Ideas for Kids Meals - Breakfast, Lunch, and Snacks

Breakfast ideas – make sure to have a protein with your breakfast to give your child lasting energy.
a. Frozen waffles, pancakes, French toast
b. Cereal, fruit, and yogurt or a piece of cheese
c. Oatmeal, cream of wheat
d. Eggs – try scrambled, hard boiled, etc.
e. Raisin bread and cream cheese
f. Mini bagels with cream cheese or peanut butter
g. Cottage cheese, applesauce, and cinnamon toast
h. Mix oatmeal and yogurt for a filling breakfast
i. Toast and apple butter
j. Toast with peanut butter and apple or banana slices
k. Soy sausage and cheese on an English muffin
l. Whole grain English muffin with cream cheese and jelly

Lunch ideas (If you plan to pack any of these lunch or snack ideas in a lunch box and send to school with your child, be sure to check with the school for restrictions on nuts or fish)
a. Sandwiches – ham, turkey, grilled cheese, cream cheese and jelly, PB&J, peanut butter and banana, tuna
b. Peanut butter or tuna in a pita or rolled into a tortilla
c. Mini meatloaf
d. Mini bagels with cream cheese, any type of sandwich using mini bagels
e. Sandwich sushi – cut crust off fresh bread, roll flat, spread peanut butter and jelly or meat and cheese, roll up, and slice like sushi
f. Crackers and cheese with tuna or ham/turkey
g. Egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad on bread, crackers, pita, or tortilla
h. Macaroni and cheese with cut up hot dogs
i. English muffin pizzas – have them assemble and toast in toaster oven
j. Seen the lunchables in the store? Make your own – crackers, meat, and cheese or mini bagels, tomato sauce, and shredded mozzarella
k. Tomato soup and grilled cheese
l. Chicken Noodle soup and crackers – if you make it yourself, vary the type of noodles in the soup
m. Leftovers from dinner
n. Have leftover taco meat? Mix it with small cooked pasta, add cheese, tomatoes, etc. for a nice taco pasta
o. Cream cheese and jelly sandwich
p. Mild salsa and tortilla chips, cheese stick, and fruit
q. Cook chicken nuggets, corn dogs, mozzarella sticks in the morning, wrap in tin foil or put in thermos-type container
r. Cut up veggies and dip
s. Crackers, cut up ham and cheese
t. Peanut butter cracker sandwiches
u. Tuna, crackers or bread, cucumbers
v. Appetizer meal – send your child lots of little containers filled with small portions of pretzels, cheese cubes, dried fruit, grape tomatoes, yogurt covered raisins, small crackers, bite-sized cookies, cubed ham, tuna
w. Soup, pasta with sauce, and macaroni and cheese are great at home or school. Just warm in the morning and put in a thermos.
x. Use different kinds of pasta for homemade mac and cheese. Alphabet noodles make a great alternative to elbows and are fun to eat.
y. Sandwiches, cut up in different shapes – could even cut like a puzzle or use cookie cutters
z. Raisin bread spread with cream cheese and jelly
aa. Pasta salad – mix pasta with cubed ham, shredded cheese, olives, veggies, etc and top with Italian dressing
bb. Salad – you can get salad mixing containers at Bed, Bath, and Beyond that hold the salad underneath a container of dressing. Press the button, shake, and eat.
cc. Keep cut up apple slices from browning by dipping in lemon lime soda before you place in container.
dd. Yogurt and cinnamon graham crackers go well together
ee. Send plastic utensils in your child’s lunch box (Zoo pals makes fun ones), napkin with a note or puzzle on it, use containers from take out or reusable plastic containers so you don’t mind if they get thrown away
ff. Surprise your child one day by sending in some money in the lunch box for a special treat.

Snack ideas – for a snack to be filling, it should include a protein as well as a carbohydrate
a. Frozen bananas – try putting half a banana on a Popsicle stick, rolling in yogurt, then rolling in graham cracker crumbs. Freeze the banana on parchment or wax paper.
b. Cereal bars
c. Crackers and peanut butter or cheese
d. Yogurt
e. Pretzels and mozzarella cheese stick
f. Apples dipped in peanut butter
g. Veggies and ranch dip with crackers
h. Tortilla chips and salsa or ranch dressing
i. Tortilla roll up – cheese and/or meat rolled in a tortilla
j. Mini bagels and cream cheese
k. Mini bagel and pita pizzas
l. Hummus and crackers or pita chips
m. Make trail mix with your kids. Provide a variety of ingredients such as dried fruits (raisins, craisins, dried blueberries, etc), pretzels, nuts (peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, etc), cereal (cheerios, kix, chex), goldfish or other small snack crackers, mini marshmallows. You could even challenge your child to count a certain number of each item as they place their ingredients into snack size plastic bags.
n. Remember, just because they sell individual servings of most snack foods now doesn’t mean you can’t save money and make your own individual servings with snack size plastic bags or small plastic containers. Save the prepackaged bags for when you are traveling.