Lunch Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Sunny Side Up Nutrition

Elizabeth, here. I hope you had a chance to read Anna’s recent post about the importance of eliminating diet talk from schools. And did you see our new resource to share with teachers and coaches? It makes it so easy to reach out and share your beliefs about food with anyone who works with your children.

Has everyone settled into the new school year? If you’re anything like me, it’s the time of year you get stuck in the lunch-making-ho-hums. I don’t love packing lunches and get tired of it pretty quickly! As a way to prevent the ho-hums and mix things up a bit, I thought I’d share a few more ideas for quick and easy lunches to add to the LUNCH LIST.

What’s For Lunch?

Leftover Pizza, Clementines and Homemade Oatmeal Craisin Cookies

A teenager or older child would likely need at least two slices of pizza depending on the slice size. (These are actually quite small. I had to cut this piece of pizza in two to fit it in the container). Or add a Greek yogurt or some trail mix to lunch if there’s only one slice per older child. For younger children, make a hole in the top of the clementines to make it easy for littler hands to peel them, or just peel them before putting them in the lunchbox.

I love these Sistema lunch cubes as I mentioned here a few weeks ago. They have plenty of room for a full lunch. And the fact that the container closes between sections means less likelyhood the pizza or cookies will taste like clementines and vice versa.

My youngest loves leftover pizza for lunch! This makes me happy because it’s so easy and it really satisfies her. …

I love seeing all the back to school pictures this time of year! (I’ll post a back to school picture once both kids have gone back to school.) I can’t even believe it, but our 14 year old started high school on Monday. Naturally, I’ve been thinking about what to pack for school lunches. I settle into making the same lunches pretty often. I’ve definitely done that this summer. So, I thought I’d start the school year off with some lunch ideas to share over the coming weeks. Hopefully, these will also be helpful to you and your family! In the midst of all this meal planning, don’t forget to think about meals and snacks for yourself, too.

Lunch, like all other meals and snacks doesn’t need to be perfect! There’s so much pressure to feed ourselves and our kids in some perfect way. At my house, the containers we use don’t match and I sometimes use plastic baggies. And my kids will eagerly tell you I’ve been known to forget to put things in their lunch bags, like utensils or even food. At some point last year, I got a text from Caroline during the day with a picture of the empty Thermos I put in her bag. I forgot to add the food!

3 Easy Lunches

One of the easiest lunches for me to pull together is lentils, rice and grated cheese. I love these Trader Joe’s Steamed Lentils! You can heat them or serve them cold (recipe for a lentil salad coming soon). All you need is some extra rice, or buy precooked, frozen rice to mix with the lentils and a little salt. I heat the Thermos by filling it with boiling water from our electric water kettle. You can also use hot water from the tap. Screw the lid on the thermos and let it sit while you make lunch. Heat the mixture for 1-2 minutes on high in a microwave safe dish. The time will vary depending on your microwave. Remove it from the microwave and stir in about a 1/4 c grated cheese. Empty the hot water from the thermos and add the heated lentils, rice and cheese.

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Lunch

What’s For Lunch?

Leftover Pizza, Clementines and Homemade Oatmeal Craisin Cookies

3 Easy Lunches

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