A week's worth of lunches.....

It's lunch time again.

The kids keep wanting to eat.  ;)  It's funny how that works.  I'm not sure why, but lunch always seems to take me by surprise.  For awhile, I was doing a great job pre-packing lunches.  I'd make them the night before and stack them in the fridge and just pull them out when it was time to eat.   Recently, though, I've been really craving hot lunches, and that's a bit harder to do with pre-packing.   We don't usually have enough leftovers to serve to everyone, considering all 6 of us have to eat at home or pack a lunch (Mike), so that's not really an option for us right now.  We're not huge leftovers fans, anyways, to be honest.

I thought I'd document our lunches last week, and post them here.  Both for future reference (for when I get into the inevitable lunch-making rut) and to share with you guys.   Send me any tips and/or favourite lunch time meals, please!  I'm always looking for new ideas!

Monday

Spaghetti squash, roasted and then tossed with butter, parmesan cheese, and herbes de Provence.   Apples on the side. 

Spaghetti squash is hit-or-miss here, but it'd been awhile since we had it, so I thought it was worth the try.   The price is right this time of year, that's for sure!

Tuesday

Black bean, cheese, and salsa quesadillas with green salads on the side.  They also shared a fruit plate with mango, orange, and apple slices.

For this one, I try really hard to minimize the amount of cheese needed, so I take a can of black beans and drain and rinse them well.  I mash them with a potato masher and then mix in about 1/2 cup of salsa.   I shred cheddar cheese and mix in about 1/2 a cup of that with the beans and salsa.   This will make 5 normal quesadillas or 4 really loaded ones.  Since we try to limit dairy and the kids LOVE to dip it in sour cream, I try hard to just have enough cheese to melt and hold everything together.

Wednesday

Homemade whole wheat pitas filled with salmon salad, green side salads, and apple slices.   The salmon filling is canned salmon, and lots of diced carrots and celery.  I add just enough mayo to hold it together, and then serve it at room temperature.   It tastes a lot like tuna, which my kids love.

Thursday

This one probably qualifies as leftovers, now that I think about it.  We'd made this recipe for dinner one night this last week, and I had enough of the filling leftover to make another round of burritos.   I threw green salads on the side, and a dollop of sour cream (again, the boys LOVE to dip things in sour cream!), and then there was a fruit basket to choose from if they were still hungry.

Friday

Roasted butternut squash and apple soup, grapes, and whole wheat crackers.  It was supposed to leftover whole wheat baguette, but, well....the sheepdog got it.  So, crackers it was!

*****

There you have it, a week of lunches at the Circus.  What are you eating for lunch these days?