Healthy Breakfast & Lunch Ideas

We love oatmeal at our house. We've been doing a pumpkin oatmeal from Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook. It's healthy, yummy & quick. It's 1 cup of oatmeal, 1 cup milk, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup, pumpkin pack, vanilla (I think about a teaspoon - i just eyeball it now), pumpkin pie spice (i eyeball this too). You can add some peanut butter which we do as well as raisins.

We like quesadillas for lunch with whole wheat tortillas. Also bagel pizzas - whole wheat bagels, with marinara sauce & cheese baked for a few minutes in the oven on 350.

Hope this helps.
E.

I love the book "Deceptively Delicious". It is written by Jessica Seinfeld - Jerry's wife - and she "hides" vegetable purees in her food to get them into the kids undetected. She has some great ideas. Everything from french toast to mac and cheese, even brownies. Maybe a good one to put on a Christmas wish list.

my girls are 2 and 3. for breakfast, they LOVE mini bagels and strawberry cream cheese. I will always cut up a fruit to go with it. Eggs are always fast and easy and filling to. I use egg beaters, and it is really great bc there is NO mess to clean up (other than the pan). I am from the south, so big breakfasts are something i grew up with (eggs, bacon, biscuits, etc) so I was very skeptical about trying egg beaters - but i did and I will not go back to real eggs again! I love the fact that there is NO MESS!!! Lunch, their favorite right now is mac and cheese with green peas. WHat they don't know is that there is sweet potato and butternut squash puree in the mac and cheese. You might think that takes forever, but you are wrong! I found this great line of organic vegetable purees at the grocery store in the canned veggies aisle. They are delicious (and cheap!!), and all you do is make the mac and cheese, plop in the purees, peas, and whatever else you want to, stir and serve it up! They also like turkey and cheese rolls, as a break from sandwiches. If you haven't already, you should take a look at Deceptively Delicious. Great cookbook with yummy recipies full of healthy, hidden veggies! It does not take long to make any of them. The majority of the recipies contain sweet potatoes - and those take about 3-4 minutes to steam. I will cut them up, steam them, mash and puree in about 15 minutes and we are good for the week! Have fun!

I'm in the same boat that you are. I have an 11 month old and 3 year old and I'm always trying to think of something mew for breakfast and lunch. We like to do smoothies for breakfast (orange juice, yogurt, bananas, and some sort of mixed fruit) and we usually have an english muffin with it. My kids love this--take a croissant(the refrigerated ones you bake yourself)put a cooked sausage link in the middle and sprinkle with cheddar cheese, roll up, and bake according to directions. Egg and cheese on an english muffin is always good. We also eat lots of oatmeal. One we like is apple cinnamon oatmeal--cook the oatmeal in apple juice instead of water and add apple pieces (chopped uo really small), a little bit of cinnamon and a drop of brown suagr. For lunch we do lots of sandwhiches--peanut butter and jelly, egg salad, ham and turkey. Nachos are good. Tomato soup and a grill cheese sandwhich. Hot dogs. Hope this helps!

One thing that we do for breakfast is make smoothies. We grab some fruit (at this point in the year we use frozen fruit mostly) and your kids favorite yogurt and blend it all up. If you don't use citrus fruits, this will stay in the fridge for several days (if the kids don't drink it first).

A couple of tips: 1. Don't use pineapple if you add yogurt or other dairy product (it makes it curdle). 2. Go easy on the banana. It can dominate the flavor if you have leftovers.

Another breakfast item is oatmeal. We mix the oatmeal with applesause (or other blended/ squished fruit) and milk. Pretty simple and our toddler loves it!

Best of luck!
M.

Hi B.,
If you belong to Costco they have some great fast frozen items that are healthy. There are chicken and veggie potstickers, Ling Ling is the brand, you put them frozen in the pan of 1/2 inch of water and let boil for 8 min., add some soy sauce and your done. They are not full of oil and don't have preservatives, msg or anything like that added to them. My son eats them after school or for lunch on the weekends. Peanut butter and jelly is still a favorite, we have to use almond butter or sunflower butter for school because of kids allergies at my sons school, but still a good lunch expecially if you use a good healthy bread. Cut up fruit is always good with lunch or breakfast.
Have fun,
SarahMM

Hi!

For Breakfast, my kids love Eggo Waffles and there are pancakes also that you can throw in the microwave. If we are short on time, they love pop-tarts and toaster strudel.

For Lunch my kids enjoy wraps over sandwiches on occassion - you can buy smaller sized tortillas and put anything in them from cheese (then stick them in the microwave for about 20 sec)to peanut butter and jelly to lunch meat. They also love lunchables - so we make our own. Cut up some cheese into squares, meat (turkey, chicken, bologna...) cut into shapes, and crackers.

I hope that helps!
C.

Hi B.,
I have an in-home daycare with 5 children (7 months-3 years). Here are some of the meals we eat...(PS I will also be looking through your other responses for ideas myself!)

Breakfast-
oatmeal with fruit (bananas, berries, etc)
whole grain (frozen) waffles with fruit
cereal (cheerios, Annie's Cinnabunnies), milk, oj
mini bagels with cream cheese and fruit
scrambled eggs, toast (reg or raisin), fruit
muffin, fruit

(we always have milk at mealtime)

Lunch-
pasta with meat sauce
tuna, ham, turkey, pb&j sandwiches or wraps
hamburger on a bun, baked fries or baked sweet potatoes
bean and cheese quesadillas with sour cream on the side
chicken over buttered noodles
pork chops and mashed potatoes (the kids LOVED pork chops!)
macaroni and cheese (Annie's) with polish sausage
pasta with black beans and mixed veggies (all mixed together)
bean soup with crackers
grilled ham and cheese sandwich with tomato soup
homemade veggie-beef soup with crackers/bread
cheese, crackers and summer sausage
pancakes/french toast and sausage
taco casserole (corn bread w/taco meat and cheese baked on top)

* all of our lunches are served with two fruits and/or veggies - such as...
sliced apples, peaches, pears, bananas, fruit cocktail, berries, mango, pomegranite (sp?), melon, grapes, corn, beans, peas, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, garden salads (even the 15 month old eats salad!), etc...

Snacks -
yogurt and granola
go-gurt (frozen) - this is a real treat!
cheerios, raisins, dried cranberries
cheese and crackers
animal crackers
vanilla wafers and yogurt or pudding
banana pudding (a rare treat)
jello with fruit (a rare treat)
1/2 sandwich
juice or milk
homemade smoothies
string cheese (I cut into little circles for the younger kids)
crackers and peanut butter
fruit
pita bread and hummus
cheese quesadilla
beef jerkey (for the older ones - they love it)

I am sure I am forgetting some ideas...but these are the ones that are at the top of my head. Good luck!

L. :o)

here is what comes tomind for lunch. a turkey wrap w/ salad. i have a prepared bag of salad and add it too my turkey wrap. it is great for a one handed lunch while you clean up or drive.

as for breakfast.....
i would suggest a smoothie --either store bought or home made. it is easy. yougert , banana , and frozen fruit.
fresh or frozen (partially thawed ) with a yogert dip.
kinda like the yogert parfaits from mcdonalds.
peanut butter banana sand w/ cherrois for crunch.
simple granola bar.
i hope this helpes
good luck and god bless

I love a quick eggs benedict--I found a fast recipe for the hollindause (sp?) sauce and my kids love it from the 2 year old to the teenagers...
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp prepared mustard (I use dijon for extra kick)
2 tsp lemon juice

just warm it up in a pan while you fry or poach or scramble eggs. then put the egg on a waffle, english muffin or piece of bread with the sauce on top. you can put on a slice of ham if you want.
one of my fav. ways is to make cheesy scrambled eggs with green peppers in it sometimes with ham chuncks as well, I add a little bit of flour to the eggs to make them a fluffy consistency and then put them on eggo waffles with the sauce.
it's a big hit.
if the kids don't like the sauce you can skip it as well but mine all enjoy it.
we also love cream of wheat here

Yogurt with fruit and cereal is always good. My kids usually eat a yogurt, some applesauce, some cereal, and fruit for breakfast.

For lunch grilled cheese sandwiches and left-overs from dinner are great. There are recipes out there for homemade chicken nuggets that you can just pop in the oven (out of the freezer). Hot soup is great for adults.