Varying Degrees of Lunch

We are lucky and unique in that we eat dinner together pretty much every night, and about 5 out of 7 nights it's bonafied home cooked. Please know that in my book, boxed food is still considered home cooked...not so true for my foodie husband.

When Jeremy is traveling then the kids and I eat together. Sometimes from a box, sometimes a little fancier and we light the candle and break out the glassware.

But lunch is kind of anyone's game.

Tessa's is almost always packed by me and featured on Facebook, because I'm that big of a Facebook dork. This was today's featured bento.The kid loves all kinds of food and is easy to please.

Charley comes home from preschool around 11:45 and needs lunch stat. About once a week that comes in the form of a happy meal or some Chick-Fila version of the same thing.

The kid loves nuggets with a burning passion. He would eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner but we try not to let that happen. We feed the obsession....only occasionally.

Lunch is where he is allowed to really explore kid food...something easy and fast like grilled cheese, ham and cheese with crackers, boxed mac and cheese or like today, hot dogs. In the evening we make him eat fish and vegetables just like everyone else, but lunch is kid time.

He really didn't want me to take his pic eating lunch, hence the sour puss.

Once he's eaten his lunch, I get him settled in for rest time on the couch which usually involves a movie. Sometimes he falls asleep and sometimes not, but we don't really force the napping like we did when he was younger. He comes home so tired from preschool, we usually vegetate until it's time to pick up Tessa at 3.

After Charley eats, then it's time for  my lunch...

This is my portion size since surgery and will be my maximum portion for life, about a cup. Today's featured leftover was chicken pot pie from last night's small group.

Since Jeremy is working at home when he's not travelling, he often pops out to grab a quick sandwich or will request a delivery from the kitchen. He usually doesn't have a lot of time to sit and chat or anything. Yesterday I caught him making himself a beautiful caprese salad with some of our homegrown tomatoes and basil.

So the four of us usually have something different from lunch (which is actually true for breakfast now that I think about it)....but you can always find us congregating and eating the same meal at dinner. The rule for dinner is eat what Mom makes or go hungry.  A little hard for picky-ish  Charley sometimes but we make it happen anyway. Life can't be all hot dogs and nuggets.