[too much time on my hands? Nope. Just a bit of Photoshop with baby E's favorite lunch]
We try to keep lunch simple around here since it is our most hectic meal of the day. We usually eat lunch before daddy leaves for work around two in the afternoon. We have to hustle and pack his dinner too. If we've had a late and filling breakfast sometimes we'll skip it altogether. So what keeps our lunches sane, quick, and healthy? I've got one word for you: SOUP.
So you may be thinking that soup and toddlers don't mix... and you're absolutely right. There is no way anything liquid would stay in the vicinity of the highchair! That's why we make a soup that has stock and solids, baby E loves the solids (in the photo above, minus the carrots she ate) and it is really her favorite meal that she [almost] always eats without being picky. I owe the sanity of our always ready lunch to Balyolya, baby E's name for my mother. Since our daughter was born she has been coming to visit once a week, every week, and making a large pot of this delicious soup while I work. I have also made it myself several times. So in order of how frequently we eat a particular meal, here are our favorite lunches which baby E eats with us:
- Balyolya's Soup: Usually made with our own chicken, beef, or turkey stock. Ingredients (all or some): potatoes, pasta, rice, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower, split yellow peas, celery, mushrooms, onions. Despite eating subtle variations of this soup every week for almost two years now, we never get tired of it! I'm also finally warming up to the idea of making some different new soups myself as soon as I'm brave enough (and don't have a ton of work to catch up on). We eat the soup about 4 times a week for lunch.
- Leftover breakfast: When I make a large and filling breakfast, instead of letting the leftovers wait till next day (food doesn't go in the trash around here), we eat them for lunch. Most often this is the omelette I make for breakfast once a week that serves 4 people.
- Sandwiches: Sometimes when we have our fresh bread, I make some open faced sandwiches with Kate's butter, raw milk cheese, chicken/turkey breast, spinach leaves, cucumbers, and anything else I might have around. If there is no meat, and that happens often, I just put avocado on it - balances nicely with the saltiness of cheese. The sandwich is usually accompanied by hot tea around here.
- Dinner for Lunch: Finally, since I make dinner at lunch time because hubby works second shift, sometimes we just eat a part of the dinner for lunch. Simple, two for one. This happens once a week or so.
To feed your curiosity further, I took a picture of my meal planning calendar this past week. No, it isn't always perfectly filled out like that. I remember going for three weeks without even looking at it once, but then I needed my sanity back. Really, it is so much easier when you take the meal planning out of your head and put it on paper, even if you will not adhere to it 100% - I never do. Click on the photos to see them larger. For the most part it starts with breakfast in blue, lunch in green, dinner/dessert in red, household tasks in orange.
What do you eat for lunch? I bet it's fancier than our fare! How do you plan meals? Do you have a system that works for you? How and what do you feed your toddler?
If you haven't yet, check out numbers 1 through 6 of our Glimpse into Eco-Babyz:
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Your meal planner is pretty awesome! I usually just write out a list on a sheet of paper - nothing fancy. You're inspiring me to step it up a notch, though! :)
ReplyDeleteFor lunch, we usually do sandwiches or wraps, or the occasional leftover.
By the way, thanks for stopping by my blog. I appreciate it! :)