do your kids eat a hot lunch?

[Emmy]

I was looking at the Large Family Logistics crock pot lunch plan and thought it looked a lot more like dinner at my house than lunch. We tend to eat either leftovers (there's never enough for all of us though) or cold sandwiches (lunch meat, PBJ). So, I'm just curious, do your kids eat a hot lunch?

 

I was looking over that site for her dinner plans but couldn't find them - I wondered how dinner looked comparative to lunch.

[BikeBookBread]

Most times, yes. The girls will actually EAT their lunch if it is a hot lunch :)

[TXMary2]

Mostly they do. I don't think we have a preference. We just eat what is available and sounds good at the moment. Today will be leftover stuffed bellpeppers so it will be a hot lunch. Other days we have sandwiches, but quite often it is Macaroni & Cheese, Grilled Cheese, raviolis, Tilapia, fish fillets etc.

[Emmy]

Most times, yes. The girls will actually EAT their lunch if it is a hot lunch :)

 

So what do you make? I think I gave up hot lunch when I crossed from 3 kids to 4. Or maybe it was when I started homeschooling - I don't remember. But there was a time I made grilled cheese sandwiches and such.

[Skadi]

We make a lot of soups, chilis, stews... Grilled cheese is a favorite. We also have breakfast foods for lunch (corned beef hash, pancakes, grits, waffles, pork chops with eggs, etc.). We also bake almost-homemade pizza (pizza dough bought from the grocery store with our own toppings and sauce from a can). Stir fry is another quick recipe we use a lot. I think there's just something psychologically satisfying about eating hot food. :)

[Laura Corin]

We often have leftovers for lunch. If not, it might be soup or a sandwich.

 

Laura

[jfletcher8091]

In the winter, yes. Summertime, not usually, unless it is leftovers. Actually, it is the same with breakfast. Wintertime, hot cereal, waffles, pancakes, eggs, etc., summertime usually cold cereal, yogurt, fruit. Cold food just seems tastier in hot weather.

[wendybird]

Usually hot lunches here. It is alot easier to make one pot of something than it is to make umpteen sandwiches! We do tortilla roll ups two or three days per week though.

[kittysmom]

We eat hot food if we're warming up leftovers. We occasionally have mac & cheese (my son's very favorite food) or grilled cheese. But other than that, it's cold sandwiches or tortillas always!

[BikeBookBread]

So what do you make? I think I gave up hot lunch when I crossed from 3 kids to 4. Or maybe it was when I started homeschooling - I don't remember. But there was a time I made grilled cheese sandwiches and such.

 

Quesadillas, soup, leftovers, roll-ups, pasta, hot dogs, mac and cheese... But I'm only cooking for two kiddoes, too, which I think makes a difference.

[dragons in the flower bed]

Now that they can make it for themselves, yes, they usually have hot lunches. Grilled cheese sandwiches, mac n cheese and quesadillas are popular choices, or breakfast repeats: hard-boiled eggs, oatmeal. We do a lot of leftovers for lunch but those are hot if they're reheated, right?

[momofkhm]

My kids eat leftovers for lunch as well. Sometimes we'll make mac and cheese for lunch. Sometimes I have the fixings for bean burritos. Then I usually have what we need for sandwiches.

 

Sometimes it's hot, sometimes not, but I don't plan lunch.

[Emmy]

I would love to do leftovers from dinner for lunch but it seems there's never enough for so many of us. I probably need to cook larger quantities for dinner but that's another thread/issue.

 

I should probably ask my 10yo to take on more lunch prep. Right now I either make it myself or I have them each do their own - and they make PBJ.

[kewb]

If my kids cook something for lunch then it is hot. Otherwise it is normally a sandwich.

[Stacey in MA]

We usually eat reheated hot leftovers, and if there's not enough, it's cold sandwiches, scrambled eggs, or soemthing like mac-n-cheese. :-)

[athena1277]

I'm so glad to learn that I'm not the only hs mom who does not fix a hot lunch! If my kids have a hot lunch, it's usually chicken nuggets heated in the microwave. I do try to make it healthy, like they usually eat some fruit and yogurt with lunch. I just don't cook lunch.

[NanceXToo]

rarely. Usually we eat cold sandwiches, salads, sometimes we eat dinner leftovers, sometimes we do "snack platters" of things like cheeses and fruits and crackers and yogurts or hardboiled eggs, things of that nature. Sometimes we have soups. Sometimes we get takeout food. Sometimes we'll make something simple like chicken nuggets or pierogies. But we almost never cook hot meals of the type that I'd consider more of a dinner food, no.

[Baseball mom]

Usually sandwiches or leftovers. Sometimes combos get really werid as I am trying to use up the last of this and that.

[Ellie]

Not usually, unless we had soup or something.

 

Some friends used to eat their biggest meal at breakfast, a medium meal for lunch, and cereal/breakfast-type food in the evening. I guess it worked for them, but I didn't feel the need to go that way.

[justamouse]

we eat leftovers from dinner for lunch. Just pop it in the microwave. That way I don't have to think about it. If I'm saving it for another dinner (like today) we eat PB&J, which we all love.

[Parrothead]

It depends on the time of year. Sometimes the week or can even be a day by day thing.

 

During the winter I often have a pot of soup on the stove. It is ready anytime after 11:30a. It is dipped out of it all day. I like to have the stove going most all day when it is cold.

 

Once spring gets we move on to sandwiches and salads - lots of salads.

 

Now our temps fluctuate a lot. One day last week it was cold enough to make a pot of soup. The temps didn't rise over 65*F. Today we will be having something cold. Mainly because I'm tired and grumpy due to the rudeness of others.

[MamaT]

We usually have leftovers for lunch. If not, my dd usually makes scrambled eggs and English muffins. For some reason, my dc love scrambled eggs. It is rare that we have sandwiches.

[amydavis]

We usually have leftovers. Although, with the ages of my children, we do a lot of fending for ourselves. Ds10 likes to make grilled cheeses, my oldest daughter will make pancakes sometimes. We also do soups, cold cut sandwiches, and the ever-famous chicken nuggets. :D

 

I agree with those who talked about making a big pot of something in the colder weather. There is something about that time of year, that will make me put on a big pot of soup, chili, or beans. Usually, it will be big enough to have for both lunch and dinner.

 

I'd like to be more organized in my meal planning with lunches though. It would be nice, I'm interested in ideas.

:lurk5:

[Whereneverever]

We do a lot of hot dishes for lunch. My kids work and play hard all morning, so by lunch they are famished.

[m0mmaBuck]

We make a lot of soups, chilis, stews... Grilled cheese is a favorite. We also have breakfast foods for lunch (corned beef hash, pancakes, grits, waffles, pork chops with eggs, etc.). We also bake almost-homemade pizza (pizza dough bought from the grocery store with our own toppings and sauce from a can). Stir fry is another quick recipe we use a lot. I think there's just something psychologically satisfying about eating hot food. :)

:iagree:

Usually hot lunches here. It is alot easier to make one pot of something than it is to make umpteen sandwiches! [snip]QUOTE]

:iagree:

[Dawn in OH]

We don't have hot lunches very often. With homeschooling 2, and having a toddler and an infant, I just don't have the time to be cooking another meal. The older kids are quite capable of preparing or helping prepare their own cold lunch. However we will sometimes make quesadillas or pizza and in the cooler months have leftover soup.

[Caitilin]

Not by most people's standards of hot lunches. We often have some kind of pasta for lunch together, but in general everyone gets his own lunch--some love PB&J, and some hate it, etc. We're not a hot lunch family, no. :001_smile:

[Crissy]

Hot lunches are seasonal here.

This time of year my boys like cold sandwiches, but during the late fall and winter months I usually make a pot of soup, quesadillas, or some other warm dish.

[ChristusG]

Sometimes. It really just varies. One thing I love about homeschooling is that I CAN serve them a hot, healthy (or healthier anyways) lunch.

 

Our hot lunches usually include:

 

grilled cheese....whole wheat, non HFC bread with organic cheese

quesadillas...whole wheat tortillas with organic cheese

organic pasta (whole wheat) with marinara sauce

mac-n-cheese

organic hot dogs

organic pizza

chicken nuggets

ham steaks

 

"Cold lunches" are more along the lines of:

 

meat boats (cubed ham dipped in ranch dressing)

squirrel wedges (mixture of organic nuts, blended and finely chopped, mixed with Nutella, natural peanut butter, and a bit of honey, smothered between two whole wheat tortilla shells and cut into wedges)

peanut butter and jelly sandwich (with organic ingredients and whole wheat bread)

Lunchable Jr (not the greatest, but they like them occasionally)

ham/cheese roll up on whole wheat tortilla

 

Then I serve it with a healthy side such as yogurt, fresh fruit, graham crackers, applesauce, etc.

 

I feel better when I can serve my kids a healthy lunch.....and a variety of things as well.

 

Just wanted to clarify.....I hate cooking, despise cooking, loathe cooking......so our hot lunches are ones that take about 10 to 15 minutes or less to prepare.

Edited August 2, 2010 by ChristusG
added something

[Tabula Rasa]

:iagree:

 

Great ideas for lunches.

[danybug]

We typically have hot lunches. My kids are just not into sandwiches :(

 

Normal things in our rotation are Annies Mac & Cheese, "Smiley" Fries with cut up cheese and some fruit, grilled cheese, frozen raviolis with jar sauce, soup or if there are leftovers I push those. I would like to have more options going, but I need more planning for dinner and that should probably be where I start :glare:

[Melenie]

We seldom do hot lunches, unless it is a cold day and I make a pot of soup.

 

We do a breakfast meal (eggs, toast, cereal or porridge and always fruit) they snack throughout most of the day on salads, fruit, veg or grains and have a hot meal at night.

 

My kids are not sandwich eaters and would not have a hot meal in the day even if I made it.

[kokotg]

sometimes. I really don't think much about whether food is hot or cold, I guess....

 

Today we did nachos with cheese plus blueberries and apple slices. Our usual stuff is:

 

grilled cheese or cheese toast

mac and cheese

pb&j

omelets and toast or egg sandwiches

quesadillas

turkey sandwiches

leftovers

 

...more often than not, it's one of those things with some fruit or veggies or yogurt on the side. I guess most of them are hot, but they're not at all elaborate.

[The Girls' Mom]

We do quite often, but the girls cook their own lunches. We usually will have quesadillas (with avacodo and onions..yum!), eggs, soup or leftovers. I do have one that eats a cold sandwich more often than not though.

[CanaryMelody]

A few times during the week. We usually have Mac-n-cheese, pizza bagels, quesadilla, hot dogs/corn dogs, soups, etc. Something easy and quick to fix. :)

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

I was looking at the Large Family Logistics crock pot lunch plan and thought it looked a lot more like dinner at my house than lunch. We tend to eat either leftovers (there's never enough for all of us though) or cold sandwiches (lunch meat, PBJ). So, I'm just curious, do your kids eat a hot lunch?

 

I was looking over that site for her dinner plans but couldn't find them - I wondered how dinner looked comparative to lunch.

 

 

We are odd (I have not read the replies so maybe there are other oddballs like us LOL) We make our big meal at lunch. That is the meal most would make a dinner. An example is baked chicken, veggies (1 or 2 kinds, depends. We eat alot of veggies around here LOL) sometimes we have some sort of starch (potatoes, mac and cheese, a slice of bread or something like that, but not always) and we have a big salad. Then for supper we will have maybe a salad, a sandwich or some soup or just something small like that. Its not that hard either. I put the meat in the oven on a low temp after breakfast and just slow cook it. Then around 1130-12 I will start the sides. It just makes more sense for us to have our big meal when we are going to be up and active for the day longer, and not soon before bed! We usually dont have cereal for breakfast either. We make alot of breakfast burritos and egg muffin sandwiches also (we like the food early rather than late :D)

Edited August 2, 2010 by wy_kid_wrangler04

[Miss Marple]

Yes! My boys are quite spoiled and love 3 hot meals a day. I usually do breakfast but I'm trying to wean them off having me make lunch. They will make their own - even sandwiches are toasted! I try to keep ingredients/prepared foods around that they can do on their own - frozen pizza, leftovers, buffalo wing/strips, Ramen noodles, etc.

 

It's a rare day when they make a cold sandwich!

[MaMa2005]

Hot lunches here. I think DS is a little spoiled with the hot lunches because he is already complaining about eating a 'cold' lunch one day a week (when he goes to a fine arts enrichment program). :glare:

[ereks mom]

Some days it's just too hot to eat hot food.

[Radish4ever]

usually my kids have a cold lunch - meat, cheese, fruit or something like that... We do eat hot stuff sometimes, though... corn dogs, chicken tenders, pasta sometimes... just not very regularly

[fairfarmhand]

Only if they put their PB and J in the microwave.

[Daisy]

I don't make lunch at my house. LOL.

 

My kids are nearly 11yo and 8yo. They make their own lunch.

 

It usually consists of various sandwiches, salads, left-overs, or cold plates. If they need help, they can come get me. Otherwise, they are perfectly capable of making a healthy lunch. :D

[Daisy]

Only if they put their PB and J in the microwave.

 

:lol: That's awesome.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

Not usually. During the summer it is too hot, and during the winter we are too busy. Starting next month DD will have a packed lunch 3 times a week with the babysitter, and we will be just getting home the other two days a week when it is time to eat, so we will do something quick and easy then get to work.

 

On the weekend we are usually out at friends or some activity and sometimes pack lunch to bring with us and occasionally eat out.