Desperate for Lunch ideas

[BernardandMissBianca]

I am so beyond tired of fast food. I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow and I need foodie ideas. I know I have posted this before but I'm too lazy to look. LOL

Any suggestions?
The 2 younger boys don't eat lunch meat, nor does DD.
I do have some precooked sushi rice, nori, and smoked salmon so I will make sushi rolls for dinner but what about lunch? It seems to be the forgotten meal of the day.

 

[logan&tylersmama]

Any suggestions?
The 2 younger boys don't eat lunch meat, nor does DD.
I do have some precooked sushi rice, nori, and smoked salmon so I will make sushi rolls for dinner but what about lunch? It seems to be the forgotten meal of the day.

wow - buffy - your kids eat that??? Mine are SO Picky. They wont eat anything with sauce, they only like buttered noodles, or mac and cheese (from the box)
i wish i had ideas for you - but i suck in the cooking department.
Sorry
Jennifer

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

yep, all 4 of them love sushi. Man does that meal hurt the checkbook so we don't go out very often. We eat at Go Fish in Mystic.

But that is my dilemma! They won't eat nuggets, pizza, pb&j, lunch meat. Etc.... They'd rather have hummus with tomatoes, sushi, appetizer samplers, etc

Oh idea! the TGIFridays appetizer stuff, I think I can buy that at BJ's.

 

[hopemax]

I would starve if no lunch meat. That is a lot of what my lunches still are. I don't know, I shop at Costco so I get Ling Ling pot stickers, and the Costco chicken salad. Sometimes I get frozen things like Healthy Choice or Stouffers lasagna. Or leftovers.

I can cook, but I don't like cooking for lunch. At lunch I want easy.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I don't want to cook for lunch either. Heck most of the time I don't cook for breakfast either, they get cereal!

 

[disneynut14]

Ling Ling Potstickers are a staple in our house!!! Yummy. Maybe I should try and send those for lunch. I wonder what they taste like cold?

 

[piratesmate]

I read these threads every year & count my blessings! Neither one of mine was too fussy about lunches & we never ran into the peanut butter problems. Although DD went nearly an entire year eating American cheese, Kosher stacker pickles, lettuce & mayo sandwiches. Funny - she hasn't eaten one of those in years now!

Will they eat cottage cheese? Either buy it in a big tub, split it & add apple butter or get those ones with pineapple, oranges & cherries in them.

Do they like hard boiled eggs? You could make those ahead for a couple days, unless you feel like making egg salad. DS liked his in pita, but DD liked hers with just lettuce.

I know they don't like lunch meat, but what about pieces of roasted meat from a weekend meal like roast beef, chicken or turkey? If you just get a bigger one than normal, there's no extra work involved - unless you count putting it into baggies & freezing. DD always liked ham salad too. When I get down to the end of a ham & it gets difficult to slice, I just cut it into pieces my chopper will handle & run it through there. Add some pickle relish, ground celery seed & mayo & you're good to go! DD likes it on a bed of lettuce, while I like it on saltines.

Would they eat mini pizzas if they made them as a project some rainy afternoon? The kind on English muffins with lots of choices for toppings like pineapple, ham (chopped like for the salad - I usually have a bag in the freezer), black olives, meatballs, etc. Yes, I know that means you have to supervise, but my kids always loved doing it! They can even pack their own - so no one takes the wrong ones. Even your princess could do this - if you put the sauce on for her.

Since they like hummus, have the boys make it some afternoon if you have a food processor.

 

[lewdyan1]

I always have the same issues. My kids eat the same thing every day and I get bored making their lunches! Bringing back a few old threads:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=886829

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=923577

 

[aroyer]

Lunch is the WORST meal for me. The kids are pretty easy going about it, although I wish I could come up with some more exciting things for their sake. Half the time, I don't eat lunch, or if I do it's an energy bar.

 

[party of 3]

lunch is so tough for me. he does not eat lunch meat, or any pasta of any kind including mac and cheese, just recently cut out pb&j. i'm not sure what in the world is going to happen when he's back at school all day. what is he going to eat????? it has been stressing me out all summer. he eats hot dogs, nuggies, (oh and he just cut fries out) egg salad, really not much. and how good can egg salad be sitting in the lunch box for a few hours. yuck. i'm telling ya i'm stressing over it.

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

Anything with Mayo freaks me out about sitting in a lunch box all morning. Even with adding a frozen drink & ice sacks I worry.

I bought a can of chickpeas with the intent of making my own hummus. I guess I can try that out today.

My boys love seafood, but that is another thing I won't put in the lunch box. The canned stuff-spaghetti, ravioli etc, don't stay warm enough in the thermos container things. Even putting them in boiling hot, they are barely lukewarm at lunch. YUCK! Forget soup, it has fat & ick floating at the top by lunch time.

We can't do pb&j either due to allergies. Can't do chocolate chip cookies with nuts either or peanut butter crackers/cookies/candy.

Holly, he eats nothing else? fruit, veggies?

 

[party of 3]

he loves bananas and apples but can't do either of them because he has poop issues. so he's banned from them. no white bread either. only wheat and grainny type breads. grapes is really the only other thing. no veggies except for corn. it's so hard. oh grilled cheese, but that wont be any good at lunch time. pizza, so i'm sure i'll let him have hot lunch that day. fish sticks so maybe if they offer that he can have it that day too. i'm so stressing about it.

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

I can see the kids giving him sidelong looks while he sits there and eats his can of corn.

Seriously though, those are some hard issues to deal with. Have you talked to a nutritionalist to see what other options there are?

 

[party of 3]

yea i really can't see him eating a can of corn.

we have seen a nutritionist, but everything she suggested he would not eat. it's a daily battle around here.

i try little white lies about stuff, but he starting to catch on. for a while i was using rescue heroes for stuff. like did you know that all the rescue heroes only eat meatball sandwiches?? so on spaghetti and meatball night i'd make his a sandwich and he would eat it. i'd line the guys up on the dinner table and he would gobble it down. now he's onto me and that does not work. so he's off the meatballs.

loves his nuggies. but you can't eat them 7 days a week. loves his crackers and pretzels. but you can't just have that for lunch. loves his nutra grain bars but you have to have more than that.......

it's all a mystery to me. i'd love some suggestions.

 

[piratesmate]

I just thought of something my mother used to give us when we were kids. It sounds totally weird to other people though. When she was running out of food, she'd make us a sandwich with American cheese & grape jelly. (She made her own grape jelly, so it was always "on hand" & money was never very plentiful.)

I know - it sounds so weird, but it's actually quite good! She'd put a thin layer of butter on the jelly side to keep it from making the sandwich soggy. Just be warned that the jelly will turn the cheese a bit blue. We used to get teased all the time because of our "blue" cheese sandwiches & our "pink" egg salad. (made with pickled aka red beet eggs)

OT - but did you know that grape jelly makes a great "filling" between layers of a chocolate cake? Mom found that one out once when she ran out of 10x sugar when making one of our birthday cakes. LOL But I have to say after that I always preferred it that way!

 

[WDWMom]

Here are a few easy ideas..

Pizza Rolls - my kids love them in the oven or microwave

Quesidillas - soft shell taco, cheese, salsa (anything really) Your oldest should be able to make these on his own. My kids have for years.

Corn dogs - not real nutritious, but easy

Bagels with hummus or cream cheese - more breakfastie but would be filling for lunch with some veggie or fruit

Chicken cheese fries - fries, shredded chick and cheese, bake until cheese is melted. Really yummy if chicken has BBQ sauce.

Hope some of this helps. Now that the kids are 12, 13 and 17 I very rarely make lunch for them. They are on their own.

 

[heathrow42]

Hope these links will help.. I went through a phase earlier this year, I packed my lunch everyday I went to work -- and was amazed at the amount of websites devoted to packing lunches! Eventually my work schedule changed and now I only go into the office twice a week, so i don't take my lunch anymore.. We travel a lot, and now we pack our own lunches for when we fly. No more airport fast food!

Laptop Lunchbox They have recipes, and sell a particular style of lunch box. I have 2 of them... they are fabulous if you like to take lots of little nibble things.

Laptop Lunchbox Flickr Group
Lunchbox recipes Flickr Group
BentoBoxes Flickr Group
All 3 of these are photos of other peoples lunches - mouse over the photos to see the descriptions- most of them have descriptions of the items. You either love it or think it's weird... but you can get lots of ideas from the pictures!

Vegan Lunch Box Love Love Love her site.. she is really creative. Most of her posts are of lunches made for her son. I think she even wrote a book about lunch making!

Lunch In a Box Has a good recipes section and lots of good tips. Click on Archives for her blog. Because of her, I will never be hungry on an airplane again!

One of my favorites.. I make pancakes, add granola to the batter -- then once they are cooled, cut up a banana longways and roll it up - sort of make banana pancake burritos double bonus yumminess.. dip them in nutella.

When I made little sandwiches - I cut the bread in mickey head shapes (we have a small mickey shaped cookie cutter) I loved taking tomato, basil, mozzarella on a baguette.

The people at work laughed and teased at the beginning.. but after a week or so people started coming by my desk to see what I had packed for my "cute lunch".. eventually I had a couple of lunch swaps w/ friends. I'd bring lunch for the 3 of us one day, the next day one of them would bring lunch, and on the third day the other would bring lunch.

One other thing that also helped me -- I made a list and tacked it to the cork board in the kitchen. I could quickly glance at it when I was feeling like there wasn't anything to take. I listed all of my lunch staples/ideas, sandwiches, pasta dishes I make, fruits, veggies, snacks etc, and added things. This way I was never at a loss for what to make. It really made things go faster.

--Heather

 

[123SA]

Big kids (5 & 8) will eat peantubutter and fluff everyday (gross). DS2 -- just doesn't eat lunch --never has. He'll be 3 next month and he weighs 22 lbs -- getting him to eat is a never ending issue and worry. He likes plenty of different foods, but he will not eat if he doesn't want to no matter what I put in front of him. We go to a research clinic -- there is absolutely nothing wrong with him, thank goodness. He is supposed to start school in the fall, but the closer it gets, the less certain I am of that.

I am going to check out those links for the interesting lunches, may be good for me, but I doubt I can convince the PB&fluff crew to branch out.

 

[party of 3]

susan, i laughed at the pb&fluff crew because we call that a "wilson" in this house. dh very good friend at work eats them EVERYDAY! that's all he eats. and his name is wilson. so they are forever know as the "wilson".

i sent some fluff over to mazda so she could make fudge with it and told her to have her kids try the "wilson" but i'm not sure it was a big hit!!!!