Lunch ideas?

I never know what to feed my kids, and they're super picky too... What do you give your kids for lunch?

 

Leftovers, pb&j, "lunchables" (crackers cheese meat) breakfast foods, ramen noodles, spaghettios......really if they eat anything at lunch I'm happy, it's one meal I'm pretty sure all 3 of mine could easily skip!
Tomorrow for their lunch I packed cubed ham, carrots, blueberries, ritz crackers, a cereal bar and fruit snacks....of those things I know they will all eat at least one thing

 

we do "white" spaghetti (no sauce just noodles, mixed with either olive oil or butter)
grilled cheese
sandwich of some sort
anything that they can dip (usually in ranch dressing)
tacos (soft shells with cheese melted on them and rolled up)

 

We pack their lunches M-Th, so generally speaking we have a combination of a main course, 3 or 4 sides, and a juice box.

Main dishes:
Sunbutter and jelly sandwiches
hummus and pita
lunchmeat and cheese sandwich
the little ravioli/spaghettios containers
corndogs
chicken nuggets
mac and cheese

Sides:
whatever prepackaged stuff I can find for cheap (usually fruit roll ups, graham crackers, etc)
a piece of fruit
a frozen gogurt (I buy the natural ones)
chips or crackers

On Fridays they eat pizza, on the weekends they usually get sandwiches or hummus and pita. I have no idea how much they eat for lunch vs. eating some of their lunch for snacks, but most days it's gone. It seems that lunch is the one meal that my two do eat with gusto.

 

My girls are good eaters and I hate "kid food," so forgive if these are too out there.
- The other day they ate 1/2 a can of kidney beans with a side of rice and fruit.
- Meat roll-ups (just lunch meat and cheese - no bread). The other day I tore meat into pieces and made it the mane of a lion with tomato eyes, ritz cracker ears, and bel pepper mouth.
- fruit, cheese, and veggie plates - they love having lots of color choices and options.
- Caprese salad
- tuna salad - they love this for some reason
- flat bread pizza
- refried bean burros
- ham steaks with side of applesauce and veggies
- lentil soup

My philosophy - try a broad range of things, not just noodles and kid stuff - and try it multiple times. Especially if you eat it with them, kids will surprise you with what they'll eat. Mine ate half of my plain, fresh spinach the other day because it was on mommy's plate.

 

I find this a great website for all kinds of eating / cooking styles:
http://weelicious.com/

Sure you will find some ideas there. GL!

 

They wouldn't eat half that stuff sigh LOL. It's not for lack of trying, we've just been giving them what we have at dinner for 2 years, and most of the time they'd rather not eat than try it...

 

I have a very picky eater with texture issues. I normally give her some combination of noodles/rice/chef boyardee entree, yogurt, cheese, or diced fruit. I have stopped fighting my daughter on eating at every meal. If she hasn't eaten well in 2 or 3 days, I'll push it but I've found that she cycles through a couple of days where she eats like a bird and then a couple of days where she eats like a bear. I just try to prepare myself for feeding her plenty of stuff that she likes and is healthy on those days she is showing an appetite. Those are also the days where I might try to introduce something new.