Do you need ideas for Kids
school lunches or kids lunches at home? If you are like me it can be
simple to plan easy kids meals for breakfast.
Dinner
is the major event to plan. But lunches are difficult for me. You can
only have so much peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or canned soup!
Here are Some of
Our Favorite Kids Lunch Ideas
A little preparation goes a
long way. Cook extra chicken and ground beef and freeze for small
portions to add to soup, tacos, sandwiches, etc.
Leftovers! Make a little extra each night
for dinner. This provides lunch for anyone the next day including your
kids school lunches. Or if you don’t want to eat something twice in a
row freeze them in Rubbermaid containers to pull out later.
Homemade Chicken Soup. Place roast chicken
with chopped carrots, a quartered onion, 1-2 celery leaves and 2 bay
leaves in a large soup pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook
and simmer on medium-low 1 hour. Drain broth into large bowl. Allow to
cool. Shred chicken. Use the shredded chicken for a casserole or other
dish. Freeze the broth for a quick soup for lunches. Or if you want
soup now add noodles, frozen carrots and peas and cook until vegetables
and pasta are tender. A quick homemade soup that can be used for kids
lunches or eaten at home.
Think “out of the box” for sandwiches. Try
cut out bread with fun cookie cutters, bagels, tortilla wraps,
crackers, pancakes or crepes. This changes things up. I've even given
my son peanut butter on a pancake cut into triangles. It was a hit!
Make dinner into lunch. Either use leftovers and
transform into something else or create something new. Use
cooked chicken for chicken fajitas, (just add shredded chicken, cooked
sliced peppers, onions and sprinkle with taco or fajitas seasoning.)
Make a Chicken Caesar by using cooked chicken, shredded lettuce, and
top with Caesar dressing and Parmesan cheese. For even more variety add
these ideas to a pita or tortilla wrap.
Mini pizzas. Slice hard rolls, bagels, or
English muffins in half. Top with tomato sauce seasoned with Italian
seasoning. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and pizza toppings. Broil
until cheese melts. Wrap up in plastic wrap or store in rubbermaid
container for kids school lunches.
Salads. The ideas are limitless! Start
with shredded lettuce and add variety. Try cobb salad with sliced lunch
meat, tuna salad with a mayo/milk dressing, pasta salad or add shredded
chicken to your lettuce.
Burritos
and tacos. With tortilla shells on hand little preparation is
needed. Using cooked hamburger that was frozen in small portions is
perfect for these times.
Chicken nuggets. Whether store bought or
homemade and frozen. Make extra Crunchy
Coated Chicken
one night and cut into cubes. Freeze for kids lunches another day.
Corn dogs. Also store bought or homemade
and frozen. Again make extra and freeze some for your kids lunches. Homemade Corn Dogs
¾ Cup cornmeal
¾ Cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 Cup milk
10 wooden sticks
10 hot dogs
Oil for deep fat frying
Combine cornmeal, flour and egg; mix well. Stir in milk to make a thick
batter; let stand a few minutes. Pat hot dogs dry and pour batter into
a tall glass. This will help to coat the whole hot dog. Heat oil to 375
degrees. Fry until golden brown.
Protein
sandwiches. Egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad or chopped
ham (ham sliced and chopped in food chopper. Perfect for after Easter
leftover ham). These are not your typical lunch meat and PBJ sandwiches.
Pasta. When cooking macaroni and cheese
add in peas, ham or tuna. Or for school lunches cook fun pasta noodles
and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, Italian dressing, leftover spaghetti
sauce or tomato sauce.
Mini calzones. Make small ham and cheese
or pepperoni calzones and freeze for lunches.
Omelets. Add cheese, meat and chopped
vegetables of your choice. May not work for your kids school lunches
but great for kids lunches at home.
Shredded meat. Use left over pork or beef
roast. Shred and put on top of a tortilla. Add cheese and other taco
fixings for your child to put together at school. Or shred and mix with
barbecue sauce. Eat with a hard roll.
Muffins. Pizza muffins or corn dog muffins
are great for a change in kids school lunches.
Biscuit sticks. Add chopped ham or other
deli meat and shredded cheese to homemade biscuit dough. Flatten onto
cookie sheet and cut into strips. Bake.
Simple Goulash soup. Add cooked noodles
and cooked ground beef to tomato juice. Season with pepper.
Meatballs. Use store bought frozen
meatballs or make
a large batch
and freeze on a cookie sheet until frozen then place in storage bag.
With leftover spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce make a meatball sandwich
with French bread or eat with cooked noodles. For a child's school
lunch you can put meatballs in a rubbermaid container and sauce in a
separate container. Give them a toothpick or fork and they can dip
their meatball.
Ravioli. Buy store bought cheese or meat
ravioli. Add to chicken soup, toss with spaghetti sauce or plain yogurt
sauce. Many kids like to eat theirs plain.
Mini size hamburgers, chicken legs, or chicken wings
are also a kids favorite and can be used for kids lunches.
Would
you like more
help with kids school lunches? Visit
our school lunch page
for help with getting your kids involved in packing their lunches,
providing variety, what to pack for school lunch and more help with
kids lunches and healthy lunch ideas.
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Open Sandwiches
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Cut bread with cookie cutters, spread cream cheese or butter on the top. Top with cucumber slices, tomato slices, ham or other meat. Wrap in plastic wrap ...
Roll up sandwichs
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1. Roll a slice of whole grain bread very thin with rolling pin. 2. Cut off crusts 3. Spread with topping (favs here are pb and j or cream cheese and ...
Mahanas healthy lunch ideas
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Half an avocado with salt and pepper Sticks of cut carrot Small container of sunflower, pumpkin seeds cashew and almonds or tamari roasted almonds ...
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