Lunch- Recipes that are Easy, Healthy, Inexpensive, and Kid-friendly
- Breakfast- Recipes that are Easy, Healthy, Inexpensive, and Kid-friendly
A week's worth of breakfast ideas, complete with grocery list, recipes, ideas, and combinations to ensure you use up the food you buy- and feed your family homemade, healthy, easy, kid friendly meals. The first in a series! - Dinners for a Week- Spend Only $40.00
If you haven’t checked out my breakfast for a week article, head over there and then come back to this article. It’ll give you some background and help to explain how I came up with $37.00 a week for a particular group of food items (you’ll see below)- along with an in-depth description of the fabulous four requirements every recipe needs to adhere to. Here are the requirements:
- Inexpensive
- Easy and relatively fast, using only a few dishes
- Healthy
- Kid friendly
This article is going to give you a grocery list and recipe ideas for a week’s worth of lunches for five people. Many of these ideas will be portable, as the majority of Americans don’t eat lunch at home, but at work or school. This is what makes lunch such a pain!
As a busy mom of three, I’m constantly looking for the most effective way to do something. A small home, a tight budget, and three picky kids doesn’t make shopping and preparing food the easiest of tasks. I don’t want to waste ingredients, serve something processed, or a recipe that takes hours of preparation and dirty dishes.
Grocery List- Lunch for a Week
Ingredients
| Price
|
---|---|
Martin's Potato Rolls- Hotdog
| $3.00
|
2 Cans Tuna
| $2.00
|
Granola Bars (10 count)
| $2.50
|
Chicken Drumsticks (8-10)
| $6.00
|
Barbecue Sauce
| $1.00
|
Eggs
| $2.00
|
Cheddar Cheese (1 block)
| $3.00
|
Pasta (rotini or elbow)
| $.75
|
Italian Dressing
| $2.00
|
Cucumber (1)
| $.75
|
Carrots
| $1.00
|
Deli turkey meat (1/2 lb)
| $4.00
|
Lettuce
| $1.50
|
Triscuts
| $2.50
|
Apples (bag of 10)
| $4.00
|
Total
| $36.00
|
Pantry Items
Onion Powder
| Celery Seed
| Mayonaise
|
---|---|---|
Salt
| Pepper
|
Monday- Barbecue Chicken Legs
This recipe will take a bit of prep the night before, but it’s easy to slip a pan of chicken in the oven along with dinner.
- 1 package (10 count) chicken legs
- 1 bottle barbecue sauce
Cook for one hour at 350 degrees.
Serving size- 10 drumsticks
Chicken legs are almost as tasty cold as hot! The kids (and you) will welcome the change from a typical sandwich, and probably will get longing stares from across the lunch table. Make sure to include napkins! This serving size will be enough for one day of lunches (five people) plus leftovers for another meal (or two).
Include in the lunch: carrot sticks, some italian dressing for dipping, and a granola bar.
Tuesday- Quick Pasta Salad
- 1lb box of rotini or elbow pasta
- 1/2 bottle Italian dressing
- 2 cups carrot diced
- 1 cucumber diced
- 1 cup cheddar cheese cubes
Cook pasta according to directions. Add other ingredients plus salt and pepper. Toss dressing and refrigerate. This recipe will be enough for five lunches plus leftovers.
Include in this lunch: leftover barbecue chicken (just throw it on the salad!)
Wednesday- Kid's Tuna Rolls
To make the tuna salad:
- 2 cans solid white albacore in water
- 1 heaping spoonful of mayonnaise
- 1 tsp. onion powder
- 1 tsp. celery seed
Servings: enough tuna for five sandwiches
Put tuna on Martin’s Potato Hot dog rolls. The kids will love eating the oddly shaped sandwich over the traditional smushed bread. If you want to make a tuna roll for you, add some cheese or lettuce to spice it up.
To include in this lunch: Triscuits and an apple
Thursday- Protein Punch Lunch
Pack in a portable container a smorgasbord of items:
- hardboiled egg (the night before, add some eggs to a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil, cover, and remove from heat. Let sit for twenty minutes. Cool in the fridge).
- Cheese cubes
- Triscuits
- Granola bar
- Apple
- How To Make Lettuce Wraps and Tacos
Lots of ideas and recipes to use lettuce instead of bread for a wrap!
Friday- Turkey Rollups
Spread some mayo on a piece of lettuce. Add a few thin slices of cheddar and turkey. Roll up tightly and serve with left over pasta salad!
Weekend leftovers
By the end of the week, you should have a bit of pasta salad, martin's rolls, triscuits, cheese, turkey meat, carrot sticks, and hard boiled eggs left. Here are some other ideas:
1. Whip up some egg salad on a lettuce wrap or roll.
2. Pack a lunch of triscuits and cheese and turkey.
3. Make a lettuce wrap with leftover chicken and bring along carrot sticks and dressing.
-Julie DeNeen