So...what's for lunch?Pretty much every day it's PB&J sandwiches. (Yes friends--we are a two-peanut-butter-family. I give the kids all-natural peanut butter, and Kevin insists on eating the sugar-filled stuff. I won't even tell you the kinds of breakfast cereals he buys! :) ) The kids also usually have cheese, and a vegetable.
I do *try* to change things up a little bit from time to time. Here are some foods that find themselves on the Heldt family lunch menu every now and again:
PB&J sandwich
egg salad or chicken salad sandwich
cheese (either cheddar, monterey jack, or mozzarella)
green beans
yogurt
Annie's organic shells and cheddar (sometimes I add chicken and grated parmesan cheese)
apple slices
turkey slices
avocado (could they BE any more expensive here? Lower cost of living, hmm, the jury's still out on that one.)
cottage cheese
carrots + hummus or ranch dressing
leftovers
Of course, now I want to know what's for lunch at YOUR house!
**Oh and the above picture was yesterday's lunch--peanut butter and jelly sandwich (wonderful HOMEMADE jam, thanks Jennifer!!!), peach yogurt, cold green beans (yes, my kids love them cold.) And yes it's an awful photo...I'm not a food photographer, and have never claimed to be! :)
16 comments:
PB&J + smoothing (soy milk and frozen berries)
whole wheat quesadilla (sharp cheddar has less fat) + carrot sticks and ranch
millions of different kinds of soups when I'm trying to clean out the fridge or when I'm trying to give them a variety of veggies all at once.
whole wheat crackers, cheese, fruit
mac n cheese (the really unhealthy kind - KRAFT)
egg salad / tunafish but almost never lunchmeat .. I just don't ever remember to buy it.
we usually try to have a fruit or veggie with each meal but since we use whatever I have on hand we might have the same fruit for days.. and yes, homemade jam is by far healthier and tastier than anything you could possibly buy in the store. I like freezer jam the best because it uses less sugar.
You should try adding the Hebrew National hotdogs to Annies mac and cheese, that is a big hit in this house.
To change up the sandwich routine, I like to make quesidillas with lunch ham and mozzerella cheese. Hint: Pre-heat the ham in the pan before you put in the tortilla and cheese so the cheese will melt better.
Gregory LOVES tuna and olives. The most random thing but at least he is eating! We are down to one tube feeding a day with his new anorexic meds.
oh, we're not too exciting. pb&j (a recent upgrade from almond butter and jelly now that they are older) is a staple. we use the real peanut butter, the all-good all-natural stuff. but at first the kids didn't like it because they were so used to almond butter. so mike got them the kevin-version, which they of course gobbled up, and after a little while we got them used to the taste and switched to the natural stuff. i hated giving them that awful stuff, but fortunately they like the good stuff now.
we also eat anything with cheese--quesedilla, grilled cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese. sometimes we have leftovers. deli-style sandwiches. nehemiah is very picky, mainly because he won't try something (this goes for dessert too, so actually it does work in our favor sometimes!).
good for you for getting vegies into lunches. i need to work on that. vegies are mainly a dinner item for us.
I was going to say how wonderful your lunch looked! Presentation is everything... I'm down to using paper towels to put their lunches on, so clean-up is just a swipe of the table. PB& honey is the hit here... is that bad for you? I'm reading just how bad my Jif is around here... :)
I use JIF, and I compared it to the all natural Kirkland one and the sugar content wasn't that much higher. So that's what we use. My kids also have other sugar filled stuff anyway, so whatever.
Okay, we love ourselves some dinosaur chicken, grilled cheese, quesidillas are hit or miss, same with PB&J, soups in the winter, and lunch meats. Always served with a fruit or two and occasionally a veggie. I hate using pans at lunch though.
My 2.5 and 4.5 year olds love little "bites" of many different foods for lunch. So i bought two colorful mini- muffin pans and fill them each with different items. (This is easier than it sounds, especially once you get the hang of it. And many of the items can be cut up all at once, and then stored for the rest of the week.)
Today's lunch included: sliced nectarine, cubes of mozzarella, whole grain crackers, dried cranberries, bbq chicken pieces (left over from dinner), pea pods & hummus, carrots & salsa, and a few chocolate chips for dessert. (And yes, those almost always get eaten first!!)This sounds like a lot of food for young children, but the portions are obviously very small and they love the variety. Of course, we still do our share of PB & J. But i like to "expand their horizons" as much as possible. :)
~McLean
rachel it's not the sugar content i don't like (though i see no reason for them to add sugar to peanut butter), it's the hydrogenated oil (and all the other stuff) in jif. however i ate it all growing up and turned out just fine. :) i just figure, my kids eat it every single day, so i want them having it naturally.
penny, papertowels are a great idea! hmmm, i may have to try that one!!!!
I just wanted to say that I hope that you are feeling better Brianna. Being sick is never fun and it does sometimes make it harder to get better when you have little ones to take care of. Moms know that best, don't we? Feel better!
Angela H
hey Brianna i just started blogging and found your blog! We have pb/j almost everyday, meat sandwiches are jacob's favorite and they love to use cookie cutters to cut them into a shape(they never eat the crust anyway!) with milk and some sort of fruit, like apple, banana grapes....
Your list looks identical to mine. I also do:
Natural PB&Honey, or 100% Fruit spread (NO added sugar! YAY! It is wonderful, too!) on whole wheat bagels
Mac&Cheese
Soups
Egg Salad Sandwhiches are a big hit
Pasta Salad with peas and ham, or whatever I have to throw in...
Tuna stuffed tomatos- very fun and yummy...
BLA's (bacon lettuce and avacado)
and yes...jenn's jam rocked. thanks jenn!
Cheese quesidillas
Ramin
Corn Dogs (Morning Star)
These are some of our favorites that I would add to your list that we use too. ;)
Glad you're enjoying Denver. How from are you from the DNC?
christine hi!!! hope you guys are doing well. i miss seeing you. hope santa maria is treating you well. :)
angela i know, i think she needs to make some more for us! :) where do you get the fruit spread???
carolina, we are about 10 minutes south of invesco and the pepsi center. just a hop on I25. so no excitement in our neck of the woods!
It says 0 trans fat on the nutrition label and teh ingredients say less than 2 percent hydrogenated oils. I'll have to compare it in the store with an all natural one to see where the real difference is. I too grew up on JIF and LOVE it, so I always come back to it after venturing out into the world of others. I tried soy butter and thought it tasted good too.
Side note, my kids are currently eating fish sticks, tater tots, green beans, and apple slices. Mike came home before worship practice and was excited to see the oven on, I assured him the contents were not for him. He ha leftover turkey chili instead!!!
rachel i just looked at a generic version of jif or skippy and it does say "less than 2%", and that it has sugar added to it. my natural peanut butter has just peanuts and salt (tho i buy unsalted sometimes too.) b/c the kids eat it everyday i try to just do the natural. sometimes i wish i bought everything organic...but i just can't justify the cost!
brianna-
every grocery store has it near the jelly... it's called 100% Fruit... there are several different brands. We usually buy whatever is cheapest. I think Smuckers might make one... We have about 4 jars of Polander's (?) in our fridge right now.
`Hard boiled eggs
`frozen peas and corn (yep, she loves them still frozen)
`grapes
`pomagranate
`deli turkey (nitrate free),cheese & whole grain crackers - she loves to make her own little sandwiches
`turkey and cream cheese rolled up in a tortilla
`oranges
`cherry tomatoes
`homemade chicken noodle soup (chicken broth, chicken, noodles, onions, carrots and celery - really easy)
`cucumber
`blue berries and raspberries
`One night for dinner she had pistachios and raspberries. It's almost a balanced meal, right? =) The girl loves pistachios!
It was fun reading other peoples ideas. I have such a hard time thinking of new things that she'll eat.
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