Wednesday, February 18, 2009

What's For Lunch?

Lunch is my nemesis, my daily mental block, my frustration. I love being creative with dinner and dessert ideas, but for some reason I am completely stumped when it comes to an interesting and varied mid-day menu. Our typical lunches are either leftovers, pb&j, grilled ham & cheese, soup (sometimes homemade, sometimes from a can), or mac & cheese. While these are fine and great, when we eat lunch at home at least 6 days every week, we get REALLY bored with the same ol' options.

To remedy this situation, I have been searching for better and more interesting lunchtime options via the Internet. I thought I'd share my findings with you all, as well as put out a request for more unique ideas. What do you like to eat for lunch? What are your quick and easy fixes when you are pressed for time? PLEASE share your ideas with me, I can use all of the inspiration I can get! :)

SOME IDEAS FROM US AND SOME FROM THE INTERNET:

Leftovers

Sandwiches
:
PB&J
PB and banana
Lunch meat and cheese
Grilled cheese

Grilled ham & cheese
Tuna salad

Tuna melts
Egg salad
Chicken salad
Cucumbers and cream cheese
Bacon and cheese (with lettuce, tomato, or onions if they like them)


Tortilla roll ups or pita sandwiches:
PB&J
Lunch meat and cheese
Tuna salad
Egg salad
Veggies (julienned) with peanut sauce
Chicken salad
Stir fry leftovers
Cucumber (julienned) and cream cheese
Hummus with julienned veggies

Quesadillas
Homemade soup
Pizza on English muffins or bagels
Pizza or Stromboli
Mexican pizza on tortillas
Macaroni and cheese
Impossible cheeseburger pie (easy when you have onions and beef already cooked in the freezer!)
Fried Rice
Baked potatoes (they cook in 6 minutes in the microwave) - coat them in olive oil and coarse salt and pepper and prick with a fork before cooking
Pasta salad with meat and/or veggies added
Taco salad
Nachos with chili & beans
Hamburgers (use individually frozen cooked hamburger patties)
Octopus hot dogs - cut the wiener lengthwise about 2/3 of the way down to make tentacles then boil or microwave then make eyes with dots of mustard or canned cheese

Pancakes or waffles with fruit
Bacon, egg, and cheese English muffins (or sourdough bread sandwiches)
Rice and beans (the little packets are good)
Pinto beans and cornbread (soak your pinto beans the day before and cook them overnight in the slow cooker)



Any other suggestions?

1 comment:

Francis said...

Looks like some good suggestions. Im terrible with lunch too, pb&j are served more often than not. Lately I have made a smoothie using milk, frozen unsweetened fruit, plain yogurt, ice and (here's the not so good part) slim fast powder. Its good, filling and it gets Jadon to eat some fruit which he normally does not like. I can have that for lunch and the kiddos have that and a sandwich or something. By the way, I tried out that recipe for granola bars - its good! Even Robert likes it which is saying something since he doesn't like them normally. ;-) Thanks for the link!