This week’s menu is a menu absolutely rife with lunch-packing possibilities. Some weeks are like that; you practically don’t have to think at all to make home-run lunches that the kids will Hoover down happily. With a Sunday meal of homemade chicken nuggets, it’s easy to start things off on the right foot by just putting the leftovers into the lunchboxes the next morning and humbly accepting the adoring accolades of the children. (As a totally non-lunch-related side note, the use of even more leftover nuggets to make the fastest Chicken Parmigiana you’ve ever done in your life is an absolutely genius way to keep the family happy, while transforming a usually labor-intensive meal into quick comfort food.)
This kind of week makes Lunch Logic really easy on me. I could have stuck with the nugget theme and given you a bunch of ways to dress those up (chicken nugget wraps — take THAT, McDonald’s!), but there are so many other things on this week’s dinner menu that lend themselves perfectly well to great re-purposing that I decided to move away from the chicken. Whether you’re packing for kids or for yourself, these lunch options are satisfying and range from super-simple to just a little bit sophisticated.
Meal Plan Refresher:
Monday, 4/8: Farfalle with creamy wild mushroom sauce, asparagus
Make it GF: Use brown rice, kamut, or quinoa pasta – we prefer Jovial and Tinkyada brands
Tuesday, 4/9: Slow cooker – sloppy joes, sweet potato fries, salad
Make it GF: There’s no law that says sloppy joes have to be on buns. We have in the past served the filling over baked sweet potatoes, and it’s delicious.
Wednesday, 4/10: Weekend Warmup – Chicken nugget Parmigiana, using the leftover nuggets from Sunday.
Thursday, 4/11: Easy Lamb meatballs, quinoa, roasted vegetables
Friday, 4/12: Fend night
Saturday, 4/13: Dinner out with friends!
Sunday, 4/14: Sunday Roast Chicken dinner
The Lunch Logic:
Essential Links:
Picnic Muffins
Essential Links:Meatball Club Sandwiches
Quick Dill Dip
Such inspiration! Slow cooker sloppy joes sounds especially brilliant. Thank you for sharing and giving me so many new ideas to try with my kids!!
You are so welcome!
You had me at “Farfalle with creamy wild mushroom sauce”! Amazing organizational skills you got here! Thanks for sharing…
Thank YOU! Love to see new faces coming around.
These sound delicious, what a great plan! Thanks for sharing.
No, thank YOU for reading! 🙂
I love this! ALso, I’ve never thought of having sloppy joes over a sweet potato, I am definitely going to try that next time!!
It’s really good! Even better if you sprinkle a little sharp cheddar over the top (although I probably just think so because I like everything better with cheese). 🙂 Glad you love it! Come back sometime!
That farfalle sounds DELISH! I need to get a few lunchbot containers for my kids’ lunches as they get older, love those containers!
That farfalle IS delish! And yeah, Lunchbots are amazing. We’ve had lots of different containers and things, and Lunchbots are one of the best for a balance of convenience, durability, usefulness, and price, in my book.
I put sloppy joe over rice all the time or stuff it in a pepper.
It’s really versatile, right? We really enjoy it over sweet potatoes, as well. There’s no wrong answer!
That farfalle with creamy wild mushrooms and asparagus sounds amazing!! You just made me hungry.
It’s SOOO good. And such an easy recipe!
I need me some of those bento boxes! I mean, how could my picky eaters not love it when it looks so damn cute? ps. Absolutely love your attention to detail and giving GF options for everything.
These boxes are awesome. Lunchbots — get ’em on Amazon! I especially love the Trio size. I think it gives the best flexibility, but my littlest is in love with the quad because he likes little bits of lots of things. Also, your kids aren’t “picky” — around here, we say they’re “still selective” or they “just haven’t learned to like it yet.” Gives the whole thing a bit more of an air of hope, you know? 😉
I think it’s crucial to give GF options. We had to go through an elimination diet for a while with no gluten and no dairy, and it really gave me an appreciation of how hard it can be for families. I especially want to show that you can do BOTH without major alteration, so that families who have one gluten-free eater but want to provide wheat options for the other members of the family can make a game plan that’s appropriate for everyone!