lunch ideas

What’s For Lunch: The Best List of Lunches

lunch ideas
Lunch time. Personally, I find the daily “what’s for lunch” question much more difficult than “what’s for dinner”. Lunch is, well, a challenge. Although it’s yummy, I want to feed my children something more than the standard sandwich and chips option. However, I don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen. And neither do you, right?

On an average day, the breakfast mess isn’t cleared until after 9am. Then, in order to get supper on the table at a decent hour, prep begins around 3:30. With errands and homeschool lessons in between, that doesn’t leave much time for a satisfying, thoughtful lunch. So what to do?

As with any successful endeavor, a good lunch starts with a good plan…and a heavy dose of reality! As much as I would love to make an original lunch for my children every day, I know that’s not feasible with our schedule. So rather than overwhelm myself and create extra work, I do my best to fix a crowd-pleasing lunch once a week. No more, no less. The other days of the week we alternate between sandwiches, leftovers, breakfast foods, and sometimes soup.

But what to fix? <insert eye roll> I used to run out of ideas often. That’s why I started to keep a running list of lunch ideas (Evernote is great for this!). Today, I’m going to share some with you. The recipes below run the gambit, from easy, interesting sandwiches, to crock pot and freezer meals and everything in between. They are all sure to help break you out of your lunch rut. Bookmark your favorite ideas and plan a great lunch this week!

Sandwich-ish

Tuna Twister Melts

Waffle Turkey and Cheese Sami

Apple Sandwiches

Pepperoni Pizza Pockets

Roast Beef Cheddar Roll-Ups

Slow Cooker Hamburgers

Club Quesadillas

Grilled Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich

Salads

Crisp Tuna Cabbage Salad

Mashed Chickpea Salad

Grilled Chicken and Fruit Salad

Black Bean Breakfast Bowl

Taco Salad

Veggie Tuna Pasta Salad

Cuban Chicken Salad

Hot Stuff

Sausage and Vegetable Fritatta

Zucchini Tots

Homemade Spaghetti O’s and Meatballs

Easy Stromboli

Quick Beef Burrito Skillet

No-Boil Mac and Cheese Bake

One Pot Spaghetti

Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken

Vegetarian Chili Mac

Beef Soup in a Bread Bowl

Pigs in a Blanket

Spicy Spaghetti Squash with Black Beans

Lentil and Brown Rice Casserole

Ham and Cheese Muffins

Queso Potatoes

What are your favorite go-to lunch ideas that offer more than the average sandwich?

 

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About Cheryl Pitt

Cheryl has been homeschooling since 2001. She is currently raising and educating five children. Cheryl is an avid social media user with a heart for strong family values and the companies that promote them. Sensing a need to help establish homeschool bloggers online and support family-friendly business, Cheryl created the 2:1 Conference. 2:1 is a faith based conference for homeschooling parents active in blogging and social media.

8 thoughts on “What’s For Lunch: The Best List of Lunches

  1. CRA

    Thank you for some great ideas!! Lunch is the last thing I think about until my kids start asking what we are having. They are so tired of PB&J and grilled cheese. I need to be better about incorporating one or two of these ideas each week!

    Reply
  2. Rachel

    Thanks for the tips. I’ve so tried leftover taco meat, chili, or hot dogs baked in cornbread muffins.

    Reply
  3. Beth

    Sometimes we make our own “lunchables” : sliced turkey sausage, sliced cheese, crackers/ mini bagels. Errand day, if it involves Costco, will mean a $5 rotisserie ckn (Gasp!..not homemade!)

    Reply
  4. Sage

    We eat lots of bean burritos during the week. I also like little pot pies but the ones you buy have so much salt. Here’s to planning ahead.

    Reply
  5. Karen

    Great ideas! I find if I do meal planning ahead, it helps take the pressure off so much and you can use leftovers to make parts of lunches. Another fun idea is muffin tin lunches (we have the silicone shaped ones for fun) — fill each compartment with diced mozzarella sticks, sliced veggies, goldfish, diced cold meats, fruits, raisins, nuts, choc chips, etc. — create a rainbow of colors for them to eat!

    Reply
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