I’m sure I’m not alone when I confess that, at some point in my cumulative 32 years of being a mother, I may have possibly fed my children cereal and milk for lunch. You know – like when I had to spend 92 hours at the hospital one week, and there wasn’t a piece of produce in the entire house, and my hair looked (and probably smelled) like I had a family of pygmies living in it, and I was just so grateful that I had milk to serve and didn’t have to pour water on those Cheerios. 

Maybe. Probably not. Honestly, I forget.

The thing is, though, kids are such backward little beings, that they actually think that’s a “cool” mom thing for me to do. For their birthdays every year, we let them pick whatever they want me to make them for dinner. Two of my three freaking always pick “breakfast.” And while I know they don’t mean cereal (though I may have been known to play dumb … maybe … probably not … I forget), you can’t get much lazier easier than that.

So! Breakfast for Lunch it is, too! With a bunch of “hidden” extra protein, all three of these entrées are entirely nut-allergy and gluten-allergy-friendly, with only a fraction of the sugar that most breakfast foods typically include. Lunch never sounded so lazy cheat-y good. 

Download Round Three Shopping List

Download Round Three Worksheet

 

RECIPES

 

EQUIPMENT

Here’s the list of equipment you’ll need, and a list of equipment that makes life easier.

DEFINITELY needed:

  1. Large griddle OR several pans OR one pan and way more patience than I.
  2. Parchment paper
  3. 9×13 baking dishes – should have at least two to be efficient, could use up to four, so beg borrow or steal if you have to! Here are some great and versatile options: a Nordic Ware covered option, a Pyrex basic dish, or a Fat Daddio’s aluminum option.
  4. Muffin tins, size of your choosing – popover tins for big kids/adults (remember there are only six cups per tin, so get at least two! You’ll use them for other lunch recipes!), regular muffin tins for smaller kiddos, mini muffin tins for toddlers.
  5. Paper muffin liners (don’t get the foil wrappers for these! Foil muffin liners + Microwave = bad words in comments on my blog) – Popover “Tulip Cup” liners, Regular Liners, mini baking cups
  6. Big Tupperware Bowl
  7. Gallon Freezer Ziplocks

Strongly suggested, but not absolutely needed:

  • Stand-up mixer (it was mentioned in a comment thread earlier this week that some of these lunch batches really won’t fit in a standard 5QT mixing bowl – if you don’t have one already, but are thinking of taking the plunge, consider purchasing a 7QT mixer like mine; I can throw an entire birthday party in there, and everything fits.)
  • Food Processor – can’t emphasize this one enough (see? I wasn’t lying in Round 1 when I said we’d be using it!)
  • Dehydrator

 

A WORD ON FREEZER SPACE

I admit, I have a lot of freezer space. I live with four adult-sized appetites, and one healthy child-sized one, and I tend to freeze and pack 20 weeks’ worth of food for all the kids at a time. Plus, once upon a time, I used to do this regularly for dinners as well as lunches.

So, I have a freezer upstairs for regularly-used items, then a downstairs freezer for frozen lunches, and a separate chest freezer (like this one) for when I’m feeling particularly go-getter-y (or for when I make Thanksgiving meals ahead of time because I have the stupid schedule). I call the chest freezer my Sexy Beast, and I make my hubby apologize to it if he doesn’t treat it with an appropriate level of tenderness.

Now, you certainly don’t have to have this. We’re going to work on how to maximize your packing strategies in order to best use your space, and we’re going to use flash freezing and labeling techniques that make my heart skip more than Ryan Gosling (who, for the record, has NOTHING on vacuum sealing). But you should plan on being able to fit two jelly roll pans or large cookie sheets into your freezer at once at any given time during your prepping. If you can’t do that, it may be worth it for you to take a look at getting yourself a separate freezer – not necessarily your own Sexy Beast, but maybe something a bit smaller and inconspicuous, that can still guard your hard work (and only cost you an extra $0.75 or so per lunch if you hold 4 months’ worth of meals for one person in it, right?).

 

ADDITIONAL

I’M ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER:
I succumbed to Social Peer Pressure (I’m so weak – it’s Aubrey’s fault) and signed up for an Instagram Account. So you can follow me on Instagram @emiponcedesouza. You can also follow me on Twitter @poncedesouza. If you share your photos, use the hashtag #EmisLunches, and please tag me!