Monday, August 2, 2010

Bulk Food Series - Part 6, Meal Plans: Lunch

Lunch:

My kids will need lunch packed every day. Although the majority of the Birchtree parents I’ve met so far have fairly similar ideas about children eating real food that isn’t 95% ultra-processed corn with a little hydrogenated oil for texture, I still have the idea that lunch should look and taste great. It’s the only thing I can control that might possibly dissuade them from bartering for a classmate’s Twinkies or Doritos.

Lunch will rotate on themes:

Monday: Mom’s choice
Tuesday: Stew or Soup
Wednesday: Bento
Thursday: Sandwiches
Friday: Mexican or Italian


These themes give the children a sense of rhythm which is encouraged by their school and give me a place to start in my planning. I'll spend a day every two weeks doing some prep work to allow the lunches to go together fairly quickly. On my big prep day I will do things like:

1. Bake a pan of mini-bundt cakes
2. Make gelatin cups and individual cheese cakes
3. Make onigiri, sushi rice mats, burritos, pizza crusts, and sandwich fillings
4. Bake cupcakes and cookies
5. Make granola bars
6. Blind bake tart shells
7. Make yogurt cups
8. Bake rolls

A week of lunches might look like this:

Monday: Bacon and cheddar individual quiche
Veggies with ranch dip
Vanilla custard with carmelized apples


Tuesday: Beef stew made from the leftovers of a pot roast
Homemade roll and butter
Cheese cubes
Grapes
Chocolate chip cookies

Wednesday: Onigiri
Nori rolls
Fruit gelatin cup
veggies
Mochi

Thursday: Chicken salad sandwiches
Mini cheese rounds
Cucumber salad
Mini bundt cake

Friday: Enchiladas
Grapes
Individual cheese cake

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where did you get your Bento Boxes for your kids?

I am realizing that for James and the kids I will be making 40 lunches per week!

Steph said...

Ebay! I'm going to get some of the metal tiffins from Happpy Tiffin too.