Wednesdays usually end up being taco night around here. Tacos which manifest in one of three ways: Actual tacos (rarely but mostly just for SH), nachos (bc TVNinja does not care for soft tortillas), or quesadillas (only for Fifi, bc TVNinja also does not care for cheese most of the time). Overall, an easy meal for four people of varying dietary restrictions and predilections. This makes for easy, albeit not too exciting lunches for my first lunch post. So, maybe I'll do two this week...Anyways...
For TVNinja's Thursday lunch, we have:
Shredded chicken and black beans (chips not pictured and packaged separately. You'll really just have to trust me on this.)
Nacho toppings (lettuce and tomato).
A string cheese stick. Bc TVN DOES NOT eat cheese on his nachos. Or tacos. String cheese, however, is a big hit and lunchbox staple. Along with Babybels.)
Guac, which he VERY recently started eating and, I suspect, makes him feel very cool and grown up.
Watermelon. I tend to do a decent amount of fruit in lunches but my space was somewhat limited today.
Cookies: I went on a slight baking binge last weekend and we are now working through the fruits of that labor as a family. We're working with vegan chocolate-chocolate chip and vegan sugar this evening.
I won't usually do anything they have to heat up at school because the line for the microwave is apparently usually kind of long and it's touch-and-go on whether or not you'll actually get to heat your food in time to eat. But TVN is remote this week due to a swift little COVID outbreak sweeping his grade, so to work with SH he goes!
Fifi...same but different bc she LOVES cheese and doesn't eat meat:
Black bean quesadilla (with monterrey jack, cheddar, and moz. It's a specialty-blend called, "cheese drawer remnants.") She'll eat this cold and actually kind of prefers it that way. I'll sometimes do a quesadilla and hummus for her, which she loves.
Guac. Thank God the child eats healthy fats.
Watermelon AND pineapple. Because she was in the kitchen with me while making lunches and requested both. (PS- She has a test on volcanoes tomorrow which we may or may not pass...but realistically, I have literally never needed to know anything I was quizzing her on. Except that there are apparently like...1500 active volcanoes? The world is a dangerous place, people. Watch yourselves.)
Cherry tomatoes since it's kind of hard for her to top her quesadilla with the chopped stuff.
And cookies. Same as TVN's, but layered differently. It was commented on.
SH has a chicken and bean quesadilla, brownies, mixed berries and mixed nuts tomorrow. I try to keep it somewhat simple, with lean proteins, good fats, and some antioxidants/vitamin-rich fruits for him. Just does good for his body and energy levels.
I'll be having a blood orange, strawberries, two-day old pasta with vodka (if I can't drink it, I'll damn sure eat it) sauce, peas, and some shredded chicken from tonight's tacos. I meant to have the pasta today buuuuuut it was Bo' time this morning. Then I wasn't really hungry until this Panera kitchen sink cookie appeared, and I accidentally ate that instead of my lunch. No regrets.
Also, as a side note, I like to make easy weeknight meals like this even easier by keeping shredded chicken on hand in the freezer. I’ll throw several (like six) pounds of chicken in the crock pot on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, shred it all up and put it into meal-sized freezer bag portions. Then you can grab a bag whenever (instead of waiting for your chicken to thaw after you get home from work because you know you forgot to take it out of the freezer the night before). I like to heat it up in my wok with some chicken broth and whatever spices.
Teach me your ways! I can barely boil water for pasta. Although I buy the refrigerated sort-of-fresh pasta, so maybe that elevates the experience?
You've got the heating up chicken part on fire! It's the bomb.