Easy Lunch and Snack Ideas for the summer

[carebee21]

So with summer quickly approaching, I'm looking for easy and inexpensive lunch and maybe even additional snack ideas. My son plays with 2 other boys in our court and they all just hop from house to house, so I want to have lunch and snack ideas for them when they get hungry at my house. They're 8, 8 and 9; old enough to prepare easy things like sandwiches, but too young to cook. And I work from home, so don't mind getting up and preparing something fast, or even making something the night before, but I don't want to be cooking anything that takes a lot of time, nor do I want to use my oven much, as it's already hot enough without turning ovens on.

I intend on keeping cut up fruit and veggies and cheese sticks in the fridge, popsicles in the freezer and chips, fruit snacks, etc in the cupboard that they can easily grab for snacks. But lunch is proving more difficult. They can do sandwiches or crackers, cheese and meat or maybe even some kind of a wrap with a salad I make ahead of time (pasta salad, potato salad, etc) but beyond that, I'm stumped. Any easy ideas would be appreciated

Oh, I should also mention that my son and another one of the boys aren't too big on salad, so things like a chicken caesar salad or build your own salad bar are out. They'll eat a side salad but if they think it's their main meal, they look at you like you have three heads and are crazy.

 

[pauleen]

Have u ever tried making pizza on the grill? Really easy and fast make or buy store bought pizza dough here we get in bakery dept of store. Roll out get grill hot put dough on once it is cooked on one side flip add sauce cheese & toppings of choice close lid let cheese melt take off grill enjoy takes about 10 to 15 mins start to finish and good.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Cold tuna noodle salad. On a bed of lettuce.

Crackers, cheese and pepperoni


Meat roll ups. I take lunch meat and cheese and roll it into a tube and eat it that way.

Sloppy joes eaten with crackers.

I use my crockpot a lot. I make beef stroganoff,-which is so simple to make and mexican chicken it too is easy to make.

 

[princess barbara]

They should be able to boil hot dogs and give them canned beaked beans or mac-n-cheese. I would freeze grapes because it's hot running from house to house. I also keep a tray of sliced seedless watermelon in the fridge. Would they be interested in making english muffin pizzas in a toaster oven?

 

[kkmcan]

I keep frozen pb and j sandwiches on hand and lunchables, fruit cups, cheese sticks, chips, crackers, apples, granola bars etc. They can grab and eat.

I have an issue with my kids boiling things. Even in the micro. Our microwave is an over the stove type so its hard to reach and to try and lift a bowl full of boiling liquid out without spilling.... well, thats a disaster waiting to happen.

My kids can make grilled cheese sandwiches, quesadillas, baked potatoes(in the micro), chicken nuggets, mini pizzas or just about anything that uses the oven but boiling water is still kind of scary for me to let them do. Hot dogs can be microwaved without water.

I told my kids the first day of summer vaca that they were on there own for lunch. I would keep lots of choices for them in the house and they could make their own.

We used to have a toaster oven and we used it all the time for chicken nuggets, mini pizzas etc. and my kids could use it easily. That along with the regular sandwiches would work for your kids.

My son loves pasta salad. He could eat tons of that so you could make that up one night and have on hand for the next day or two of lunches.

 

[girli565]

Brown up some ground beef and use a taco seasoning packet. That can be used for a build your own burritos, tacos, salad (for you ), soft tacos bar. We love taco meat in my house!

I made a pizza with the leftovers the other day. Used a Boboli thin crust, spead my fave Pace salsa as sauce, put the meat on it, a little more salsa on top then a mexican mix cheese shredded on top. baked for 15 Min and it was delicious and didn't even remind anyone of the tacos we had 2 days before.

 

[NYEmomma]

Make pepperoni rolls the night before? They can eat them cold or heat them back up in the microwave.

 

[marriaga]

I will keep this in mind for summer...

 

[marriaga]

 

[AmericangirlinFrance]

A few easy summer lunches I like...

- Chicken salad: use canned chicken or leftover cooked chicken, chop up, mix with low fat/olive oil mayo (my preference), salt and pepper, and chopped up celery and grapes. Good on toasty bread or on lettuce!

- Egg salad: see above... no grapes, add pickle relish!

- Cottage cheese and fruit

- How about nachos? Tortilla chips, top with shredded cheese, maybe some sort of chopped up meat, some tomatoes, beans, salsa, then zap in the microwave. A good way to use up leftovers too.

- Along a similar vein - quesadillas. We have a quesadilla maker, and it's AWESOME. You basically put in a tortilla, put your toppings in, put in the second tortilla, and press it together. Then you have little quesadilla triangles all ready - without heating up the stove.

- For snacks, a big fruit salad is always good. Someone else suggested frozen grapes, but frozen blueberries and frozen chunks of pineapple are good too!

**Bonus:frozen chunks of pineapple work really well as an ice substitute in fruity summer drinks involving rum

 

[NYEmomma]

Just found this on the Betty Crocker site and am planning on making a couple batches to freeze for some quick lunches for DD & I after the babies are born.

Ham & cheese crescent rolls: http://www.food.com/recipe/ham-it-up-crescent-rolls-86644

 

[carebee21]

Thank you for all of the suggestions everyone. It's given me lots of good ideas.

And thank you for the link NYEmomma! Not only will those work for pre-making things for the summer, but they look like a simple appetizer/finger food for other occassions!

 

[scrapquitler]

for snacks, I highly recommend purchasing an air popper and having lots of popcorn on hand...it easy to prepare, filling and CHEAP.

 

[dizluvah]

not the healthiest but little one is on a canned Ravioli kick right now - she would eat them everyday if I let her and Mac and Cheese - I toss in some veggies to assuage the guilt of giving my kiddo processed foods!

 

[AntePrincess]

• Fresh fruit and vegetables, mostly the kinds that don't need to be cut up.
• A full rice cooker of rice.
• I make a whole carton of hardboiled eggs at a time.
• I make a huge pot of veggie soup a couple of times a week, they can just top themselves off from there.
• I buy big blocks of cheese and cut them into sticks for them.
• Lots of sandwiches, that's what I grew up with, they get their veggies on the side or in the soup.
• Pasta, I precook it and have it in microwaveable containers in the fridge with a little water so they can microwave it and top it off how they like.

 

[Zhoen]

If you look up recipes for "cornish pasty" you can find lots of good ones out there. They are the original "hot pockets", named for a hot-pocket like pastry that cornish working families would make to carry with them for lunch.

My favorite is the most basic-- beef cut up very small (but not hamburger-- too greasy), onions, small cubes of potatoes, salt and pepper, in a basic pie crust, folded like a half-moon and baked. So easy, so yummy, and it DELICIOUS served cold... I make a batch every once in a while and keep them in the fridge, from which they mysteriously vanish. I've heard of people freezing and thawing them (don't microwave, would make the pie crust icky, I think) but mine never last that long.