What do you do for lunches in the school holidays?

[riotlady]

DD is coming to the end of her first year at school and it’s just occurred to me I’m going to need to plan a whole extra 5 meals a week for 6 weeks. Don’t think I can reasonably do sandwiches/scrambled eggs/beans on toast every day for 6 weeks straight, but also I’m having a baby midway through the hols so we’ll be lucky to cook one hot meal a day let alone two! What does everyone else do?

"Don’t think I can reasonably do sandwiches/scrambled eggs/beans on toast every day for 6 weeks straight"

Why not? If you can't make a sandwich I'm really not sure what people can suggest. Crackers and cheese?

Mine has a cheese sandwich with a small handful of chrips and a piece of fruit just about every lunchtime. I'm working most days over summer so I just make her a packed lunch for the next day like I would do at nursery.

Crisps

Obviously I didn’t mean I can’t make a sandwich 😂just that I didn’t think DD would happily eat one every day- although as pp point out obviously kids on packed lunches do

I refuse to do 2 "proper" meals a day so here it's sandwiches, soup, jacket potato, omelette etc. My DC make it themselves but didn't at your DD's age!

I just buy extra ‘food’. My 3 (2 grown up!) and 11 year old will now make their own although if I’m home I’ll often suggest just making something for all of us or the bigger 2 do. Indoor picnics used to be their favourite, sausage rolls, baguette with cheeses and meats, hummus, grapes, biscuits all just plated up on a blanket on the floor. And what didn’t get eaten just got added to on a rotation!

I do know what you mean, OP. My little one is a bit younger but has got used to hot meals at lunchtime, so I think leftovers from the bight before or some easy pasta dishes are the way forward.

I also like fresh bakery products if you're out shopping, or quiche like someone else said is a good way to mix it up. 😊

Good luck for when baby comes too. Hats off to you having no childcare over the summer in that scenario!! X

Leftovers from the night before, duh!

Err…lunch things surely.
Sandwich, cheese on toast, beans on toast, yoghurt, crisps, banana etc.
But what are you having for lunch? Wouldn’t you basically have the same?

Thank you! It’s sort of both lovely and terrible timing to be having a baby- luckily grandparents and a few friends have promised to come and take DD out for an afternoon here and there so fingers crossed she won’t be too bored

Honestly I’ve had gestational diabetes for last 5 months and all my lunches have been fairly repetitive and boring and I’m just sick of thinking about food. So many eggs I don’t even want to look at them anymore. Obviously I used to eat sandwiches, pasta etc but it actually feels like a lifetime ago at this point!

Mine have a sandwich/wrap every single day apart from weekends.

Tuna/cheese/chicken/ham/egg mayonnaise and more recently dry fried egg.

Packet of crisps possibly and fruit if they fancy it.

I don’t get all the posters offering to me what I would consider an evening meal at lunchtime. Surely they would be having two main meals a day?

I run a home not a hotel…

I used to do a "monkey fruit plate" like they give the primates at the zoo: a bit of sliced banana, kiwi, apple... maybe some Babybels and a pita. My kids really enjoyed this as they were basically little zoo animals.

Honestly I don't think there's anything wrong with sandwich-type meals or things on toast, I'd just make sure there's plenty of tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, etc with them rather than crisps and so on.

I honestly just rotate between sandwiches and fruit; beans on toast' eggs on toast and soup. Plus icecream.

Make sure they bring some food with them then! 😋

Pretty much sandwiches every day. Sometimes they like a snack plate. The littlest might want tomato pasta and the biggest likes a Broth type soup with noodles and veggies.

@Squeaky2023 They sound just like my little one. 😍 Love it.

To be fair, with leftovers or a bigger meal at lunchtime, mine would then quite happily have a 'picky tea' when he's tired anyway... meaning we can have something more adult friendly when he's asleep!

I plan on giving them a hot dinner and lunches will be a mixture of sandwiches, crackers, soup, salad bits and the leftovers from the day before dinner. Make it simple.
Just leave out the snacks so they're eating proper meals.
Always have fruit, veg sticks and breadsticks available for them if they want it though.
Pasta can keep for 5 days in fridge and can be eaten cold so that's easily done.
Most cooked veg will last 4 days in fridge too just needs reheating and ensure not too watery.
Make frozen yogurt lollies for days where you're being lazy and she can snack on fruit and have one after.

I refuse to have complicated lunches.

Its basically sandwich, soup or egg based here. With fruit/ raw veg/ cheese/ yogurt alongside depending on what they have.

Its easier too to convert to lunch picnic taken out somewhere as the same ingredients.

if you want convenience with baby, I suggest getting your partner or yourself to cut up say a melon and raw veg in another pot one evening when less rushed with both children and they can store in fridge a few days. Easy to just grab and add without cleaning up chopping stuff every time

Yeah, we also do sandwiches most days. I do feel bad as sometimes DD has school dinners so doesn't usually have sandwiches every single day, but she's a bit if a fussy eater so there are also limits.

Having said that, she quite often sleeps in on the holidays and doesn't really feel hungry when she first wakes up so we benefit from the 2 meal a day thing sometimes - so she'll have waffles/pancakes etc with fruit/smoothie at around 10:30. Some tiny little snack like some crisps/fruit etc then an early dinner.

If she IS having lunch, we do shake it up by doing sandwich/bread based things she doesn't have in her lunch box - eg a toastie or scrambled eggs on toast or a burger. I like a PP's suggestion of pizza pittas in the air fryer - I'll definitely steal that.

Sandwiches, pizza, soup, 'picky lunch'. Occasionally a jacket potato or beans on toast.

I really don't want to cook twice a day. I just make sure there are plenty of different sandwich fillings because cheese and/or ham can get boring. So I'll usually have:

Tuna crunch
Chicken mayo
Chicken pesto
Cheese
Cream cheese

Ham
Egg Mayo
Houmous

Served with fruit or salad.

Having different bread or rolls can make it more interesting too. My kids love those little part baked dinner rolls!