There are just four days of school left, including today- and Thursday is a partial day! We’re really looking forward to giving the alarm clock a rest, and it’s very obvious that Abigail is ready for a break from learning. One of the things I’ve really been thinking about is the lunches to come. Abigail has been eating the school lunch all but about four days a month, and Zander pretty much has his regular rotation of lunches that he enjoys. As for myself, my lunch usually consists of leftovers or eggs. Generally though, when summer rolls around, lunches become all about sandwiches, which I guess I can’t totally figure out because my kids don’t care for sandwiches much. They’ll eat them from time to time, but after about ten days of sandwiches, they are both dying for something else.
I’ve been thinking long and hard about what to do with lunchtime this summer. Normally, I just make something and they eat it. Sometimes I’ll ask for input, and I had been planning to do some kind of at-home lunch menu, like the school menus that get put out. More than likely though, the plan had been to rotate sandwiches, along with the occasional pizza or something similar. But a while back I was reading a blog where the mom made regular dinner-like lunches for her family, and she had an epiphany- they were actually saving money by making real meals, instead of the typical sandwich/chip type lunch. Think of the potential here for time saving too- Tuesday’s spaghetti lunch becomes Thursday’s spaghetti with chicken Parmesan. Wednesday’s chicken strips become Friday’s chicken strip salad. I’m having my own little epiphany!
Then, on one of the bulletin boards I frequent, someone suggested letting the kids have more of a choice at lunch time, and put together an actual menu- like one at a restaurant- where the kids could look and choose. I loved that idea, and if I kept all the ingredients on hand, I can see where my kids would just go nuts for this. I’m also hoping, that as summer stretches out, that I’ll be able to incorporate more of those foods that we’re getting more familiar with. My kids really want to learn to use chopsticks, so I’m hoping to really find some good Chinese take-out type recipes. Using the menu idea, I came up with one sample week, and I thought I’d share, because I think it is such a fun idea. The only catch, and where I can see trouble brewing is that I would ask that the kids choose the same lunch. I’ll have to come up with some kind of system where they take turns choosing or something similar, but I’m sure that will come with time.
Do you have a plan for summer lunches? I’d love to know what you’re up to!
Welcome to Mom’s Diner
Entrees:
Crispy Chicken Strips: All-natural chicken tenders, lightly coated and crisp-fried. Served with your choice of dipping sauce.
Spaghetti Marinara: Perfectly al dente pasta tossed with marinara and topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Meatballs optional.
Taco Platter: Your choice of hard or soft shell tacos, served with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and olives. Sour cream and salsa optional. Made your choice of beans, beef or turkey.
Creamy Macaroni and Cheese: Homemade, ultra-cheesy spirals of pasta. Crispy topping optional.
Hot Dogs: Two all-natural hot dogs, served on split rolls and topped with your choice of condiments. Served with pickles.
Perfect Pizza: Your sized personal pizza topped just the way you like it. **Advance notice required for preparation of pizza crust.
Side Dishes-choose any two to accompany your lunch:
Vegetables and Dip
Fresh Fruit of The Day
Baked Beans
Side Salad
Yogurt
All lunch selections served with your choice of beverage. Choose all-natural fruit juice, milk, or lemonade
I have a question. So are you willing to make something different for each kid for lunch if they “ordered” it? I have four boys and I know they would not ever agree on the same things. I realize I could just tell them “this is what we’re having today”, which is what I do for dinner A LOT, but I feel like lunch should just be a quick sandwich or something and they don’t seem to mind. Of course, they might start getting sick of pb&j before summer is over! 😉 Good ideas though. Your blog is great.
Katrina, that’s what I haven’t figured out yet. Obviously, some things that don’t take too much work wouldn’t be a problem, like if one wanted the hot dog.
What about some kind of lottery or rotating each day whose turn it is to pick? Depending on the ages of your boys, the person who picks could also help make the lunch.
My kids just don’t like sandwiches, so I’m trying to come up with something different I guess. Otherwise it will be sandwiches, and then they won’t eat them, and the afternoon becomes a big snack-fest because they’re starving marvins.
Who me? Summer lunches? Nope…not a one!
yeah, we just do “this is what we’re having” for lunch (and dinners).
usually when I ask what they want, they’ll each say something different. I have them both agree on one thing, My thing is that I’m not a short-order cook, and I don’t really want to be making different things for each person. But again, that’s just my thing.
Hopefully this works for you! I do like the menu thing though. I think once the girls get older, we might do that…plan meals on the weekend, go shopping, and then make up menus, and just have each meal as “the special of the day”. Sure, they don’t get a “choice”, but they did help plan the menus.
This is a cute idea! I think you should have a couple of days that are set. Like Wednesday is personal pan pizza day but they get to choose the toppings. Maybe one day they DO have a sandwich…no complaining. But then the other days they get to choose. Maybe even give Zander the choice one day and then Abigail the choice another. It could even be fun to have a special day where they get to choose something to “cook” themselves.
Thank you Andy and Claire for your added advice! It’s really helping me to come up with a complete idea. I definitely will add in having them come up with the menus so they can say they had input- and Claire, we will most definitley be instituting days where they cook lunch, especially as we progress through the summer…
Lots of great ideas, thanks!
Erika, that’s what the problem here becomes–afternoon snack-fest. And I just can’t understand why no one eats their dinner. 😉
Katrina, I’ve been thinking myself about doing a better job at buying veggies, preparing them for snacking, and having them on hand, ready to go at all times. Now, in perfect-land, where everything goes according to plan, when the munchkins come up to me an hour before dinner and insist that they are starving to death, then I would offer up these already prepped and ready to go vegetables. With dip, of course. If they truly are hungry, they’ll eat the veggies. And then when they don’t eat much dinner I can take great satisfaction in knowing that they at least ate the veggies and filled up on all those wonderful nutrients and vitamins. Now will I actually do this? I sure do want to try…