Lunches kids can make

A few years ago I wrote a post on easy homeschool lunches, and it was quite popular (Future Ticia 2025 is going to be combining that post with this one).  As a homeschool Mom, I’m always looking for easy ways to solve the “what do we eat?” question, especially in the middle of the homeschool day. That’s why lunches kids can make is definitely a Homeschool How To as everyone needs to know how to make lunch.

{This post includes affiliate links}

Lunches kids can make (no cooking involved)

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches- my kids love to make their own variations on these sandwiches: smooth/crunchy or jelly/honey, or just peanut butter, they all have their own favorites

• Muppet Sandwiches- this is a special treat, but they love these, probably because of the large amounts of sugar.  Yes, that is my daughter making one at 4 years old. Essentially, this is an open-face peanut butter sandwich with chocolate chips or the like used to make a face, and then coconut added for the hair. LOTS OF COCONUT, or that may only be me because I love coconut.
• Cheese and crackers- if you buy pre-sliced cheese, this doesn’t even involve a knife.  Or you can buy a Cheese Slicer (I love this one, and need to buy a new one, after 5 years of hard use, it broke), and always get cheese the same width.
• Cereal- Batman loves to eat cereal whenever he is hungry.  He’ll just pour himself a bowl and be good to go.

Lunches kids can make, some cooking involved

• Fish sticks- my kids recently discovered fish sticks, and you can cook them in the microwave (which tastes horrible to my mind) OR in the oven.
• Scrambled eggs- my kids are big fans of breakfast any time of day, which also leads to….
• Oatmeal– Superman is my big breakfast chef.  He makes the scrambled eggs, and the oatmeal.  Princess makes toast, and a few other things.

• Salad- my kids love to make their own salads with bits and pieces of other items added in (usually it’s leftover chicken or Italian sausage).
• Toasted bagel with cream cheese- my daughter loves this one, my boys don’t.  It’s as simple as that.

 

Lunches kids can make with a lot of cooking

These meals require a bit more prep-work, OR require you to be willing to let your kids use sharp knives, both of which will depend on your kids’ maturity.  All of these are relatively simple to make and don’t have lots of steps

• Chicken- my son has learned how to cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and cook it in a little bit of butter with garlic salt, and it’s delicious.
• Bacon- this is more of a side item, but Batman has learned how to cook it and is quite proud of his skill, so I had to mention it.
• Spaghetti– While I make the sauce, my kids are perfectly capable of cooking the noodles and reheating the sauce I’ve jarred up. Princess has even done this, though I help her drain the noodles.

Now, all of the items I’ve mentioned so far are main dishes. If you notice in that blurry picture up above, we use a traditional lunch tray, and that’s because it forces me to come up with a few side dishes. If you’re like me and struggle with this, here’s my short list of ideas:

pretzel sticks, strawberries, grapes, apple slices, watermelon, pineapple, their favorite chips (this is a rare treat), Pringles (also a rare treat, if we buy them, Jeff and I are likely to finish the bag, which we don’t need to do), teddy grahams, or a dessert.

Oh, and if you noticed, I only have pictures of the boys cooking, that’s because one of my goals for this year for them is to learn to cook simple meals, which they have taken on with a passion.

And I’ll just copy this over here:

10 Easy Homeschool Lunches

I don’t know about you, but I find the concept of making lunch in the middle of the school day annoying.  I have to switch gears from teaching to cooking, and my brain doesn’t always move that fast.

So…..  I’ve been working on making an informal list of homeschool lunches to make.  Hopefully, my list of homeschool lunches will help you out in your day, too.

I’m gonna break this down into two categories: “main dish” and “side dishes.”

Main dishes for homeschool lunches (in the order I think of them)

1. Kraft Blue Box Macaroni & Cheese or Annie’s Homegrown Shells & White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese (I included the specific ones my kids prefer; there’s a big disagreement on which is better, with the twins on different sides for once).
2. Cooked chicken breasts in bite-sized pieces- we often cook a few extra chicken breasts to have handy for other meals
3. Grilled cheese- an oldie and a goodie, sometimes to be fun, we’ll add in an unusual cheese like manchego.
4. Spaghetti– I make my own sauce about once a month in a giant cook pot, and then freeze it in empty, washed-out Peanut Butter jars.  I’ve figured out why buy empty canning jars when I have perfectly good glass jars to use.
5. Sausage, cheese, and crackers- this is a HUGE hit with all 3.  I give them 4 or so slices of each item, and when combined with a side dish, it’s a great meal (obviously, bigger kids would need more).
6. peanut butter and jelly sandwiches- why change what’s worked for decades?  Though I have been known to substitute honey for jelly from time to time.
7. kolaches/pigs in a blanket– you know the mini-hot-dogs that are cooked in crescent rolls.  If there’s a lot of German settlers in the area, it’s a kolache; if you’re anywhere else, it’s a pig in a blanket.
8. Muppet sandwiches– this is a special treat because it’s usually covered in chocolate chips or M&Ms
9. left-overs- like I said, I often try to make dinners bigger than we need, so I can “cook once, serve twice.”  I’m sure this will no longer work once the boys are teens.
10. cheese roll-up-  This is just cheese on a tortilla and melted. Princess loves it.  While the boys like:
11. bean burrito- In our case, it’s simply refried beans and some shredded cheese that’s heated up.  There are of cours,e more formal ways to do it.  It’d be perfect for us if someone made an 8-oz can of refried beans, because we don’t always make it through the whole 16 oz. can.

This is obviously not an exhaustive list, as I finished, I thought of a couple of others, soups, and such stuff, but it’s meant to get you started.

Side dishes for homeschool lunches

1. apples- our family loves honeycrisp apples, we eat them like crazy
2. grapes- Batman loves red grapes.
3. strawberries- I actually have to limit how many Princess can eat or she’d make herself sick.
4. Teddy Grahams–  or anything of that sort.  These also double as treats sometimes.
5. Fig Newtons– only 2 of my kids like this.
6. bananas
7. string cheese
8. cheese slices- we like to try different cheeses, and this is one way to sneak in new foods
9. chips- I often have tortilla chips, but we have been known to get Cheetos or Doritos from time to time.  By the by, HEB (our local grocery store) makes excellent chips in-store.
10. cookies- on a rare occasion, I’ll have cookies for them to have as one of their sides. We’re not a big sweet family, so it’s a special treat.

Again, this is not an exhaustive list, just some ideas to get you started.  What are some things you would add in for your lunches?  I can always use new ideas to switch into our rotation.

And I would just like to point out that I woke up early this morning and wrote this whole thing.  You may oohh and aaahhhh now.