Kids are funny, huh? One day they are eating 6 oranges in a sitting, and the next they say they’ve never liked them. Just leaves you scratching your head a bit. Despite kids and their fickle food fancies, there comes the daily task of feeding them 3 meals a day and sometimes the snacks in between. I like to keep kid’s lunches fairly simple because this is the main meal of the day where I like to spend time on making something delicious, more adventurous, and healthy for myself. I love seeing what others feed their children, because it gives me new ideas and I just might find a new favorite to add to the rotation!
I took the time several months ago (like probably 4 months ago) to snap pictures of five straight days of my kid’s lunches and thought I’d share that with you. I will note… I don’t typically use canned crescent rolls this many times in a week. ha! It just worked out that way this particular week because of what we had on hand and needed to use up.
I also have an older post that details how I plan breakfasts and lunches if you are interested in reading that as well!
Day 1 | Pigs In A Blanket
My kids (save one) love this meal. It’s literally just an all beef or turkey hotdog cooked in a pan first until warm, cut in half, and then rolled in a canned crescent roll triangle and baked for about 8 minutes. The reason I cook the hotdogs on the stove for a bit first is because I find that just wrapping them and throwing them in the oven without warming them doesn’t actually heat the hotdog through.
This particular day my oldest daughter, who likes hotdogs but only in a regular bun (eye roll), ate some leftover white chicken chili. The vegetable sides were either sliced cucumbers and cherry tomatoes for my girls, or sweet potato nuggets for the boys. The fruit was green grapes and strawberries. The sweet potato nuggets come from ALDI. You will see the other kind pictured (spinach) in another meal this week.
Day 2 | Pizza Bombs
This is probably one of my kid’s favorite lunches. I’ve shared this recipe before, but I’ll share it again. These pizza bombs (I make 16 total) are super easy to throw together, and the kids often help me with the assembly. Sometimes I cut up mozzarella cheese sticks, or cut cubes out of a block of mozzarella. It just depends on what I have on hand. For their vegetables, this particular day one kid had carrot sticks, another had orange bell pepper, and the other two had sliced cucumbers and cherry tomatoes or orange bell pepper. They all shared a bowl of sliced granny smith apples, because they needed the space on their plates for the marinara dipping sauce! My kids have their hummus preferences so we always have these two: classic and roasted red pepper. All of this came from ALDI.
Day 3 | Macaroni & Cheese
Who doesn’t like macaroni & cheese? Actually lots of kids don’t. ha! I have one child who is very selective about her macaroni, and when offered leftover Chicken Tortilla Soup instead she will take it (I make several edits to this recipe)!
This is just a box (actually cooked two) of ALDI’s Simple Nature Shells & White Cheddar macaroni (we now have to use 3 boxes!). We will sometimes do a one pot homemade macaroni and it’s sooooo good. The kids either had spinach nuggets from ALDI, yellow bell pepper, or cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Sliced strawberries for the fruit… and one kid wanted a clementine too.
Day 4 | Snack Tray
Every Thursday during last school year, we attended a Bible study class, so when we got home I needed something quick to throw on the table. I put everything on one big tray and let the kids graze. The rule is they have to have a protein, a vegetable, and a fruit, but other than that they have free reign of the tray. I typically stick to the same items, but depending on what we have on hand it can change slightly.
This particular tray included salami, whole wheat crackers with peanut butter (I put them together), carrot sticks, bell pepper slices, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, granny smith apples, clementines, sliced mozzarella, toasted mini-Naan bread, and hummus. I will sometimes also make them a quick spinach, banana, and OJ smoothie.
The tray that we use I originally found at TJ Maxx HomeGoods. This is a similar one, but this one would also be really beautiful. I think this is one of my favorite lunches to put together for my children, because I can kind of just throw stuff on the tray and let them decide what they want from there.
Day 5 | Leftover Day
I will typically reserve one day during the week for us to consume the fridge full of leftovers that have inevitably been accumulating throughout the week from lunches and dinners. Thankfully my kids are really good about eating leftovers. I know some kids (and adults) aren’t huge fans. ha. So while this is a bit of a hodgepodge, it gets the job done.
Kid #1 – Leftover macaroni & cheese, apple slices, cherry tomotoes
Kid #2 – Leftover pigs in a blanket, red peppers, leftover macaroni & cheese, and apple slices
Kid #3 – Leftover Korean Beef from a dinner that week, leftover pigs in a blanket, and apple slices
Kid #4 – Still rocking the leftover Chicken Tortilla Soup, cucumber slices, and apple slices
So, that’s it! Not super earth shattering, but maybe gave you a couple new ideas! Some other easy lunches we do are cheese quesadillas, deli sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, or PB&Js. Everyone has their preferred raw veggies and in order to keep the peace, I just stick to those for lunch. What are some of your children’s favorite lunches?
Oh, and if you are curious, this is how I plan out our dinners on a monthly basis! Feel free to download my blank monthly meal planning calendar too!