Help me feed my fam! Lunches…

[Ausmumof3]

Lunches is my never ending downfall when it comes to meal planning. Oldest doesn’t like cheese. Or lentils. Or any non-meat protein really.  Or tinned tuna. Or slimy ham. 

We have eggs a lot but are all getting to the point of not wanting to eat any more eggs. It’s summer so bonus points for things that don’t need cooking or taste good cold. Also bonus points for cheap. Cold pre-cooked lunch meats are just not really in the budget right now.

 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Leftovers?  
 

Make your own sandwiches?  
 

Salad with protein?

Quesadillas?  (The one who doesn’t like cheese can leave it out and can put other things in instead. ). 

[regentrude]

Potato salad. Pasta salad. Tabouleh. Rice bowls. Veggies and hummus. Bread and a cold soup. Pitas filled with veggies and tahini dressing. Falafel.

Edited January 15, 2022 by regentrude

[Serenade]

We like baked potatoes and also various soups.  But those are not good for summer!  What about a pasta salad?  You can make a big batch of it and dish it up for a couple of lunches.  The one I make is penne, olives, roasted red peppers, provolone & salami, but you can add in anything you want.  Or leave stuff out, like the cheese.   I make a home-made vinaigrette, but you could use any store bought dressing as well.

Edited January 15, 2022 by Serenade

[Drama Llama]

Are you eating at home where you can fix something right before? 

Will he eat breakfast stuff?  Baked oatmeal with protein (Greek yogurt, nut butter) in it? Waffle sandwich with pbj?

Other kinds of beans besides lentils?   

Ground meat seasoned like for tacos and mixed with rice and veggies? 

Pasta?

Eggs done wjth different seasoning? Chilaquiles or Shakshuka? 

I will also say that I think our bodies know what they need.  If he’s telling you no to all the protein options maybe he’s telling you he doesn’t need more protein, and he can have the other pieces of the meal.  

[Innisfree]

Peanut butter, with or without jelly? Peanut butter with apple slices often worked here.

Yogurt

Hummus with carrots to dip

[Bambam]

Maybe pimento cheese? 
bean burritos (refried beans (squashed pinto beans or you can use whatever other beans you like) + cheese wrapped up in a flour tortilla and warmed up)
Taco Salad - I just put the fixings out and let everyone make their own (lettuce, tomato, cheese, taco meat, beans, chips, cabbage, whatever else)
fried rice (I save my leftover cooked rice in a freezer baggie and when there is enough - presto - fried rice. I toss in a bunch of frozen mixed veggies + fried egg)
Chicken salad (leftover chicken - add lots of grapes to stretch it)
hummus + veggies 
salad with whatever leftover meat you had the previous night
Mediterranean pizzas (spinach, tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, a little olive oil and red wine vinegar - spread over pita bread and bake in over for maybe 5 minutes - if you need to you can add meat
grilled cheese
noodle bowls
mac-n-cheese?

[Ausmumof3]

I forgot to mention no dressings also 😫 if it was just me and Dd this would be easy!

[Melissa in Australia]

Vegemite 

[Ausmumof3]

5 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

Vegemite 

None of my kids will eat that… we’re failed Australians!

Also no peanut butter. Will eat jam or honey but obviously not the most nutritional option.

Edited January 15, 2022 by Ausmumof3

[Ausmumof3]

31 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

Are you eating at home where you can fix something right before? 

Will he eat breakfast stuff?  Baked oatmeal with protein (Greek yogurt, nut butter) in it? Waffle sandwich with pbj?

Other kinds of beans besides lentils?   

Ground meat seasoned like for tacos and mixed with rice and veggies? 

Pasta?

Eggs done wjth different seasoning? Chilaquiles or Shakshuka? 

I will also say that I think our bodies know what they need.  If he’s telling you no to all the protein options maybe he’s telling you he doesn’t need more protein, and he can have the other pieces of the meal.  

This sounds interesting.  I haven’t heard of that before.

My DS does want protein - he wants almonds or meat. He doesn’t like many of the cheaper protein options unfortunately and will opt to do without rather than eat them. But he looks a bit pale/peaky at the moment!

[Jean in Newcastle]

10 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

This sounds interesting.  I haven’t heard of that before.

My DS does want protein - he wants almonds or meat. He doesn’t like many of the cheaper protein options unfortunately and will opt to do without rather than eat them. But he looks a bit pale/peaky at the moment!

How old is he?  Once my children got old enough to fix their own lunches they were on their own. (This was by 8 years old). 

[bookbard]

What about sausages? Bought in bulk they're pretty cheap. You can precook a whole lot and then they can make a sausage sandwich or add it chopped to pasta/noodles. 

What are they like with Frittatta (Zucchini slice)? Uses up lots of eggs but doesn't taste eggy, again you can make in advance and heat up for lunch.

 

[Rosie_0801]

Try Mayak eggs. They won't taste eggy.

[popmom]

4 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

None of my kids will eat that… we’re failed Australians!

Also no peanut butter. Will eat jam or honey but obviously not the most nutritional option.

Hey…I know kids who grew up on jam sandwiches (minus the peanut butter), and I was pretty judgmental about it, but they are now successful, upstanding adults. 😂

Edited January 15, 2022 by popmom

[Clemsondana]

I try to have leftovers that I portion into servings that people can reheat.  I also try to keep a freezer stocked with both packaged stuff (pizza, samosas, fried rice) and homemade stuff (soup or chili frozen in individual containers, breakfast burritoes, pancakes) and some easy pantry stuff (red beans and rice mix, canned soup, mac and cheese) so that if someone doesn't like the leftover options they have something that they can heat.  It depends on schedules, but either lunch or dinner is usually DIY at our house and people can choose from the options above or make something like PB and J or a grilled cheese sandwich.  Sometimes, as people said above, I make a vat of chili or a big batch of pasta salad or chicken salad and that's also an option for the week.  If I do cook both lunch and dinner, one of them is usually something simple.  One of my kids loves hoppin' john, a peas and rice dish that I finally figured out how to do in the instapot and not have it be mushy, so sometimes I'll make a quick batch of that.  My other kid likes puff pancakes (aka dutch pancakes, similar to popovers) which are a super eggy bread.  Maybe if you did something like that you could get calories and a couple of eggs into your kid but they'd mostly feel like they were eating the jam, fruit, or honey that it was topped with?  We also do fajitas that you can use meat but also stretch with veggies, or do eggs and black beans instead of the meat, or we do rice bowls with veggies and slow-cooked or instapot shredded meat that is a good use of cheap cuts of meat. 

[HomeAgain]

39 minutes ago, Clemsondana said:

I try to have leftovers that I portion into servings that people can reheat.

This is what we do.  It tends to help the youngest figure out what to eat and is something quick for lunchboxes.

Otherwise, lunch consists of

• yogurt
• cheese
• crackers
• hummus
• raw veggies
• fruit

I'm not going to create plates for anyone.  DS11 makes oatmeal or eggs for breakfast for himself every morning with our supervision, but he does not like bread, peanut butter, jam, or anything else that most kids will eat for lunch.  So we gave up. We told him that here are some options, he needed to either tell us what he did want or eat from those.  Very, very occasionally I will buy microwave shepherd's pie for him because he loves it, but it's not good for him.  And about once every two weeks I make sure that leftovers include mashed potatoes, another favorite food that he can reheat on his own.

[alisoncooks]

I hate lunches. None of us here really like traditional lunch items and it totally messes up my meal planning. 

The lunches we regularly eat aren’t super-healthy (though all are typically served with fruit/veg):

1. pepperoni, black olives, and cheese-stuffed breadsticks (frozen)

2. Refried beans topped with cheese/sour cream, tortilla chips (or sometimes as baked nachos)

3. Deli turkey, sliced cheese, big baked pretzel (from frozen) — my kids will do variations of the deconstructed sandwich…but not plain, ol’ sandwiches 

4. Leftovers

5. Crescent roll pockets (baked with cheese and turkey inside) 

6. Sometimes we have noodles and parm (with a side of chickpeas or kidney beans)

Sometime I can convince the kids to eat sandwiches or soup or yogurt….but not regularly. 

Edited January 15, 2022 by alisoncooks

[matrips]

My kids love pasta morning noon and night.  And will eat it cold. Or microwave it.  So I could make a ton of ziti or spaghetti and keep in fridge for them.  

I know you said no cooking- is microwaving okay? 

What about frozen meatballs?  Can they nuke them, add sauce, and stick in a roll?

frozen chicken nuggets and salad.

Can you make a larger dinner the night before and set aside leftovers?

Pre cook a bunch of shredded chicken.  Use for tacos, chicken salad, with Buffalo sauce, bbq sauce etc. with rolls or crackers.

Precook a bunch of chicken fried rice.  They can heat up a bowl as needed.

think dinner type meals you can make in bulk ahead of time.

 

[HS Mom in NC]

Almond butter and jam or honey sandwiches.

Rice bowls with canned or bulk cooked dried beans. (Bulk cook a batch of rice and beans and freeze individual portions.)  He can have it plain or add spices, leftover cooked veggies, sauces, balsamic vinegar, or salsa.

Hummus as a dip for raw veggies and whole wheat pita is delicious.

Parfaits: Jam layered between full fat Greek yogurt with the highest protein content you can get and the highest protein granola you can get.

Make extra dinner for future lunches.

Bulk cooked, budget friendly meat portioned individually and frozen.  That can be eaten on its own, with sauce, on a burrito, on a rice bowl, on a baked potato, in a salad, or in a taco.

[Emba]

Chicken or ham or roast beef salad sandwiches made from leftovers of other meals.

 

[mmasc]

What about egg fried rice, heavy on the egg? Would he like that? You could cook a big batch and then it could be re-heated easily at lunch. I usually just do the basics—brown rice, peas and carrots, egg, soy sauce, maybe some sesame oil and garlic. 
 

we do refried beans from a can often. One kid likes them as quesadillas with cheese. Another will eat just the beans on a high protein tortilla. Aldi has good high protein tortillas. Do you guys have Aldi there??
 

like a pp, I was going to suggest cold pasta salad. We just had that this week for our lunches. I made tri-color rotini, and put mozzarella cheese, black olives, cucumber, and bell peppers in it. This time I used a bottled Italian dressing bc I didn’t want to make my own. It was super easy to eat all week since it’s cold. You could leave out the cheese since he doesn’t like it, or alter what you put in. Anything works with cold pasta salad!
 

we tend to be every-man-for-himself at lunchtime, so I’m not much help. But I’ll be following along on this thread for ideas!

 

ETA: just saw your post about no dressing. Will he eat oil and vinegar? You can do that on the pasta salad with whatever spices he likes maybe??

Edited January 15, 2022 by mmasc

[HomeAgain]

19 minutes ago, mmasc said:

 

we do refried beans from a can often. One kid likes them as quesadillas with cheese. Another will eat just the beans on a high protein tortilla. Aldi has good high protein tortillas. Do you guys have Aldi there??
 

Oh, that's a good one that I forgot about!  My ds loves tacos of all sorts, so we got him to eat a homemade version of Taco Bell's "Mexican pizza".  Corn tortilla, lightly fried with a tiny bit of oil, topped with refried beans, cheese, pico, avocado, with another tortilla on top and cheese/taco sauce on that.

I hesitated to add anything in my post that is more native to the Americas, because I'm not sure what is available in Australia.  Like, if you can get masa cheaply, then tamales are a quick, easy lunch.  I make up dozens at a time to go in the freezer.  It's an endeavor to make them, so they have to be done on a day when I have a few hours planned out for it, but they freeze well, use up leftovers, and can be reheated by the child in about 3 minutes.

 

ETA: also, in place of hummus sometimes, I make a white bean dip with cannellini beans. It has olive oi, garlic, salt, and lemon juice added to the beans as they are pureed, and it a slightly lighter feeling vegetable dip that could also be used as a tortilla spread if you wanted to.

Edited January 15, 2022 by HomeAgain

[Kassia]

41 minutes ago, mmasc said:

What about egg fried rice, heavy on the egg? Would he like that? You could cook a big batch and then it could be re-heated easily at lunch. I usually just do the basics—brown rice, peas and carrots, egg, soy sauce, maybe some sesame oil and garlic. 

I feel like this is a dumb question, but I have to ask because I love fried rice but have never made it.  I have all of these ingredients - how do I actually turn them into fried rice?  I'm not an adventurous cook and always use a recipe.  

[mmasc]

Just now, Kassia said:

I feel like this is a dumb question, but I have to ask because I love fried rice but have never made it.  I have all of these ingredients - how do I actually turn them into fried rice?  I'm not an adventurous cook and always use a recipe.  

I’m not adventurous either, and this is so easy that it’s really a no-recipe recipe.😊 
 

Ideally, cook your rice like normal and put it in the fridge at least overnight. My favorite is brown short grain, but any will work. (Cold rice works better than fresh)

In a large skillet, add some oil. Dump in cold rice. Dump in a bag of frozen, cooked peas and carrots. I usually add some garlic powder and sesame oil, but it’s fine if you don’t. Let it kind of “fry” in the oil for a bit. Stir and fry for a bit. Now add in enough soy sauce for it to look brown. This is a preference thing, so just add what you think looks good for flavor. More soy sauce can be added to individual bowls if needed. 

push all of this to one side of your pan once it has fried for a bit.
On the other side, crack some eggs and hard fry them. (Add a bit more oil first if needed)
***to hard fry, just bust the yolks and let them fry like that, by flipping over and pressing down once the first side is set. They end up having yellow and white area, not all mixed up like scrambled eggs. that’s our preference.***

Once they’re fried and flat, I just sort of chop them up into pieces, mix them with the rice/peas/carrots.  Done!

I’m sure there are much better and more authentic recipes, but this one tastes good to us and is super easy. For ratio reference, I think I usually make 2 cups of uncooked rice, one frozen bag of peas/carrots, and then around 6 or so eggs. 

[Bootsie]

Soups

carrots and apples with a yogurt-based dip or humus

yogurt based smoothies

chicken salad

hot dogs

quiche and egg-based casseroles

marinated bean salad

I have a sister who finds most deli ham "slimy" but eats ham that is sliced at home; when you say oldest doesn't like cheese--does that refer to not liking to eat cheese by itself or not liking anything with cheese in it at all?  Does it apply to all varieties of cheese?

[Clemsondana]

One other thing that we do is smoothies with protein powder.  We've used peanut powder and also chocolate or vanilla whey powder.  We get a brand called Naked Whey, which doesn't have a lot of additives, but there are plain, flavored, ones with sugar, ones with other sweeteners- you can look around depending on your dietary needs.  We use milk, fruit, a couple of scoops of powder, and sometimes yogurt.  You can use vanilla yogurt with most things, but favorite combos are peanut powder and banana, blueberries with berry or lemon yogurt, and chocolate milk with raspberries or raspberry yogurt.  I started doing it when I had an overscheduled athlete that I couldn't keep full, but I sometimes make pint-sized ones as the drink when I'm doing a protein-less meal like pancakes.  

[Ausmumof3]

5 hours ago, Bootsie said:

Soups

carrots and apples with a yogurt-based dip or humus

yogurt based smoothies

chicken salad

hot dogs

quiche and egg-based casseroles

marinated bean salad

I have a sister who finds most deli ham "slimy" but eats ham that is sliced at home; when you say oldest doesn't like cheese--does that refer to not liking to eat cheese by itself or not liking anything with cheese in it at all?  Does it apply to all varieties of cheese?

No cheese at all. No pizza, no lasagne no creamy sauces. I think it makes him feel off although he’s fine with yoghurt. And no variety of cheese. 

Edited January 15, 2022 by Ausmumof3

[Ausmumof3]

6 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

Oh, that's a good one that I forgot about!  My ds loves tacos of all sorts, so we got him to eat a homemade version of Taco Bell's "Mexican pizza".  Corn tortilla, lightly fried with a tiny bit of oil, topped with refried beans, cheese, pico, avocado, with another tortilla on top and cheese/taco sauce on that.

I hesitated to add anything in my post that is more native to the Americas, because I'm not sure what is available in Australia.  Like, if you can get masa cheaply, then tamales are a quick, easy lunch.  I make up dozens at a time to go in the freezer.  It's an endeavor to make them, so they have to be done on a day when I have a few hours planned out for it, but they freeze well, use up leftovers, and can be reheated by the child in about 3 minutes.

 

ETA: also, in place of hummus sometimes, I make a white bean dip with cannellini beans. It has olive oi, garlic, salt, and lemon juice added to the beans as they are pureed, and it a slightly lighter feeling vegetable dip that could also be used as a tortilla spread if you wanted to.

I’m not sure about Masa.  I am loving all the kind of Mexican type suggestions as we do all like that food and often will do corn chips with diced salad and taco style mince stuff.  I think it’s the budget that’s killing me here to be honest.  Food prices have gone up a little and I can compensate a bit y cooking more but once work goes back, school goes back and sport goes back, I’m going to struggle for time.  I might have to set aside a weekend afternoon to bulk cook.

[Ausmumof3]

18 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

How old is he?  Once my children got old enough to fix their own lunches they were on their own. (This was by 8 years old). 

I did used to be like this but youngest (almost 10) will forget to eat if I don’t feed him and he’s pretty small so he needs the reminder.  I’m also trying to be more intentional about lunch for me and I also have Dh home for a lot of lunches now.

[Ausmumof3]

10 hours ago, Clemsondana said:

I try to have leftovers that I portion into servings that people can reheat.  I also try to keep a freezer stocked with both packaged stuff (pizza, samosas, fried rice) and homemade stuff (soup or chili frozen in individual containers, breakfast burritoes, pancakes) and some easy pantry stuff (red beans and rice mix, canned soup, mac and cheese) so that if someone doesn't like the leftover options they have something that they can heat.  It depends on schedules, but either lunch or dinner is usually DIY at our house and people can choose from the options above or make something like PB and J or a grilled cheese sandwich.  Sometimes, as people said above, I make a vat of chili or a big batch of pasta salad or chicken salad and that's also an option for the week.  If I do cook both lunch and dinner, one of them is usually something simple.  One of my kids loves hoppin' john, a peas and rice dish that I finally figured out how to do in the instapot and not have it be mushy, so sometimes I'll make a quick batch of that.  My other kid likes puff pancakes (aka dutch pancakes, similar to popovers) which are a super eggy bread.  Maybe if you did something like that you could get calories and a couple of eggs into your kid but they'd mostly feel like they were eating the jam, fruit, or honey that it was topped with?  We also do fajitas that you can use meat but also stretch with veggies, or do eggs and black beans instead of the meat, or we do rice bowls with veggies and slow-cooked or instapot shredded meat that is a good use of cheap cuts of meat. 

We don’t usually have leftover meat and if we do it goes with DH for lunch. We eat a lot of venison but it’s not that great cold. Packaged stuff really isn’t in the budget in a regular basis, but I could definitely freeze up some bulk cooked mince if I got organised.

[mmasc]

If you all like Mexican-inspired meals, breakfast burritos could be good for you! They’re delish for lunch, not just breakfast. Fairly cheap. Make in bulk, individually wrap in Saran Wrap, heat as needed. 
 

scrambled eggs, cheese (omit for ds), browned sausage, diced & sautéed potatoes, black beans—wrap in tortillas burrito style. These are good with salsa and/or sour cream but I let people add those after warming up. If you like, you can add diced bell peppers and onions to the potatoes when you sauté them. 
these are very easy to modify too—omit anything you don’t like and they’ll still be pretty good!

[DreamerGirl]

I am into simplifying and structure.

So mainly soup in winter and salad in summer all loaded up with lots of veggies and meat with home made bread.

I rotate it with flat breads and rice with meat/fish curries and veggie sides. We always have yogurt as a snack later or to end the meal with depending on what it is,

I add some bean sides and a fairly healthy meal.

DH and I do Intermittent fasting so we eat 2 nutritionally dense meals a day. 

We do a massive meal prep on Sunday. We precut veggies, make the ginger garlic paste, pre brown onions in the oven, make flat breads, bread in the bread machine, yogurt.

The instant pot is used during the week to dump and go with little saute as much as possible.

Edited January 15, 2022 by DreamerGirl