New Easy Lunch Ideas for My Kiddos

I've been giving my son (8 1/2) peanut butter on Ritz crackers. The crackers now come in "Spring" which means they have a butterfly or something on them. Even better may be the whole grain Ritz. I make pudding from the box, instead of buying it already made, which has more preservatives in it. Cheese quesadillas....basically cheese on a tortilla wrap and put in oven for a bit. Maybe add canned chicken.

I love the leftovers idea. We like to cook extra when we cook so we don't have to cook later. I also love the roll up idea. We have a Forman Grill. We make tuna melts with a bit of tuna salad on a flour tortilla, add some celery slices for crunch, top it with a bit of shredded cheddar, roll it up and rub or brush it with olive oil. It only take a couple of minutes on the Forman Grill, but you can also toast them in a skillet. Yum!

But I'd like to add that it isn't only what your children are eating. One of my favorite memories as a child was coming home from kindergarten at noon to find my younger brother (the youngest who was left at home with no siblings to play with) standing at the door waiting for me. Mom worked at an office and Grandma lived with us (wise woman). Anytime the weather permitted, Grandma and my brother would have a pinic lunch packed in a washtup. My brother would grab one handle and I the other. We would carry it out into the back yard and picknic under a tree. (We learned to avoid the cherry tree when the cherries were coming ripe. It attracted the birds who had a tendency to decorate our lunch by dropping their own special condiments on our sandwhiches.)

I remember some fruity drink in a small plastic jar and cups and home-canned sweet pickles, Grandma's homemade applesause, and sandwhiches, but mostly I rememer feeling the joy of learning it was 'picnic day' and how it felt like such an adventure. My brother was so proud because he helped pack it for us while he waited for me to come home.

I'm sure Grandma put a lot of love into those lunches that made us feel so special, but as I look back I realize it also gave my brother something to do while he was impatient and lonely for a playmate. He must have driven her batty those mornings! She must have truly enjoyed those quiet moments while we had our 'adventure' picnics!

There are so many ways to involve the kids. They can learn so much about managing, shopping, and group decision making if you ask them to help you make the grocery list and plan lunches. It can be a 'playing house' sort of game for them and they might give you some new lunch ideas!

Hi Stephanie,
I'm a mother of 4 with 2 in school and 2 at home, ages 16 yrs, 7 yrs, 4 yrs, and 16 months. I'm also a home child care provider( I watch 4 more) so I have to come up with a menu for lunch everyday. I will name of the type of things we have for lunch and you can take ideas from it, so here it goes.

Mac and cheese
pizza (cheese and/or meat)
hot dogs
corn dogs
pop corn shrimp
fish sticks
popcorn chicken
homemade lunchables ( I buy ritz crackers, cheese sticks, the oscar meyer deli meat mesquite is really good(rolled up like a log).
grilled cheese
PB&J smash the bread down a little, make your sandwich like usual and then roll up and slice.
chicken quesidillas
cheese quesidillas
beef and cheese taquitos
With each of these meals we have a fruit and a vegetable. Such as bananas, peaches, pears, mandarin oranges, fruit cocktail, strawberries, apples, grapes, and oranges.
The vegetables we have green beans, carrots, cucmbers, corn, mixed vegetables. There are probably more of everything that I can't think of but here are some ideas anyway, hope this helps, W.

I love reading the other ideas, sometimes I get stuck with lunches too. A couple ideas: I buy the frozen chicken fajita meat and make quesadillas with cheese and spinach. My son calls it chicken pizza since I slice it like a pizza. We also use Texas Toast to make either homemade pizzas (add sauce, cheese, vegies and meat) or canned ham (mixed with mayo) and cheddar cheese sanwiches. Both can be cooked by putting into the oven for 10 min at 350 and broil additionally if you want it crispier. You can also make extras at the time and not have to cook the next day (always a bonus!). Enjoy!

Try fish sticks & french fries/tater tots, tuna/chicken salad, mac n cheese with chicken (cut up in squares) with brocoli, sloppy joe & taco's. I hope this has helped some. Good luck & God Bless!

What about a pizza bagel? Portion a bagel off and have the kids put spaghetti sauce on it and some mozzarella cheese. Or cheese quesadillas. Those are way easy with tortilla a bit of butter and the cheese in the middle or add some chicken for variety. My husband and son also like open-faced sandwiches with leftover pot roast or pork and gravy.

Hope this helps

Try Inside out sandwiches; you take a bread stick and wrap the meat and cheese around it. Close with a toothpick and enjoy.
Or flour toteas with the peanut butter and jelly inside rolled up and enjoyed.

I have a hard time with lunch ideas as well. My kids don't like hot dogs or corn dogs either. We have sandwiches a lot...lunchmeat sandwiches & pb&j. Also we have what the kids call "pickle sandwiches"...I take a slice of pickle with a slice of cheese and roll them up in a slice of ham. They love them! Then we have an array of fresh veggies & fruit with them...cucumber, carrots, grapes, oranges, pears, banana, strawberries, grapes, etc. We also have chicken strips quite often for lunch. Hope this helps!

If you're cooking supper in the evenings, make extra for lunch the next day. Not sure of their eating habits, but my kids always liked scrambled eggs or french toast. Cheese cubes, peanut butter sandwiches or peanut butter on celery sticks. Good luck

Hello Stephanie,

Does your kids like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? If so, have you tried making reindeer sandwiches? A good friend of mine told me about this one. My son loves eating PBJ sandwiches now because it looks like reindeers. You make the sandwich, then cut it diagnolly so you have two triangles. Use pretzel sticks to make the "antlers" and M&M's to make the reindeers "eyes" and "noses". I normally serve with fruit or yogurt and a few more pretzel sticks. Makes lunch fun and is still pretty healthy for the kids!

I do a lot of leftovers for lunches. It is a great way to make lunch time quicker and easier...along with using up leftovers.

One thing mine like is a cold pasta salad -- pasta noodles (usually I use the veggie ones) with grape tomoates cut in half, mozzerella cheese and italian dressing -- a lot of times I also throw in grilled chicken.

Also a spin on the lunchmeat is to do roll ups with it -- roll the lunchmeat up with a half a slice of cheese in the middle. My kiddos like that with cottage cheese and fruit.

Just a couple of thoughts thrown out there from our house....I'll be looking forward to hearing some others ideas too!

Stephanie
2 things my daughter likes that are also good for her. one is if i ever have leftover rice (i also have a rice cooker and can make it easily) i get canned black beans and heat them on the stove with a pinch of cinnamon and cumin. then just mix the rice and beans together.
the other thing my daughter who is 3 likes is hummus. I will cut up pita bread (usually whole wheat) and spread hummus on it, or give her a little bowl of hummus that she can dip it in (she also eats hummus and pretzels as a snack)
i hope these ideas help!

try the velveeta shells and cheese for mac and cheese. My kids won't eat any of the powdered stuff but love the velveeta and we add 2-3 cups of noodles to it to make it family size because there is enough cheese to add more noodles and it will still be good and is too expensive to buy 2 boxes for a meal. I also add hamburger or turkey sausage with cooked broccoli to the mac n cheese to make it a meal. They love it.

Another quick and easy meal is using tator tots and making casseroles with them. I do 3 different types with this and usually make it for dinner but you could also have it for lunch if you like. It takes 30 min to make.

layer the tator tots in a 9x11 pan. bake in 450 oven for 25 min

after the tator tots are done put 2 cans of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup on the tator tots

add chopped up chicken on top of the soup (I usually cook 2 boneless thighs which I boil on the stove for 20-30 min while the tator tots are cooking then cut them up)

I usually steam broccoli in the microwave and then put it on the casserole.

top with shredded cheese and bake for 5-10 min until cheese is melted.

you can also make this with the tator tots, 2 cans of chili, corn, and cheese.

or with tator tots, cream of mushroom soup, sliced polish sausages, and cheese

If your children like salads that is also a good lunch item. You can add boiled eggs or chopped ham for the protein or chicken. or make taco salad.

grilled cheese sandwiches

egg and cheese sandwiches

egg and sausage burritos or other burritos

egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, or ham salad sandwiches

your lunches look healthy, just change the sandwich to something else to give them a change.

I stay home with my 3 kids, plus watch 2 more, so I'm always struggling with lunches. Some different ones my kids like are boiled shrimp--I buy it frozen, boil it for a few minutes. The kids love to dunk it in shrimp sauce. They also like "ham bites." I find them at Aldis, but am sure other stores have them--a whole bag full of cubed ham. I take it straight from the bag to their plate and let them dunk in BBQ sauce. You could do the same with chicken and or pork leftovers. I've also bought a spaghetti squash. Cook it for an hour or so, then shred it and pour spaghetti sauce over it. Mix up the fruit/veggies-try some different ones--avocados, kiwi, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, whatever is fresh. My kids like to pick out something different from the store to try. As long as they have dip, they'll try almost anything.

Hi,
I invested in a cookbook designed just for kids so that I could get them involved in the cooking process. Now they fight over who gets to be Racheal Ray and who is Sandra Lee. Yes we watch alot of cooking shows. Daddy even recorded them with the video camera making a recipie. They feel such pride in following the recipie and are eating things that they would not normaly because they had a part in cooking it. Look on line and you can find several cookbooks created for kids meals. This is also a great learning time for the little ones too (math, science, sensory play, etc.).

I make quesadillas a lot. You can make them as plain or as full of healthy extras as you like -- I use whole wheat tortillas, putting one in the med-hot skillet, top with shredded cheddar or whatever cheese, then I add some black beans, a little more cheese and then the top tortilla. Slice into wedges and serve with avocados/guacamole, sour cream, and/or salsa. I have also added diced tomatoes to the filling sometimes.

I made some killer empanadas last week and they freeze REALLY well.

I got the package of two pie crusts at the grocery. I rolled them out a little more to try and get one or two more empanadas. I boiled a chicken breast and shredded it once it was cooked. I added a can of mild green chilies, some shredded cheese, garlic and onion powder, a tiny bit of salsa to loosen it up, and a little bit of Emeril's Essence (not necessary). Then I just spooned a little into a circle I cut on the pie crust, folded it over, and baked at 400 for about 15 minutes. If you want to freeze them just stop after you're folded them and crimped the edges and make sure they're tightly wrapped up! Then thaw and bake!

1. yogurt. a friend recommended plain yogurt and mixing all fruit. yum!
2. Cheese and whole wheat crackers.
3. quesidillas-you can put anything in them from cheese to chicken leftovers
4. you can mix up the sandwich thing by trying different kinds of bread and adding things like sprouts, avacado, tomatoes and cucumbers.
5. Beans of any kind. Soak overnight- -cook with onions, olive oil, salt, onion powder and blend with a hand blender. They can spread this on a toasted pita or eat with corn chips. Great source of protein. You can also give the baby cooked beans to eat off of the high chair to keep him or her busy.
6. Frozen peas are also something fun for everyone. If you tell the big kids this was something they used to eat and they loved them, they will give it a try.
7. Humous and pita is also fun for the kids to play with themselves.

Also, ask yourself if it is the kids or you that are sick of the old standbys. If it is you, you can add things like veggie purees to the mac n cheese. Then if they don't eat the carrots and tomatoes you still feel like you've given something nourishing. Soup is always good and can be made quickly or pulled from the freezer.

Good luck!
J.

I have started receiving the Kraft Magazine and it gives a lot of ideas for lunch and dinner. Just go onto Kraft.com and register and they will start sending it to you as well as they will send you emails with new and different recipes!! Also my kids like to do a potatoe bar bake some potatoes: then cut up toppings, grate cheese, have sour cream and they can do it there self ( the older ones)! Another idea is cheese quasadillas (wheat tortillas!!)

Good Luck!!!

a new twist on the sandwich. Flatten a slice of bread (I use a glass to do this) then top with whatever you are making the sandwich with. Roll up and slice to make pinwheels. My daughter is five and a picky eater, but she loves this version of a sandwich.