Thursday, June 30, 2011

Lunch Conundrum


We've kind of hit a rut with our lunch routine lately. Usually it is mac n' cheese, grilled cheese, or peanut butter and jelly with a piece of fruit and a carrots or something like to go with it. I'm trying to break out of the same routine, but so far I'm stumped.

What do you feed your kids for lunch?

-Megan-

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about cheese crisps/quesadillas or bean burritos?

Lisa said...

I love doing muffin tin meals with my kids when lunches get boring. For some reason, just putting yogurt, fruit, crackers and veggies in a muffin tin make lunch more exciting (and super easy for mom to put together). Anything will work in a muffin tin and the portion sizes are perfect for little kids.

For more added excitement you can go to muffintinmom.com for some cute muffin tin themed meals.

Alyssa Harper said...

For lunch, the key for me is whether or not it takes 2 seconds to throw together (I slave over dinner. I'm SO not slaving over lunch...especially when 50 percent of the time, my boy barely eats enough to fill a teacup). But even still, I find creative lunches in my realm of possibility. Having "themed" lunches can help me branch out on the lunchtime menu and make it fun for my child.

So, on the topic of themes...

You could theme the meal on a country. Say, cucumber slices and cream cheese on sliced bread for England with fake tea in teacups -- oh man, my child would go nuts over tea cups. Potstickers (you can pick them up pre-made and frozen in most supermarkets...so easy to throw on a frying pan) for China. Quesadillas (as mentioned before) for Mexico. Mini-pizzas (cheese and sauce on english muffins and zapped in the microwave) for Italy. Fruit Kabobs for Turkey. The sky's the limit.

You could also theme the lunch on something simple like a book (ham and cheese for "Green Eggs and Ham" or porridge for "Goodnight Moon" or strawberries for "The Red Ripe Strawberries and the Big Hungry Bear."

The theme could be something even more simpler like a color or shape. Having a theme really helps me get a starting point to get more creative with my toddler's lunch. The theme also creates a nice platform to base my toddler's learning time on.