Home-cooked hot breakfast and lunch school age

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OMG no. Don't do this to yourself.

Right? Never in a million years. I cook dinner and we eat as a family most nights, but no, I wouldn’t do this.

[Anonymous]

Oatmeal is a hot breakfast! Takes 2 mins in the microwave. I also make egg bites over the weekend which stay fluffy even when microwaved to reheat. That’s as far as I’d go for hot breakfast on a weekday.
You can also make a batch of egg and cheese muffin sandwiches and freeze for the week. Heat in the microwave.
If the kids want hot lunch, surely they can heat up leftovers in a microwave.

[Anonymous]

Hot lunches just aren’t an option for our kids unless they want to buy at school. We don’t eat hot lunches at home either though so they’ve never asked. School lunch is so quick and chaotic ours like things that are easy to pick up and eat easily.

[Anonymous]

I used to make chili Sunday night and put leftovers in thermoses for school lunch. I sometimes heated other leftovers for lunchboxes. But I never cooked for lunch. It’s not reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the word NO would come in handy here. I prefer a lot of things but the reality is much different. They don't need a fresh hot breakfast every day.

This x100

[Anonymous]

Morning - oatmeal
Lunch - big pot of veg soup made and used just for lunches. Or they make a hot sandwich and wrap in foil during breakfast.

It’s not hard, just leave the oatmeal pan to soak and have kids take turns washing before dinner. Or use pressure cooker for oatmeal and soup (batch cook on Sundays) and throw in dishwasher. You could also batch cook freezer burritos with kids and they pull one out microwave during breakfast and wrap well.

[Anonymous]

My kid gets a "hot" breakfast in the sense that I stick a (homemade from the weekend and frozen) waffle in the toaster oven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OMG no. Don't do this to yourself.

Right? Never in a million years. I cook dinner and we eat as a family most nights, but no, I wouldn’t do this.

+1, the toaster is your friend if your kids want a hot breakfast. Lunch - there are only a couple of meals my kids will eat as leftovers so that is me microwaving it and dumping it in a thermos. I am NOT cooking anything the morning of!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, I’m looking for a reality check on our morning routine.

Our kids prefer a warm breakfast and a warm, home-cooked lunch (they aren't fans of the cafeteria options).

The Current Workflow
To make this happen, my morning usually looks like this:
• The Menu: Cooking hot breakfasts (pancakes, eggs, sausage) and prepping hot lunches (pasta, burgers, or tacos) to go in thermoses.
• The Cleanup: As working parents, we try to wash all the pots and pans before leaving so we don't return to a "disaster zone" in the evening.
• The Timeline: I’m waking up two hours before school starts to fit in the cooking, packing, and cleaning.

My Questions:
1. The Hot Lunch: Does anyone else cook "fresh" lunch in the morning (e.g., pasta or burgers), or are you using leftovers/easier shortcuts or cold sandwiches
2. The Timeline: Is a two-hour lead time typical for those of you providing hot meals, or have you found ways to shave off time?
3. The Cleanup: How do you handle the kitchen mess? Cook and clean as you go, or leave it for later?

Buckle up! The two hours is needed as a parent working outside the home. Kids food interests could change which requires more prep or less prep. As the get older and before teen sleep kicks in, they should be able to help with something e..g wash dishes. Clean before leaving, you're right you don't want to come home to that.

[Anonymous]

I SAH and only get up about 30 min before the kids.

For breakfast, I usually cook just one hot item: steel cut oatmeal, homemade turkey sausage patties, scrambled or friend eggs. Then I just up fruit. They can add toast if they want. Never pancakes or French toast on school mornings.

Lunch: I never make a fresh hot lunch in the morning. It’s always leftovers heated and put into a thermos with a fruit and vegetable cut and put into lunch. If we don’t have leftovers, they get PB&J or grilled cheese/quesadilla wrapped in foil.

[Anonymous]

Everyone decides for what works for their family. My older ES kid has lunch at 1 so I make a hot breakfast with eggs etc to keep her going until then. The younger kid does not like sandwiches or buying lunch. So she has one of 3 hot lunch options she likes and we rotate between them. I get wanting routing and looking forward to a familiar food at lunch. I ate the sandwich for a decade and I made it myself as my parents were out the door before me. I have the time to do something different for my kids.

[Anonymous]

I get up 1.25 hours before school starts, but that also includes time for me to shower and get ready for work, make coffee, feed the cats, etc.

Our hot breakfast is something fast like toast, fried or scrambled eggs, pancakes from a just-add-water mix, frozen waffles. Bacon and sausage take to long and make too much of a mess, but if I have some left over from the weekend I'll reheat them.

Lunch is usually reheated. Dinner leftovers, or I cook a pound of pasta on Sunday and reheat portions each morning. In a pinch, angel hair pasta cooks in two minutes - I can do that while getting breakfast ready.

We rinse dishes so the food doesn't get stuck on, but don't fully wash them. They get washed after work or with that night's dinner dishes.

[Anonymous]

Frozen pancakes and veggie burgers reheat in a minute OP. You are making yourself crazy.

[Anonymous]

That is crazy. I say that as a SAHM who cooks a lot. But no way would I be spending 2 hours every morning making them breakfast and lunch.

I make pancakes, breakfast tacos, eggs, etc, for breakfast. It takes 15 mins.

Lunches are a sandwich, some pasta, cheese and crackers, or a salad with protein. This takes about 20 mins to assemble. I make cookies and freeze them for the lunches. Cut up some fruit and veggies. Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the word NO would come in handy here. I prefer a lot of things but the reality is much different. They don't need a fresh hot breakfast every day.

One DD is underweight and we struggle to get her eating. The doctor says to make food she likes.

The other is trending too high, and if they skip breakfast and a lunch they dont like they come home ravenous and overeat.

I have tried cold sandwiches, leftovers many times but its just thrown away.