muffin pans and each cup holds a little bit of something different.
Hard boiled eggs, leftover meat from dinner, nuts for protein
Crackers, toast for carbs
various fruits and veggies
one cup can hold dip for the fruit or veggies
Kate
My husband and daughters favorite lunch is cottage cheese and tomatoes. The girls like their tomatoes squeezed with just the juice, with salt and pepper. We are also really big on any leftovers from the previous dinners during the week. Nothing really special, but my girls love it.
Shannon Depew
I am looking forward to hearing everyone’s answers. I am so blessed to have my dh home for lunch every day. He wants a MEAL, and I am constantly lost as to what to fix. I am hoping to see some good answers as to what you all make for lunches.
Annie
Honestly, sometimes fixing lunch can overwhelm me! My husband is a pastor and we live in the parsonage across the street from the church, so he comes home for lunch most days. So I have to give a little bit more thought to lunches than I would if it was just me and the kids.
We do A LOT of sandwiches — peanut butter and honey, tuna, egg salad, chicken salad, grilled cheese/panini-type. We also do leftovers sometimes. And especially in the winter months I make soup sometimes – broccoli cheese, lentil veggie, taco soup . . . but I’m always looking for more ideas 😉
On those occasional times that Daddy has a lunch meeting, I have done “muffin tin lunches” for my kids where I put something different in each cup — sandwich meat, cheese, baby carrots, cucumber sticks, dip for the veggies, grapes, crackers, even a few chocolate chips for “dessert”! They LOVED it! And I even saw that they tended to eat veggies that weren’t their favorites when I presented it that way!
We love “ziplock bag omelettes.” I keep cut up veggies, meats, and cheese in the fridge. When it is time for lunch, fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Then everyone gets a quart sized ziplock freezer bag. They add several spoonfuls of their favorite omelette ingredients then add 2 eggs. Zip the bag and squish or shake. Drop in the simmering water for 13-15 minutes. Carefully unzip the bag and dump out your omelette on a plate. Use caution with small kids – the bags will be hot. Serve with toast and fruit. Our favorite is to serve with salsa.
A favorite in our house for lunch is English Muffin Pizzas. They are super easy, super inexpensive, super quick and super good! My son has dairy and nut allergies so this is a real treat for him.
I purchase the English muffins at Aldi’s. You get 6 in a package for $0.99. I use their plain spagetti sauce…also $0.99. I heat my oven to 375. I open up the muffins and lay them on a foil lined cookie sheet. I spoon 2 Tbsp. of the spagetti sauce on each half. For my son, I then add what ever topping he wants…usually olives and pepperoni. For my daughter and myself, I add mozzarella cheese and what ever toppings. I bake them for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
Lisa Sheldon
1) leftovers is probably one of our most frequent lunches
2) cheese, crackers, apples
3) tomatoes with mozzarella, fresh basil & a squeeze of balsamic vinaigrette
4) greek salad: cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, kalamata olives, fresh mint, lemon juice & olive oil
5) spinach, oranges, red onion, red wine vinaigrette
6) spinach, sliced pears, walnuts, roquefort cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette
7) peanut butter, banana, honey & sunflower seeds on a hot dog bun
Julia Reffner
I can’t wait to get some great ideas from you all. My girls love peanut butter and Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread). My middle child will eat this everyday, but we usually try to add some variety.
We sometimes will grill up some quesadillas with cheese and leftover chicken. With some leftover veggies and a glass of skim milk this one is pretty tasty and healthy as well.
Soup (preferably homemade in the slowcooker from earlier in the week) with grilled cheese and milk also can be enticing.
Sometimes we just have cheese and crackers with whatever fresh fruit we have on hand. I try to buy whatever is in season and/or on sale so we always have something.
I have also gone to buying the 5 lb bag of organic carrots (they are cheaper this way than the regular ones… at least here) and peeling and cutting them in large batches so we can have them for a side or snack whenever we get hungry. This adds to our veggie intake most days too.
I know that is nothing creative, we also pull out leftovers and reheat and buffet it so they can kind of pick which veggies they get.
Hope this helps someone. Can’t wait to read all the other submissions.
Have a great week Ladies!
In His Abounding Grace,
Jeniver Boyer
Grilled Cheese is a big hit here. The number one request though is wraps. Usually lunch meat (turkey), cream cheese, lettuce or spinach, and a slice of cheddar cheese. I buy the burrito size wraps at our local discount grocery store in a 40 count pack for less than $6.00 so overall this is an economy lunch as well. Mommy likes left overs so the boys get wraps and I get left overs (which is usually just one serving of left overs anyway.)
This is a quick and easy and portable lunch, great for co-op days as they can eat it in the van on the way.
My kids have two favorites:
1. Tortillas with shredded cheese and sour cream
2. Cream cheese – on celery and saltines
Both are quick, easy and relatively affordable!
Heather
Thanks, Ladies! Great ideas!
I try to fix super simple things for lunch, that aren’t messy! lol
1) I often serve cream soups in a mug with grilled cheese or bacon sandwiches on toast.
2) We also love ramen noodles. I just cover them with water, nuke them and let them sit to soak up the water. You can reduce your salt intake by only using part of the seasoning packet.
3) My girls love string cheese, but it is pretty expensive, so I usually buy part-skim, low moisture mozzarella. It tastes the same.
4) Chicken salad on canned crescent rolls makes a nice lunch and the girls love taking the pieces of dough apart and rolling them up.
Mmmm. I’m hungry now.
Heather Bice
Lunch around here consists of a variety of things. Since my children are older, they each fix themselves something they like-most of the time. Some things I try to keep in the cabinet/fridge/freezer are: pizza sauce (big can from Sam’s Club is only $2.49-I put it in 2 cup Ziploc containers and freeze it, English muffins, chicken patties (buy the big bags when on sale), cheeses and crackers.THeir favorites are:
Chicken parmesan patties – frozen chicken patties which we bake and then add sauce and mozzarella cheese-some like it on a bun.
English muffin pizzas – I buy whole wheat and they add sauce, pepperoni and cheese.
Grilled cheese and soup
Spaghetti – they love to cook noodles and add some of the pizza sauce to them.
Quesidillas – we put leftover chicken in ziploc bags, so they can pull it out when they want, add some cheese and put in the Quesidilla Maker (or Foreman Grill works great)
Tacos – a quick, easy, inexpensive lunch – we just brown ground turkey and add some Mexican spices and chili powder, and we have lunch in about 10-15 min.
Leftovers are usually an option also – spaghetti, homemade soups, casseroles, etc.
Thanks for all your great ideas!
I try to plan leftovers to have for lunches at least a few days a week. Makes life much easier! If there are no leftovers, favorites here are…
deviled eggs, cheese, crackers, fruit
tomato soup and grilled cheese (we actually use tomato juice as our soup. We
discovered this when one of our daughters couldn’t have milk or corn
products. Now the kids won’t eat anything else!)
yogurt and fruit
peanut butter dip and fruit (1 jar pnb, 3/4 c oatmeal, 1/4 honey, few chocolate
chips. It is thick, so isn’t really a “dip” but is yummy with fruit)
cereal and ice cream is always a favorite, even though rare, treat
homemade pizza – I try to keep homemade pizza dough in the freezer, or
sometimes we make them on syrian bread or english muffins.
Thanks for sharing, everyone! Vicki
Our favorite lunches are:
1. Homemade pizza using individual pizza rounds that we made in advance.
2. I buy (sometimes we make our own) a huge bag of tortillas and a big can of vegetarian refried beans from Sam’s and make burritos that we plastic wrap and put in the freezer – inexpensive burritos that are quick and easy to warm up and eat.
3. Leftovers
4. Homemade soups – usually vegetarian soups. Our favorites are tomato (we blend a jar of tomatoes that we bottled during the summer and add a little basil and salt, warm and serve) and corn chowder (recipe follows)
Saute an onion then add 1/2 can of coconut milk, simmer for 2 minutes.
Add peeled, cubed potatoes (for our family it takes about 20, but less is fine also – about 1 1/2 potatoes per person). Stir to coat potatoes with the coconut milk and onion.
Cook until potatoes are just about tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in bag of frozen corn and rest of coconut milk. Continue cooking until corn is warmed through. Add salt and/or pepper to taste. We serve with homemade biscuits or rolls.
Thanks for all the suggestions! We need variety in our lives and this definitely helps!
Cindy Richards
I decided not to by the lunchables at the store because they always seems so expensive. So I now make my own.
Pizza lunchables are really easy.
Ritz crackers, pizza sauce in a sandwich baggie (cut a small hole in the corner for easy squeezing, pepperoni slices, and shredded mozzerella cheese.
Ham/Turkey lunchables.
Crackers, sliced meat, cheese, mayo/mustard in a baggie. Easy!
Add a hard boiled egg and some veggies. YUM!
Another easy one is to make a “salad” with lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, tomatoes, onion if you like, celery…..what ever you have for a salad.
Chop everything up in small pieces, mix together, add some chicken cubes and some cheddar cheese. Wrap it all up in a tortilla with salad dressing. Just like the kind that the chicken place makes. These are great for about 3 – 4 days left over in the fridge.
Enjoy–
Blessings-Katy Horn
We have a small bariety for lunch:
leftovers
sandwiches of all varieties on homemade bread
quesadillas (corn tortilla with beans, meat, cheese, and another
tortilla on top, then fry in olive oil until crisp)
wraps made on homemade flour tortillas (our favorite)
all are served with raw fruit or vegetables
Well, I need to go bake some bread for our lunch today!!
Carolyn Griggs
We try for variety, but usually end up with sandwiches(PBJ) at least 2-3 times/week. We also like leftovers–although Daddy gets first dibs on these :), quesadillas, and macaroni & cheese with leftover veggies and/or meat mixed in. The children also like making their own ‘lunchables’. I’ll cut the lunchmeat & cheese into the right size and give them a small stack of crackers. This is one we bring with us on errand day. We also usually have some sort of fruit.
DH doesn’t like most soups so I should make some for lunch for the children & I–especially this time of the year.
Blessings!
Hillary in Indiana
My kids would eat Peanut Butter and Jelly everyday if I would let them…but I don’t! I try to limit it to once or twice a week. Other things we have are…
– Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup with alphabet noodles (they are always more likely to eat it with the alphabet noodles!)
– Ham roll ups (spread some cream cheese on the ham and roll it up)
– Ravioli (I buy the dry kind and boil it and let them dip it on marinara sauce)
– Grilled Cheese
– Homemade Chicken Nuggets (I make up a bunch and freeze them. They love it dipped in a little honey)
– Homemade Healthy Pancakes (whole grain and flax with pumpkin or apples)
– English Muffin Pizzas
– Scrambled Eggs
– Cubed Turkey Ham and Cheese Cubes (eaten with a toothpick for fun!)
Honestly my husband is rarely home for lunch, my children are fine with the same old thing most of the time, and I’d rather spend the time talking with my girls or helping them study than working on a fancy lunch. So most days we do the normal things like PB&J, mac & cheese, leftovers, or cereal. I try to get a fruit and/ or veggie in there and my oldest (10) and I often have a salad. However, we do on occasion just want something a little more AND I also have some time to work on it. Those times, here’s what we like.
Egg Flower Soup
1 green onion, chopped (top included)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp. salt
dash pepper
Stir onion into eggs. Heat broth to boiling in a 3-quart saucepan. Add salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture slowly into broth, stirring constantly with a fork. Boil about 5 minutes until eggs are done.
Grilled Tortilla Roll-ups
1 Medium Tortilla per person, room temperature
Favorite cheese
Some meat: leftovers, lunchmeat, sausage, whatever
A bit of sliced onion
Sliced tomatoes
Whatever veggies your gang likes warmed
Lay out the tortilla and layer thin amounts of what you want on the roll-up. Roll it up. Place on a medium skillet. Set a flat pan lid on top. (You can do a few at once.) Grill a couple of minutes then flip it over. Grill a couple of more minutes until both sides are toasted and your cheese gets melty.
Bobbi Beeson
This is really timely for me, since we are having a current lunch crisis. I’m SUPER morning-sick ALL the time right now, and lunches are suffering big time. Today was jelly bread and applesauce. it was going to be PB&j’s but we are a bit concerned about the peanut butter contamination with salmonella that no one seems to know how widespread it is, sooo… we’re playing it safe, and having boring jelly sandwiches!
other things we have include
canned soup, usually progresso style, with crackers
grilled cheese and tomato soup, if i’m REALLY ambitious,
toad in a hole
scrambled eggs and toast.
ramen
corndogs (yeah, i TOLD you its a lunch CRISIS!)
and i just bought some more taquitos and chicken nuggets 🙂
My hubby works second shift right now so we do our big meal at lunch. However the kids and I do lunch type meals for supper.
My kids love mac and cheese with hot dogs cut up in it. Sometimes I do home made mac and cheese and sometimes I do from the box.
We also LOVE fried rice and it’s so easy to do. I make extra rice the day (or meal) before. I like to use brown rice. I take it and put it in a skillet with an egg, butter, and add peas and carrots. When it’s browning slightly I add soy sauce and it’s an awesome lunch..sometimes throw in a little chicken if we want.
I also cook egg noodles and then mix a hidden vally ranch packet with some mayo, I then dice up tomatos and cucumbers and it’s a very refreshing meal..good for spring.
This is my first mommy homework. I’m excited about learning with you ladies!
I like all of the ideas.
We have:
snack tray lunches (olives, fruit, crackers, cheese)
Stir fry (whenever I steam rice, I try to make lots of extra) then I can throw some cold rice, sesame oil, water chestnuts, celery, anything laying around 🙂 in and heat through, then add soy sauce
Fruit Smoothies (again, whatever is handy) blueberries and pears are great together
Linda Sprague
sprague_001@msn.com
If my son, who is 17 months old, had it his way we would have
oatmeal w/ bananas
juice and milk
mac and cheese w/ corn
raisens
juice and milk
and spagettios (it counts as a veggie for each serving CRAZY)
pretzels and fishes
juice and milk
you just change the meal daily and he would be happy
Good ideas ladies I think I’ll be trying some of them for my husband and myself and make my son at least try it.
Gretchen Morrison
1. Chicken fries go over well because of their portability and are easily
implemented into many entrees.
2. Pigs-in-a-Blanket (canned biscuits stretched out and wrapped around hot
dogs) 10 minutes to table.
3. Apple Dippers-slices w/ caramel dipping sauce.
4. Nana Grahams-graham grackers topped with banana slices
5. Grilled cheese sandwiches
6. Tuna served on toast w/ cheese
7. Chilitios-chili served over Doritios, Fritos or tortilla chips w/ or w/out cheese
8. Bite-sized raviolis
9. PB&J Twist-peanut butter & jam served on toasted bread (toppings go on smoother due to the heat).
10. Smool-Aid (nicknamed for it’s smoothe taste!) 1-any flavor Kool-Aid, 1-lemonade flavored Kool-Aid & 1-cup sugar. This is an all-time favorite with my children. Variation as a frozen treat is to serve slushed or frozen in ice trays, cover with saran wrap and insert toothpick into each water well.
I hope your children enjoy those Yummy Lunch ides.
Ugh! Lunchtime is a hassle around here … my girls are so picky! They don’t get that from me … I love food LOL! They don’t like sandwiches (except PB&J), but they will eat deli meat by itself, so I roll the slices up and stick them with a toothpick … they like the “appetizer” feel of that. A bit of fruit and maybe a slice of bread on the side and they’re happy. They also love mac-n-cheese, though I won’t serve it more than once a week, if that … and when I do, I like to add some leftover chicken or a can of tuna for protein. I also try to keep hard-boiled eggs on hand … my 6 yo likes them plain and my 10 yo likes to make egg salad with them.
Looking forward to trying some of the suggestions you others have made!
Jennifer Neuman
English Muffin Pizzas
•6 English muffins
•1 can pizza sauce
•8 ounces mozzarella cheese
Break muffins in half and place on a cookie sheet. Spoon sauce onto each muffin half and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until cheese melts.
Ok, well, one of our faves is different take on a salad.
You would take leftover taco shells or tortilla chips and put salad on it like a taco salad, kind of, but instead of dressing we put chili on top! YUM! you can also add some sour cream or salsa if you like. You can make this from all leftovers if you like also.
Just keep the extra taco shells froma night when you eat tacos and keep the leftover chili and salad from other meals! It is good!
We love to add pea salad to any sandwhich or meal. It is cheap and good. All you do is dump a can or two of peas in a bowl, chop up a little velveeta chesse in it and add some mayo and mix it all up! YUM!
Egg salad sandwhiches or chicken salad from leftover chicken. Just add some mayo and seasonings and you are good!
If I think of more later, I will add it. I am babysitting right now and have to go!
Rodna James
Boy, everyone has so many great ideas!!! Many that we already use. I did not read them all, so mine are probably some duplicates.
Lunch here is very informal eating whatever we have on hand.
First choice is leftovers. My oldest (17) Loves to eat our leftovers!
Other choices include:
peanut butter or sharp cheddar with whole wheat graham crackers
carrots and celery with peanut butter or tahini (I didn’t realize how good pb and carrots are!)
any nut butter with agave sandwich
Hummus and veggies or crackers
salad with all the goodies – whatever we have on hand – sunflowers seeds, raisins, oranges, corn, chickpeas, leftover turkey or chicken plus all the other veggies
salad sandwiches – chicken, tuna, leftover meat.
homemade sandwich spreads made from canned beans or lentils.
breakfast for lunch! pancakes, eggs and toast, egg sandwiches, etc.
toasted cheese
pasta and tomato sauce and grated cheese
pork and beans / baked beans with (or without) ground meat over bread
I am done brainstorming. Hope I had some new ideas.
Annmarie Rozelle
My Favorites:
Taco Cups: You take tortillas…. If I use the big ones I take it and tear it into 4 pieces than fold each piece to fit inside a muffin tin. Then I add meat and sauce and cheese (like Pizza) or you can do LO meat and butter and cheese)…you can do whatever meat is leftovers and if your kids like it veggies too….then you bake them until crisp…
Another favorite I just started doing and is a hit comes from a cookbook on sneaking veggies into your kids food…basically you take a can of beans…I tried this with Navy Beans…puree until smooth that can of beans than you can add it to tuna fish sandwiches (1-2T at a time) ; or to boxed macaroni and cheese. I added it today to the MAC & CHEESE after you drain it before you add the butter and milk…than add some butter and the cheese and more milk as needed…it tasted good and unnoticed.
A bagel with flavored cream cheese and some leftover shredded meat is always a hit! Soup is convenient – if I make a big batch in the crockpot for dinner the night before we have it for lunch the next day. My kids aren’t big breakfast eaters, so often we have a snack breakfast and then have breakfast for lunch. My husband is a pastor, too, and we lived in a parsonage for many years. I learned to plan lunch for me and the kids and if Dad was able to be there he would enjoy what we were having. It was too stressful to break our schedule everyday just because a meeting came up.
Oh my, this is my first time ever being part of something like this. I am so excited.
Any way, my daughter likes to make her own chicken soup. It is good for her to experiment in the kitchen and they usually will eat what they make themselves.
She usually grabs canned chicken, chicken boullion with the water, whatever veggies we have at the time (mostly what ever was left over from dinner the night before), some kind of noodles(elbow, bow ties, speghetti, doesn’t matter). Salt, pepper and garlic powder. She will also make pizza with speghetti sauce or pizza sauce on soft tortilla shells.
Pizza’s on ritz crackers, cracker, sauce, parmasean or shredded cheese.
My oldest like instant oatmeal and my middle likes salad with chicken thrown in.
Another idea that I have done is Tuna casserole with squash. Tuna, cream of chicken soup, dab of sour cream, egg or penne noodles, butternut or acorn or summer squash cooked and purred or finely shredded and mixed in. The kids love it.
Blessings,
Carrie Baker
One of our favorites is nachos. I make the meat up at the beginning of the week and all we need to do is heat it up. We melt some shredded cheese on our serving of chips and add meat, salsa, sour cream as we each like. The boys feel like they have had a real treat (chips) and I know they’ve had something good for them.
I’ll be using some of the ideas already listed!
I usually do really easy things for lunch (pb and j, grilled cheese and soup, etc.), but those have been discussed.
Another thing I like is buying large cuts of meat(turkey, roast, whole chicken) while on sale, roast, then shred or slice it. I usually add some sort of sauce or other flavoring if it’s shredded. We will then have enough for sandwiches or tortilla nachos through the week and sometimes I’ll freeze a portion for the next month.
We love Chili Mac. Make Mac and Cheese, add leftover chili heat through. Sometimes we add cut up hot dogs.
Debbie Shelton
We tend to have sandwiches, cause it’s easiest.
We also do raman noodles, cooking the noodles in broth instead of water and adding meat (usually chicken) and sometimes a veggie like peas
We make quesadillas, canned soup, eggs sometimes.
We’re really boring when it comes to lunch 🙂
I’m going to read through all the other messages to get ideas, thanks ladies!
Teresa
Hi everyone we have so many different likes and dislikes at lunchtime sometimes I feel like a short order cook. Lately one that everyone can agree on is Nacho’s I buy a rotisary chicken and pul it apart. put nacho chips on a cookie sheet and load a can of chili with beans or homade if we have left overs. then salsa and cheese sour cream black olives to top it off yummy!
Meatball subs are also quick I put meatballs in crock pot in am and leave rolls beside it onthe counter cheese in fridge. and They go like hot cakes. I was so glad to see everyones ideas I cant wait to try some out.Tracey Haskell
I put the chicken on chili then the cheese.
If we’re out of the house for lunch, then sandwiches usually are the choice (either lunchmeat or PB&J or sometimes PB& banana!)
When we’re at home, leftovers usually get looked at first.
Otherwise, we might have soup with grilled cheese or cheese quessadilla.
Other favorites are mac and cheese with peas as a side, macaroni with canned pease tossed in it (shared that recipe a few weeks back), or maybe hot dogs and beans.
Lately, the boys have become infatuated with ramen noodles. While they are cheap, they aren’t the best nutrition, so I keep that to a minimum.
When life’s busy at home, then PB & J usually gets eaten a fair amount. Although, I’m more partial to PB & banana with a glass of cold milk.
Making lunch is actually one of the tasks the older boys are starting to have assigned once a week. So, there might be more creative lunches on the table soon…
Laura O’Neill
One of our favorites is sausage rigatoni:
1 pound of italian sausage browned
1 box rigatoni noodles
1 small onion
1 bottle of Sundried tomato vinegarette dressing
1 small can tomato paste
parm. cheese
basil
Cook the Rigatoni noodles until done. Meanwhile, in a pan, brown the sausage. Cut up as much onion as you like and add it to the meat. Cook until the onions are slightly yellow. Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste and add as much dressing as you need to make a tomato sauce in the pan. Let this warm up. Turn the heat down and add your cooked noodles. I usually use half the rigatoni box for this amount of meat. My younger ones like more noodles than meat, so add what you like. Sprinkle with basil and parm. cheese and serve. Sometimes, we add a salad or garlic bread. Hope you enjoy!
Sincerely,
Katrina Boatwright
My boys have a new favorite. We take tortillas and put muenster cheese and taco sauce between two of them and fry them in a pan. They call them pizzas, but with the taco sauce…well, not sure if it is a taco or a pizza.
Their other favorite is just plain salsa and chips. Not the healthiest, but a treat nonetheless.
We also like breakfast for lunch. Things like pancakes and scrambled eggs are good, easy lunches.
Karen Gebes
My oldest (18) takes leftovers to work (if there are any leftovers!) I’m so proud of him – he’s saving his my money by taking his lunch every day! My youngest (8) loves to make “pizza” – anything he can put on a flour tortilla! Lately he’s into scrambled eggs which he makes himself. There are 6 kids and they each have their favorites – mac and cheese, ramen noodles, panini sandwiches, soup, salad, tuna salad made w/ranch dressing, veggie tray, cheese and crackers, baked potatoes topped w/whatever’s on hand…If I let them they would each make their own favorite and occasionally I will, but oh what a mess! But like I always say, messes are made to be cleaned up!
Lyndra
I use a four week meal plan for all the meals when my husband is here with me and the 2 boys. These are the items on that which I can do for lunch, although some are listed as breakfasts I would still use them for lunch on another day if it was convenient.
Lunch Potato Hash
Lunch Tinned Pie/Meat Pudding and chips (French Fries to you)
Lunch Cheese and tomato pasta
Breakfast Bacon butties (Sandwiches to you)
Breakfast Cheese on Toast
Breakfast Scrambled eggs and beans
Lunch Scotch pie and beans
Lunch Cheese and bean tortillas
Breakfast Beans on toast
Breakfast Sausage butties (Sandwiches to you)
Breakfast Bacon and eggs
Lunch Southern Fried chicken and American fries
Lunch Lamb grills/Beef burgers
Breakfast Egg butties (Sandwiches to you)
Breakfast Beans and sausage on toast
Breakfast Pancakes
Lunch Liver and bacon with noodles or egg fried rice
Lunch Chilli and rice
Breakfast Potato scones and tomatoes
Breakfast Boiled eggs and Toast
Breakfast Sausage and eggs
Some days we go for a plain old sandwich (butties to me) For the other days I tend to use up leftovers or make home made soups with plenty of vegetables and some beans and pulses thrown in. The combination varies every time I make a pan because it always depends on what is lurking in the fridge.
One good tip is to freeze small bits of leftover meat or vegetables and when you have a few bits throw them all in a soup.
Also one of my boys wont eat his veggies except corn so I make sure he gets his by liquidising them and putting them in soups and sauces (this has been known to work on the husband too lol).
Love and Blessings
Angela Marchington
One thing about lunches is that sometimes they are rushed (I just have to get those kids into bed soon so we can do some schoolwork!) and sometimes they are relaxed (let’s turn lunch into home economics and make it fun!). On rushed days, I am grateful my little ones love PB and J sandwiches. What could be easier? I find that one of those apple slicers (they cut the apples into sections?) is invaluable and makes it easy for the middle ones to help, or maybe some tiny carrots, or fresh grapes and orange slices help round out the meal. Mine love cheese as a side if you cut it into tiny sticks or chunks like they sell it at the store these days. It is cheaper to buy block cheese, though, and cut it yourself ahead of time, which speeds things up at mealtime, too.
On fun days, we like to use our $10 quesadilla maker from WalMart. It is AWESOME and the kids adore deciding what fillings to put into the quesadillas. Cheese, and/or some seasoned black beans or pinto beans (available in cans) are the favorites. We keep taco seasoning in a salt shaker and they spice it up with that inside, or with salsa, or leftover Taco Bell packets as they like.
Two other favorite quick meals involve canned biscuits. Open a can and slice each biscuit down the middle. We usually make half of them mini-pizzas, topping them with spaghetti or pizza sauce, cheese, and whatever else the child likes (or whatever mom has available, depending on leftovers). The others, we fill with cheese (our favorite is provolone, but anything works, except cheddar doesn’t melt as well) and lunch meat such as ham or turkey. For the biscuit-wiches, you have to use both halves of the biscuits (top and bottom), but for the pizzas, one half makes one pizza. I just pop these in the oven per package instructions and keep an eye on them. They are great (for mom, too) and the kids think it is lots of fun to make them. An alternative to the canned biscuits is to use English muffins. They work fine, but are a bit chewier.
Lastly, a long time favorite easy lunch is to make a deli platter or a vegetable/fruit tray (like the ones they sell in the store for too much money). We have an appetizer tray, and also have divided plastic dishes we purchased at the dollar store that we use when we do these. Something about having all those choices appeals to kids, and it gets them to eat their veggies and fruit. Ranch dressing is our favorite veggie dip, and yogurt makes a great fruit dip. Just have a peek at the prepackaged ones next time you shop to know what you want to put in yours…meat, cheese slices, bread halves, crackers, carrots, broccoli, celery (filled with PB!), tomatoes, green pepper slices, goldfish, bananas, cantelope, apples, grapes, etc. It’s as much fun making it as it is eating it! This works great for movie night as well, as a departure from our favorite…pizza.
Thanks. This was fun. I have enjoyed reading all the ideas posted!
Lunch is Mom’s break time around our house. Lunch is served by the kids so I can have a break to have my quiet time or take care of the baby, or sometimes just breathe a little bit!
Since the kids fix it themselves we started with a lot of sandwiches, but now that my dd is older so we have a lot more variety than we used too.
Fluffer nutter sandwiches.(Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. )
They don’t get them very often, but even my picky kids love them!
Another favorite is tortilla pizzas. My dh started making these when i was pregnant and very sick. They have become a staple.
It’s an awesome thin crust pizza, just take a flour tortilla put on some sauce and your favorite pizza toppings, and bake! (these taste best when cooked in a very hot oven for a very short time. We do 500 degrees for about 6-8 mins)
Mac and Cheese with a can of tomato soup (undiluted) mixed in tastes a lot like spaghettios and you can mix in your favorite meat.
cold tuna salad (pasta, tuna, and peas in salad dressing)
Egg salad sandiwiches are popular too.
Mc muffin sadwiches, eggs, sausage patties, and cheese on english muffins (or english muffin bread which is SOOO easy to make and tastes fantastic, great first bread to learn to make)
Tortilla Chips sprinkled with cheese and microwaved for a few seconds make quick and easy nachos ( my kids will eat them with ANY kind of cheese LOL)
Tortilla roll ups with any kind of sandwich filling, or just some cheese and a few second in the microwave.
pita pockets with any kind of sandwich fillings
Kids are pretty creative in the kitchen so i try to be available to yea or nay new ideas, but sometimes they learn a lot by making something that they thought was awesome but isn’t so great!
Keep the ideas coming 🙂
We like to serve finger foods as much as we can for lunch. My 2 year old, Abbie, loves hot gogs (as she calls them) and would eat them 24/7 if she could (yikes!) It is challenging to sneak any veggies past her, although she loves fruit! I also have picky 4 and 6 yos, and my 8 yo will pretty much eat anything that doesn’t eat her first 😀
Some of our favorite lunches are:
Biscuit Pizza (homemade biscuit dough put in a square pan and topped w/ sauce and shredded mozarella cheese) serve w/ favorite fruit
Mac n Cheese Shells w/ Tuna and tomato or apple slices on the side
Cheesy hot dog wraps (grated cheese and hot dog wrapped in tortilla and nuked for about 20 seconds or so) with a banana or orange slices
Top Ramen (I try to add some mixed veggies (without Lima Beans [yuk]) and scrambled eggs to this) soy sauce
Kiddie Relish Tray (Your favorite crackers, lunch meat, baby carrots, cheese and apple slices)
Banana Boats (banana’s split in half, lengthwise, spoon in 1-2 Tbsp peanut butter and drizzle w/ honey) serve w/ graham crackers.
My older dd and I usually end up eating the leftovers, cause the littles won’t touch them!
If I get real amitious, or remember to do ahead and freeze, we have homemade hot pockets!
Our old stand-by is usually quesadillas with taco meat, cheese, & tomatoes.
Blessings,
Lisa Sims
We usually have a large breakfast and dinner, so I try to keep lunch simple, including using leftovers! Here are a few of our favorite “leftover” treats:
Egg Rolls: We will make two batches (2 packs of wraps), using cabbage, onion, carrots, lean turkey, chicken, or beef, and a little seasoning to taste and cook these right up! I have been considering adding more veggies to this recipe which I think my children would not even notice and still love these. I realize this is not the most nutritious lunch snack, but considering all the veggies that they are consuming, I am pretty happy!
Salmon Patties: 1 large can of tuna, mix with this onion, egg, 1 cup or so of cornmeal and flour, 1 tbs. of oil, and form into patties, cook until golden brown. My children love these and I love the good supplemental qualities they are receiving from salmon. These are fried but I am careful about my choice of oil! We usually eat these alone or with a salad!
Tina Ketchens
Lunches around our house usually has to be something that I can make fast so my husband can get home and eat and run right back to work. We enjoy him being able to come home for the meal but some days it does push us a little.
Here is some of the meals we have:
* Grilled cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
* Left overs (we use this a lot for both lunch and supper)
* Pizza (homemade)
* Biscuits and gravy
* Macaroni and Cheese and hot dogs
* Homemade hamburgers and fried potatoes
* Scalloped potatotes and ham
* Potato soup
My kids don’t eat veggies very good so I have to force them to eat those. They love most fruits. My husband has to have a meat at every meal or we haven’t eaten. 🙂
I have enjoyed seeing some new ideas this week. It has made me realize that I’m not the only mom that has picky eaters! 🙂
Blessings,
Orilla Crider