twoforjoy Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 (edited) What should I feed my kids for lunch? (I mean generally, not today.) I feel like every single afternoon, when lunchtime rolls around, I'm taken by surprise and have no idea what to make the kids. I've tried planning out lunches when I plan dinners, but I always feel like I end up with a lot of wasted food. I'm thinking maybe what I need to do is just serve the same thing each lunch all week, rather than planning five different lunches and having a lot of wasted food? I have no idea. I'm not sure what my issue with lunch is, but I am sooooooo not on the ball with it. What do you do for lunch? Do you plan in advance? Do you just have stuff on hand? Do you serve the same thing every day? Do you prepare it the night before? Edited October 11, 2011 by twoforjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForeverFamily Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 :bigear: I wish I had more ideas for lunch as well. Especially more healthy ideas!:D I usually just have certian lunch foods on hand. The most common foods we have for lunch are PB&Js, sandwiches with sliced deli meat, chicken nuggets, spaghettios, hotdogs, ramen noodles, egg salad sandwiches (if I plan far enough in advance), sometimes sandwiches made with canned chicken or tuna . I usually try to give them fruit or vegetables as well. The ones my kids like the most are green beans, bananas and apples. HTH:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Our typical lunches are EASY: *quesadillas *rollups on tortillas *ham sandwiches *leftovers (at least twice a week) *soup, cheese and crackers *frozen pizza *salads *grilled cheese Sometimes I plan lunches when I'm planning dinner for the week. Sometimes we wing it. One year, I took lunch orders, giving two choices on paper and routing it to my kids as they studied. They chose, I made, and it was easy, peasy with a bit of fun. HTH, Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAS in LA Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I do plan in advance, since DH comes home for lunch several days per week. And since I hate that feeling of not knowing what's coming for the next meal. What about sandwiches? PBJ, grilled cheese, lunchmeat, grilled lunchmeat, sloppy joes, egg salad, chicken patties, hamburgers. (I made a rockin' grilled pimento cheese with tomato sandwich last week!) We also have tacos, soup, salad, or leftover casseroles (if there are leftovers). I try to keep lunches simple because we do most of our school in the mornings and I don't have time to get much ready. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Some days I make lunch, some days we do sandwiches or easy stuff. I hav posted lists before; if you search "tostones," then you should come up with several lunch threads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForeverFamily Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 That's pretty much the same here minus ramen noodles because if we had those that is all one of my boys would ever choose to eat. :lol: That's how I was as a kid! I had ramen almost everyday. Luckily my kids haven't followed in my footsteps! Oh, I forgot to add fishsticks! My kids really like fishsticks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meggie Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 :bigear: I've just recently come to the decision that I am going to need to make a double recipe at dinner and we'll be eating leftovers for lunch. I can handle making dinner every night because DH is here, but lunchtime gets rather hairy, so I need something quick and easy. DH has to pack a lunch the night before because he is always running late in the mornings. Plus Pigby needs to learn to appreciate leftovers. I swear, if I didn't CLEARLY remember 9 months of a miserable pregnancy and 40 hours of labor with that child, I would wonder if he was really mine. I eat leftovers for breakfast; how can a kid of mine not like leftovers?!?!!?:lol: It's just easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 We plan to eat dinner leftovers for lunch. But sometimes there just isn't enough left over. For those times, we have soup, sandwich material, and bagel-pizza supplies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Excelsior! Academy Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Lunch is about survival until dinner. Large family logistics has a great crockpot lunch plan with grocery lists. We are doing their crock pot spaghetti every Monday. So easy. Just put sauce, broken noodles, and browned ground beef the crockpot around 8 or 9 am and turn on high. it's ready by noon. Serve with Parm. cheese and a salad. No waste. I find I can use far less meat than normal and everyone fills up. If you misjudge and need more then fill them up with bread or more salad. Here are the links. http://largefamilylogistics.blogspot.com/2008/09/five-easy-crockpot-lunches.html http://largefamilylogistics.blogspot.com/2009/03/large-family-lunch-recipes-with-grocery.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 (edited) We cook for several hours on Sunday and divide much of the food into meal portions and freeze/refrigerate. If we run out of small containers we put the rest in large containers and divide later. Lunch is then easy, homemade, portion correct, and quick. Edited October 11, 2011 by Hilltop Academy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meggie Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Lunch is about survival until dinner. Large family logistics has a great crockpot lunch plan with grocery lists. We are doing their crock pot spaghetti every Monday. So easy. Just put sauce, broken noodles, and browned ground beef the crockpot around 8 or 9 am and turn on high. it's ready by noon. Serve with Parm. cheese and a salad. No waste. I find I can use far less meat than normal and everyone fills up. If you misjudge and need more then fill them up with bread or more salad. Here are the links. http://largefamilylogistics.blogspot.com/2008/09/five-easy-crockpot-lunches.html http://largefamilylogistics.blogspot.com/2009/03/large-family-lunch-recipes-with-grocery.html Love this!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WistfulRidge Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 We tend to eat leftovers. If there aren't any leftovers than DS will generally have a quesedilla, hotdog, or cheese slices & crackers with fruit and veggies. I resort to a protein bar and some veggies if there aren't leftovers. Sometimes I'll have a sandwich... but neither DS or I are really sandwich people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmoe Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I generally plan every morning what we will have have lunch. If we don't have leftovers, we plan on sandwiches, an easy soup or pasta dish, or something frozen. I find that if I don't make that plan at breakfast, things are just to hard at lunch. For some reason, I don't have any brain power to figure out lunch in the middle of school time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 My kids get their own lunch. Here's my dd's list of ideas for lunches she can pack for school--we add a fruit or salad or baby carrots or such-like to round out these "main ideas" Soup (canned, usually) sandwich (PB, PBJ, PB honey, applebutter) fruit and cheese kabobs cheese and crackers PB on an apple extra-healthy granola bar yogurt cottage cheese chili leftovers bagel w/cream cheese She likes to supplement with banana bread, ants on a log, corn bread, goldfish, etc. When we are home, we all prefer something hot, so we eat a lot of chicken and rice, leftovers, soup, and sometimes a frozen somethingorother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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