Summer Lunches

Chicken nuggets, tuna fish sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, celery with peanut butter, soup, salads, fresh fruits, Google Great lunches for kids and all kinds of great ideas will come up...

You've gotten some great ideas! Here's another: my kids graze during the summer. Every hour, they're in the kitchen scrounging for food, so last summer, I made it a point to have a tray of veggies (carrots, cucumber, celery, cherry tomatoes) and/or fruit out on the counter at all times. The kids were taking a carrot here, a piece of apple there and without even realizing it were eating TONS of fruits and veggies. It was easier to just grab what was already out than to go into the pantry looking for something that needed to be opened or heated up or prepared in some way. It also filled them up so they didn't gorge on a lot of other junk food. And by the end of the day, that veggie tray was usually empty!

My son (7) is really into WRAPS right now. You can buy Flat Out Flat Bread and Packages of seasoned chicken strips or grilled steak (or make your own) and add lettuce, cheese veggies, etc....

Wow, I could write a book!
Many websites also have great ideas like http://www.kraftrecipes.com/home.aspx
But I love to do simple things like:
hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls.
bake biscuits into bowls using a muffin pan and fill with chicken, ham or tuna salad
mini pizzas on English muffins or bagel
chicken casserole: some rice, can of cream of almost anything, whatever your favorite veggie is (we usually use broccoli) and cubed chicken. crock-pot or oven works great
any kind of meat and egg noodles
fry up (or grill) some hamburgers
brown some beef or turkey, fill lasagna noodles and roll up, cover in sauce and bake until bubbly
roll up some meatballs and bake - meatball subs are easy

You can roll up deli meats and stick toothpicks through them with olives on the ends of the toothpicks. You can smear the deli meat with mustard or cream cheese (depending on which meats you use) prior to rolling them. Or you can lay it all on top of a tortilla before rolling them and slice them into pinwheels.

We sometimes do quesadillas too. Or mini-pizzas (you can make these with a tortilla also!) with pepperoni and black olives. Or make breakfast for lunch! (omelets anyone?)

Hi,

Our easiest bet for a hot lunch is intentional leftovers. We make a large dinner and then eat the extra the next day at lunch. No extra prep required. ;)

Summer lunches and dinners are so hard to do! It is so hot, that I don't want hot food. Winter is so much easier because of meals from the crock pot and soups.

Enough rambling....here are some ideas I've come up with so far. I'm hoping to get more ideas.

We do mostly snack type things for lunch like cheddar cheese cubes, laughing cow wedges, babybel, whole wheat crackers, fruits like strawberries, grapes and citrus, and veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers (my kids like the veggies mixed with a little salad dressing)

tuna fish on crackers
mini hamburgers on Hawaiian rolls
gazpacho
turkey and cheese sandwiches

My son loves Lunchables at home. I, too got spoiled with the hot meals at school!

Pasta salad is light and you can put veggies in it too. Keep it in the fridge so you dont' have to "cook" - just grab it and serve. I make one w/ pasta (pick the shape, diced tomatoes, diced avacado, diced black olives and some pasta sauce and olive oil, sprinkle w/ parmesian cheese and you are good to go!

First, wow, children who won't eat PB&J??? My 5 year old daughter has probably has 100 PB&J's a year. LOL

I like to prepare things that are easy to store, and easy to pull out and serve or pack in a lunch to go out to the park or wherever. A watermelon, chopped up in a big container. Chicken or Tuna Salad with grapes, nuts, light Mayo. Pasta salad (can be made 20 different ways), Jello parfaits with fruit and cool whip. Make taco meat and stick in the fridge that can be re-heated for a roll up in a tortilla with shredded cheese, or to put on a salad. Pigs in a blanket - mini hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls. I also love to make breakfast for lunch. Blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs or apple cinnamon muffins and turkey bacon. It's always a change of pace to make breakfast foods!

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lunch meat and cheese roll-ups with pretzels (sp), cold bean borritos (refried beans, sour cream, cheese, diced tomatoes), cracker sandwiches (just like a lunchable, but your own creation and without the crazy preservatives), salads (if you kids will eat them - my son loves a plain salad with small pieces of tomotoe, lots of cheese, ranch, and bacon bits), bacon sandwiches...Those are a few of the different meals I put in my son's lunch box for school. He is 6.

pasta, pizza, egg and cheese sandwiches, chicken tenders, fish sticks, egg salad, quesadilla, hot dogs, tuna sandwich, any type of deli sandwich, etc. I always add a veggie and/or fruit as a side.

black bean salad served with goat cheese quesadilla:

2 cans black beans (drained and rinsed)
juice of 3 limes
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon each of cumin, coriander and oregano
2 diced bell peppers (we like orange and red ones personally)
6 thinly sliced green onions
S&P to taste (I suggest doing it after it rests though)

Combine ingredients and let rest. The longer it sits the better it tastes so if it takes a couple days to eat it's all good.

You can make a regular quesadilla but I find the goat cheese tastes really good with the black beans.

Easy peasy!
T.

Tacos and burritos are fast and easy..also nachos, u could make a fruit and veggie tray with cheese and crackers and some rolled up lunch meat, ramen noodles, grilled cheese and some soup,