Lunchs...

[babysparkler]

Does anyone have a set "lunch schedule" for your home that you use or do you just take it one week at a time? How do you vary up your lunch schedule so that the kids aren't bored of the "same old thing"?

 

ETA: I meant to type "Lunches..." LOL! Can a mod fix that?

Edited August 5, 2009 by babysparkler

[PineFarmMom]

We have a breakfast/lunch schedule. I do add different things for variety here and there and make changes when we have a whim. I'm trying to come up with 2-3 weeks of lunches to just repeat. Breakfast will just always be the same because we like the choices we already have and they are simple. :)

[Shelly in the Country]

I make a hot lunch almost every day. DH works in town so he comes home for lunch each day, so I also have to have it ready at precisely the time he gets home so he can eat and get back to work.

 

I need things that are fast.

 

I rotate through cold cuts, homemade soup, breakfast for lunch, and some kind of hot sandwich like sloppy joes or shredded chicken. I try to save enough leftovers from dinners and lunches throughout the week for a "leftover buffet" on Fridays. I keep emergency frozen convenience foods for times when I just can't do anything else. Chicken nuggets, fries, taquitos, corn dogs, etc. I don't keep ALL of those on hand at one time, but I try to buy something for one emergency meal per week. If we don't need it, I save it for another week.

[SLH in ND]

Well, if I'm in organizer-mode, I'll sit down with dh, on a Saturday, and plan out a menu for the upcoming week. If I'm in super-organizer-mode, dh & I will sit down with a blank calendar page and plan an entire month.

Truthfully, the vast majority of the time, I'm in oh-no-it's-11:00-and-I-don't-know-what's-for-lunch-mode and we wing it. :tongue_smilie:

 

I have always done leftovers (from the previous night's supper) for lunch and not get any complaints. I don't know, but last year was just really an "off" school year for us. Nothing seemed to go smoothly - ever - even lunch. I told the kids we're going to do what I did when I was a kid in ps...a sack lunch with sandwiches every.single.day. I'm hoping things will turn around now.

 

When we've done menu planning, we have sometimes included the kids in it, so they can have some ownership of it. Even though you still might be eating the same old meals, maybe they won't seem so boring to the kids if they had more of an active role in it. Menu planning can also be tied in with Health by telling them that lunch must include a meat, grain, fruit, & veggie. With that, you can rotate which child chooses the food for a certain food group. You might come up with some different combinations that way, too. For example: When I make BBQ's/Sloppy Joes I always, without fail, will serve applesauce and corn with it. If I had dd#1 choose fruit, she'd pick oranges and dd#3 picking a veggie would choose carrots. I couldn't have dd#2 make a choice for this meal, because she is her mother's daughter and she'd serve it the same way I do...LOL! Anyways, the meal is now completely different than if I had served it.

 

I'm really in a rut with supper. 5:00 comes and I'm at a loss, with nothing thawed out. I MUST get back to menu planning, now that we're getting back into school and end-of-summer routine.

 

Sheri :)

[eternalknot]

I once heard that "we" have about ten meals that get heavy rotation in our respective homes. That seems true of my home, at least! We have about ten main meals that we rotate through: roughly a third are rice dishes, a third are noodle dishes, and the remaining third are a crapshoot of whatever the season is and my pantry is holding (soups, breakfast-y stuff like pancakes, the occasional ethnic dish, et cetera).

 

We always have a big, hot lunch. We're not huge breakfast people, and evenings are filled with extracurriculars, so lunch is our main meal of the day. None of us are big on sandwiches, I didn't grow up eating them so I've just never made them.

 

I always keep on hand the basic staples: rice, noodles, beans. We don't eat meat, so basically we just rotate veggies and sauces to keep basic dishes different. I don't mind if the kids get bored eating the same dishes I prepare. It happens, and sometimes we just have cravings for different types of foods. They're totally allowed to skip my meal and prepare for themselves anything they can find in the kitchen. And sometimes I prepare myself an alternate dish than what I'm serving them :) we all still eat at the table, though, that's the important thing for me.

[BakersDozen]

I have a 2 week rotation of lunches, so what we eat week 1 is what we eat week 3. At the beginning of every month I shop for the entire month for lunch (frozen chicken nuggets, pot pies, pasta, etc.). Basically nothing is perishable because I want to shop once and know it is done! Then I write what is for lunch on the calendar so my dc (each of my older 3 dc takes a day to prepare lunch) know what to make and don't have to interrupt me. They know to make the main meal plus a fruit, veggie and milk.

 

As far as kids not getting bored, it helps that they don't have the same thing until 2 weeks later. I also try to vary what is served as much as the sales and coupons will allow. I'm sure they get bored but hey, they can go without eating lunch and I'm sure they would find that being bored is better than being hungry. ;)

[Peela]

I don't tend to plan lunches much, but sometimes I do write down a list of things we could have, before I shop, jsut so that i have the ingredients. I rarely follow the actual plan because for me lunch depends a lot on how much energy I have by lunchtime.

Sometimes, its our main meal of the day and I will make a decent curry, casserole, or pasta dish. Othertimes it is more lunchy like toasted sandwiches or rollups. ANnd other times, I make mine, and leave the kids to fend for themselves, in which case they will make themselves pasta, or 2 minute noodles :)