Lunches

Lunch is my favorite meal. It normally is my biggest meal of the day.

My kids brown bag it most days. They are allowed to buy twice a month and they get to pick which days. Most of the times it is French Toast Stick day and Bean Burrito day or sometimes Lucky Tray day.

Seth likes to have – rolled ham, string cheese, cereal bar, orange and pretzels with water to drink. For dessert, he has a homemade cookie. Once out of the week, he has peanut butter wheat thins. (well, the healthy ones from Back to Nature).

Audrey likes to have EVERY day – peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter wheat thins or peanut butter celery. She has Stoneyfield BaNilla yogurt (so yummy – you gotta check it out – tastes like banana pudding), pretzels, oranges or dried fruit and a homemade cookie. She likes CapriSun Roaring Waters drinks.

Rachel is normally home with me. She has whatever is available – sometimes it is peanut butter, sometimes rolled sandwich meat (Boar’s Head is normally what we have), Morningstar fake chicken nuggets or sometimes real chicken nuggets, or quesadilla. Most days the request is for quesadillas. She will also have fruit and a dessert – but she considers fruit snacks a dessert.

Jon has leftovers, Amy’s frozen meals (they go on sale here for about $2.50), ham and cheese sandwich or egg salad sandwich.

My very favorites are egg salad, burritos with lots of avocado!!!, ravioli or Amy’s canned soup. (The Black Bean is my favorite)

I think egg salad is the most cost effective lunch out there. We buy free range, organic local eggs for $1.99 a dozen. Instead of mayo, I use greek yogurt. (A container normally is 2 different batches of egg salad which costs about $1.50 here) Make as normal. So yummy and so much healthier. I cook the whole dozen and make sandwiches throughout the week – it lasts about 3 days if everyone is eating it. I am sure there are even cheaper lunches out there and would love to hear ideas!!!

Another idea to make things cheaper – if you go out to eat – is join a restaurant e-club. Most have them and you can normally get free things for your birthday or special deals. Also, if you have not checked out restaurant.com – they have codes to make those certificates even cheaper if you buy from there. I know Chik-fila is one of my favorite restaurants because they have free breakfast days, no purchase necessary and also free stuff when you get their calendar.

I have food and water in the car at all times. Today when I took the Brownies to Denver, I knew they would be hungry after the tour. I brought clementines and pretzels for them all. I also always have snacks in the car because Rachel’s preschool parents have a hard time understanding what classifies as a “healthy snack.” Little Debbie products or Doritos are not a healthy snack so I always have a backup snack – just in case.

Tomorrow I will talk about desserts – one of my favorites also!!!

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