Little Sprouts Learning

Do you get in a boring rut when making lunch for your kids? Check out these lunch ideas to get your creative juices flowing and come up with some great ideas.

Click here for breakfast ideas, and here for snack ideas. 

CACFP Lunch Ideas for Childcare

Click here to see the new requirements. 

Each lunch must include:

Milk

Meat or meat alternate

Vegetable and fruit or two vegetables

Grains

Here are the serving sizes required for lunch ideas for your menu

CACFP menus, Chicken lunch ideas

Milk, chicken and brown rice, broccoli and apples

Milk, baked drumsticks, whole wheat rolls, corn and cabbage

(click here for a delicious cabbage recipe, so yummy. My kids and I love it.)

Milk, homemade chicken strips and cauliflower stir fry, brown rice, pears

Sample daycare menus

CACFP Meal patterns, Beef lunch ideas

Milk, ground beef and whole grain pasta with peas and oranges

(click here to see how to make your own hamburger helper type recipes from scratch)

Milk, beef and broccoli stir-fry, brown rice and carrot sticks

Milk, meatballs, whole wheat pasta with kale, and grapes

(click here to see how to make homemade meatballs)

Milk, beef and vegetable soup, whole wheat Ritz crackers and bananas

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Pork lunch ideas

Milk, pulled pork sandwiches on whole wheat buns, green beans and raisins

(Click here to see how to make pulled pork and a ton of other things out of pork roast leftovers. Click here to see how to make world famous green beans)

Milk, pork chops, fried okra, mixed vegetables and whole wheat rolls

Milk, ham, corn, broccoli and whole wheat bread

Milk, homemade pizza on whole wheat crust, cheese and pepperoni, bell peppers, and apples

(click here to see how to make your own pizza)

Childcare lunch menu ideas

Milk, homemade fish sticks, corn, baked potatoes and whole wheat bread (click here for a great fish stick recipe!)

(click here to see how to make your own homemade whole wheat bread, hamburger buns and rolls)

Milk, spaghetti made with ground beef, sauce, and whole wheat pasta, tomatoes and plums

Milk, cottage cheese, Ritz crackers, corn, and broccoli

Milk, beans, cornbread, carrot sticks and apples

Milk, whole wheat club crackers, cheese slices, peaches and peas

Milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on whole wheat bread, cottage cheese, asparagus and squash.

Milk, taco soup, tortilla chips and apples

(click here for a taco soup recipe kids love)

Milk, boiled eggs, whole wheat gold fish crackers, brussels sprouts and corn

Ideas for toddler lunches

Breakfast for lunch ideas

Milk, egg in a nest (cut a hole in your whole wheat bread with a biscuit cutter and drop your egg in the hole to cook it) carrot sticks and strawberries

Milk, whole grain waffles, scrambled eggs, watermelon and cherry tomatoes

(click here for a great waffle recipe)  

Milk, whole wheat biscuits, sausage patties, corn and applesauce

Milk, whole wheat English muffins, fried eggs, cucumbers and cabbage

Milk, whole wheat muffins, boiled eggs, blueberries and broccoli

Milk, whole wheat pancakes, bananas, scrambled eggs and hash browns

Hopefully, some of these lunch ideas will help you make sense of the new CACFP requirements starting in October 2017. 

If you have some great lunch ideas, leave them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.


Need some great tips for getting kids to eat healthy food? Click here to find out more!

Don’t forget to pin for later!