It’s back to school time! But if the thought of coming up with new ideas for school lunches day after day fills you with dread, then Catherine McCord, founder of the popular blog Weelicious and Weelicious book, has you covered with her latest cookbook.
Released just in time for the start of the school year, Catherine’s newest cookbook Weelicious Lunches, offers recipes for quick, delicious and healthy lunches. I have been following the Weelicious blog for quite some time now. When Little M started eating solids, I found myself in much the same place that Catherine did when her son was very young. There weren’t many sources for parents who were looking for nutritious, easy and realistic recipes for their children. Catherine started Weelicious to provide that resource for parents. I love her recipe posts, they are always inventive and interesting. They inspire me to get into the kitchen and try out new dishes!
I also firmly believe in introducing kids to wholesome and delicious food, whether that is by getting them involved in the kitchen, taking them to farmers markets or planting a small herb or vegetable garden for them to tend. Catherine shares her ideas for this as well, and it is lovely to see how her children enjoy being in the kitchen with her.
While Little M is not in school yet, we have many friends who do have little ones who will be starting school this year so I know what a struggle it can be to think of ideas for a variety of school lunches. We want our children to eat well, and enjoy their food, but it is a challenge to come up with healthy ideas, especially for parents who are low on time (which is pretty much all of us, right?) Weelicious Lunches offers recipes like Shredded Chinese Chicken Salad, Zippy Lentil Chili, Carrot Hummus, Silky Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Crouton Bites (yum) and Cinnamon Roll “Sushi” Sandwiches. We made the Eggplant Burgers the other day, Little M helped me to stir and scoop, and they were a big hit! The pictures in the book are beautiful and Catherine’s anecdotes make it a quick and enjoyable read. If you have a picky eater at home, Weelicious Lunches has strategies to help with that and has entire chapters for variations on PB&J, Pizza, Dips and Snacks.
Can’t wait to check out Weelicious Lunches? Here is your chance to win a copy. Tell Crayons and Croissants what your favorite lunch is in the comments below and you will be automatically entered. Only open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states, D.C. or Puerto Rico. Winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 12pm EST.
This giveaway is now closed.
Photos courtesy of Weelicious




I love store-bought tostadas topped with chicken or egg salad, or even hummus.
Love this post! One of Ava’s favorites is kale pesto with orecchiette tossed with grilled chicken, grape tomatoes and steamed broccoli. 🙂
My favorite lunch for my 2-years old is:
Half cheese sandwich, edamame beans, apple wedge and nuts.
Please delete previous post if it posted. I don’t see it however. We love pasta salad
Thanks for the giveaway!
mmalavec(at)med(dot)umich(dot)edu
Love the bento!
My favorite lunch is a toasted everything bagel loaded with sliced veggies and cream cheese. Yum-o!
My favorite lunch is a roast beef sandwich with horseradish sauce, with sweet potato chips on the side.
Thanks for hosting this giveaway!
Soups! Tomato is my fav.
Pita with hummus, raw carrots and cucumbers with ranch, and homemade granola are a favorite in our household! Thanks for the giveaway – this book would be so helpful!
We love, love, love grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches. yum!
My daughter loves to bring rice and veggies.
I love to eat a wrap full with veggies and salad! That is the perfect lunch to me. With a glass lemonade! My daughter loves a PBJ sandwich for lunch!
Grilled cheese & Tomato Soup!
We love peanut butter pinwheels. Tortilla shell, spread with peanut butter and a drizzle of honey all rolled up.
My daughter’s fave is PB&J…I would love to get this book for some ideas to help a picky eater!!
Would love this! My little guy is only a babe but would love to start him out right!!
We love chicken and cheese quesadillas
Our go to lunch is Mac and cheese and meatballs with mixed veggies and blueberries. But my 18 month old loves hummus and I am trying to come up with ways to incorporate it into her lunch with making too much of a mess.
Favorite lunch is a BLT!
Meatballs with sweet potato, mushrooms and onions these are amazingly good cold in lunch
Grilled chicken salad and cheese or pepperoni quesadillas for my toddler.
We love Weelicious Cold Soba Noodle salad for dinner and then the next day for lunch. Yum! I would love to win this book! Thanks.
Mexican food! Salsa, guacamole and a fajita salad!!!
I am pregnant with #2 currently so even though the weather is still warm, I recently haven’t been able to get enough of tomato soup and grilled cheese!
My favorite lunch is as simple as a turkey and cheese sandwich or tuna and crackers. Reminds me of the lunches my mom packed me for school as a kid.
I love chicken or egg salad. The kiddos love when we make our own homemade lunchables: ham or turkey, cheese, crackers and fruit. Thanks for the giveaway, I’ve been anxious to get my hands on a copy!
Pesto pasta, fresh fruit & cheese.
Grilled cheese with a fruit salad. Yum!
My kids love fresh hummus from the farmers market with whole wheat pita and carrots.
Quesadillas are my lunch box favorite…especially when I can get the to “help” by cutting the with cookie cutters! 🙂
Tomato basil bisque soup, apple slice nutella sandwiches, and granola bites.
We love PB & whatever…Nutella, Marshmallow Fluff, jelly, granola, honey, M&M’s, crushed oreos, chocolate chips – you name it! The possibilities are endless!
Would love to win this cookbook- already have the first one and the recipes are a hit around here. My toddlers fav lunch is chicken nuggets with any fresh fruit or veggies finger snacks.
I love having nachos for lunch….on special occasions.
Chips and topped with ground beef, cheese, a lot of avocados and home grown tomatoes.
It is delicious! And I never eat that many vegetables until I eat nachos. 🙂
Love to win!!! 🙂
ham and cheese, with crackers on the side.
Grilled cheese and tomato soup!
Grilled cheese sandwich with banana on the side.
We love making a whole chicken in the crock pot and then eating chicken salad on croissants for a week!! Yum!
We love leftovers for lunch or recreating leftovers into something else fun. I just started having to make lunches for my kiddos so I would absolutely love this!
Tuna salad, tomatoes and kale are our favorite lunch.
Tomato soup and grilled cheese is our favorite lunch.
Tomato soup is a favorite!
Pesto pasta! Yum!!
My son, Hunter, loves flour tortillas slathered with organic cream cheese, organic avacado, farmers market (cooked) turkey bacon and organic cheddar cheese all rolled up and then sliced with whatever farmers market fruit we may have. Organic chocolate milk in his thermos brand thermos.
Leftover do-overs for lunch are quick and easy. Take whatever leftover and give it a twist to make it new again. Roast chicken dinner can become a chicken salad, with pecans, cranberries celery. Spread in a sandwich or on crackers. Easy and delicious!
I would love a copy of her book. Love following her on Facebook! Quesadillas are such a versatile lunch option that my boys love so many different combinations.
We love pasta fagioli, homemade with beans from Nonna’s garden!! Would love to win this cookbook! We are big fans 🙂
My children are stuck on PB&J mostly, but we also like homemade mini pizzas.
My favorite lunch is sandwiches but my kids can get tired very easily so I really need ideas and this book sounds great!
Good ol’ classic tuna melt! Toss a few french fries on the side and it’s true heaven.