Lunch Ideas

Hello. My boys are 13 months old. I feel like I have a good selection of offerings for breakfast and dinner, but lunch is often times the same old stuff. I like to give them a lighter lunch because they eat so much at breakfast. I feel like I'm always rotating through the same three things: mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and pierogies. Any suggestions?

 

Deli meat, crackers and pieces of cheese, diced up soft veggies or fruit, pasta, left overs from dinner... thats all I can think of right now since mine also ate a lot of mac & cheese and grilled cheese at that age!

 

Quesadillas (you can also add meat/chicken/vegetables), refried beans and cheese, yogurt w/fresh fruit, Hot Pockets, various soups, string cheese, etc. Our newest creation is using pizza dough and folding a piece of string cheese in the middle. Then they dip it in marinara sauce. They love it!

 

PB&J, Gerber pasta pickups, waffles, cereal bars, del monte fruit packs (I drain the syrup out), steamfresh vegetables, pancakes, eggs w/ cheese...those are some of the things I can think of.

 

I havent made any of her recipes yet but am intending on doing so! You may find inspiration here: http://www.annabelkarmel.com/age-range/chi...chicken_nuggets

 

My boys have lots of food allergies so I don't always think our food options are very relevant to other people, but here are some of their more normal foods: toast with almond butter and jam, hashbrowns or potatoes (regular or sweet), fruit, cheese and crackers, pasta with garlic toast, beans and rice (messy but desirable to my boys).

Good luck! This feeding thing is harder than it seems it should be!

 

I just gave a bigger lunch today than ever since they were finally eating it and loved it! I've had a hard time introducing table foods, I thought my girls were bad gaggers, turns out they hated what I was giving them! I broiled some chicken breasts last night and boiled some eggs and whole wheat elbow pasta. I cut it all up and mixed it into a bowl. It should last a few days.

 

I was just wondering the same thing. Right now about the only thing my girls want to eat for lunch is turkey meat and cheese and sometimes crackers. LOL, I feel like they should be getting a little more variety! I did give them some peanut butter on a cracker which they liked and I try to give them various fruits to try (one twin likes them the other usually doesn't.) Can't really think of much else they like for lunch....occasionally pb&j cut up in little squares.

 

Lunch is very boring here... Usually toasted cheese sandwich or almond butter and jelly sandwich with fruit... Sometimes toast with hummus, or spread avocado/ham sandwiches. I've tried turkey and cheese sandwiches but it's hit and miss.

Yeah... a lot of bread. I have picky eaters.

 

hmmmm hummus sounds great! I need to introduce that to the babies!! I was just thinking I needed to start them on garbanzo beans, and then now I'm thinking tha the hummus sounds delicious!!

I do lots of the mac & cheese, grilled cheese, quesadillas etc. Also ours like yogurt so I do anything with plain yogurt... even black beans or kidney beans... I want to start doing more just table food so that they are eating what we are, but I feel like I'm still introducing new foods.

 

We do a variety of things - rice with small pieces of veggie and meat mixed in (and sometimes I use veggie baby food as the "sauce")
sandwiches - with a variety of things on them (meat, cheese, cream cheese, humous, almond butter, butter)
Pasta, with a variety of "sauces"
Soup
Oatmeal
breadsticks that they dip in humous (they love this)

we always offer a veggie and a fruit as well (but we change what we offer everyday).

Good luck!

 

My DD loves veggie burgers, meatballs, meatloaf, sandwichs, banana bread, muffins, and ravaoli.

 

We've been in a rut too. Today we tried egg salad between two pieces of toast and, surprisingly, they liked it. I tried it on crackers first because I thought that would be novel, but they wanted nothing to do with it. Put it on toast and it was a hit. Go figure!