Packing school and office lunches on a daily basis can seem like a daunting task. The contents can get repetitive and the process itself can become less than exciting for the person who is actually doing it.
Today’s recipe, Pizza Mini Quiches, can bring a much-needed variety to any lunchbox, as well as new excitement into the kitchen. Who wouldn’t want to help make “pizzas”?
In the last couple of months, I’ve partnered with Wolf to inspire you to reclaim your kitchen and try to make more meals at home. You’ve left me speechless and humbled by sharing hundreds of comments letting me know about your mealtime routines and the things that inspire you to make better meals for your family.
There were also a lot of comments wishing that meal making wasn’t all up to us, the adult in the household. I think I can speak for the majority of us when I say that we wish we could get others more involved in the kitchen when it comes to packing lunches.
I’m often asked about the foods I make for my family and how I find the motivation to pack other things that aren’t sandwiches every day. I’ll tell you that when it comes to adding variety to the lunch routine, we all need a little inspiration –myself included.
My favorite recipes are those that come together quickly, have relatively few ingredients, can be made ahead of time, and are simple enough for young kitchen helpers to assist in the making. Kids can help whisk the eggs, shred cheese, and even fill the mini muffin cups with the mixture.
These mini quiches are super easy to make and just like traditional pizza, can be customized to have everyone’s favorite toppings. Eggs and milk are the base (instead of pizza crust) and the variety of toppings you can add in are unlimited.
Of course, these mini quiches aren’t the only thing that is sent for lunch. They are the protein component of the lunch and the perfect meal builder. I typically add fresh fruit, veggies, an additional source of complex carbohydrates, and a treat on occasion.
Check out how easy it is to make these mini quiches in this quick video.
One of the things that Wolf and I want to focus on in today’s post as part of their Reclaim the Kitchen campaign is to help you find ways to get your family involved in making meals. We are both committed to helping you take back your kitchen and feel good about the foods you feed your family. Check out this Easy Skillet Lasagna Recipe and How to Roast the Perfect Chicken; both are two awesome recipes to get cooking!
My favorite way to get others helping in the kitchen is with the prep-work. I nearly always have my kids wash all the produce when we get home from the grocery store. When the food goes in the refrigerator clean, it cuts down on prep-time. Other simple tasks include filling snack containers with pre-cut veggies, helping make dips, prep sandwiches, and even make simple recipes like this one.
We make these quiches nearly every week. And each week one of my kids gets to pick what goes in them. My daughter loves coming up with crazy combinations like broccoli and ham, tomatoes and bacon, and the biggest fail to date: apples and cinnamon (not a good combination with eggs). Some of the better ones were zesty mini quiches, spinach and bacon, and ham and cheese.
If you’ve wanted to get your family more involved in meal making but aren’t sure where to begin, head over to Reclaim the Kitchen for many helpful tips and recipes. All it takes is finding one recipe or one kitchen skill that gets our family excited about cooking to get everyone enthusiastic about their role in the kitchen.
If your kids can’t get enough pizza, try our pizza biscuits!
What are some of the ways you get your family involved in making meals? What are some prep-ahead tips you’ve implemented?
Pizza Mini Quiches
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 18 mins
- Total Time: 23 mins
- Yield: 24 mini quiches 1x
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 cup of your choice of pizza toppings, chopped
- 1 cup shredded cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 24 count mini muffin pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk.
- Add in chopped pizza toppings and shredded cheese.
- Mix to combine all ingredients.
- Distribute egg mixture evenly into muffin pan cups.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes.
- Allow mini quiches to cool in pan before carefully removing with a small knife or spatula.
Red lunchbox pictured in the post is a Yumbox.
From time to time, I work with awesome companies to develop recipes for this website. Today’s post was brought to you by SocialMoms and Sub-Zero Wolf Blogging Program. All opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that encourage my creativity.
My kids like to help any time I ask. Smoothies are a particular favorite to help with. I work part-time, so I try to make plenty of meals on my days off so I don’t have to cook dinner when I come home from work and so we have ready to go food for lunches.
I have a boy and he loves to bake (not much in cooking). So I encourage him to help me with baking cookies or simple bread. And let him prepares breakfast in the weekend, he loves making pancakes. And he helps by letting me know ideas to cook or food to bring to school for lunch. 🙂
Love the tips and recipes…
I ask my middle son to read the recipe I’m preparing and pull out the ingredients I need…and of course they help with clean up
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My five-year-old helps out in the kitchen when I’m baking. He helps measure ingredients and mix them together. He also gets to choose a couple of the items that go into his lunchbox (within reason). He’s a pretty good eater, so he normally just asks for specific kinds of fruit. He loves to go to the grocery store with me and pick things out in the produce department. We talk about different fruits and vegetables. If we talk about something often enough, he will eventually ask me to buy it and then he’ll try it. Usually takes months to get him to that point, but it’s a good way to ease him into trying new things and making it feel like it was his idea!
I love your ideas and recipes in your book, Laura.
To get my kids involved in the kitchen, we bake. I have two young sons and they love homemade treats such as homemade granola, cookies, crackers, etc. We eat organic and homemade because it’s better for our health and I always point this out to my boys. Of course, I do relax and let them eat potato chips and chocolate once in awhile, too because the more I deny them something the more they will want it and rebel later.
Instead we spend time talking about healthy foods and the importance of making things from scratch. My oldest son, who is 4, tasted a new cereal bought from the store the other day and said, “Mama, this is just sugar.” Obviously he is used to eating homemade foods with little added sugar and wouldn’t eat the cereal I bought from the store. This made me happy and sad because I have been so busy lately that I have not had time to make the normal breakfasts that we have and tried to cheat with store bought cereal.
In regards to this recipe, I am a big quiche maker! We have chickens and always have eggs in the house so I often make quiches for dinner and the leftovers become lunch! It’s healthy and easy on busy weeknights. There are tons of combinations and I use whatever I have in the fridge at the time. In fact tonight we had mushroom, spinach, ham and cheese. My kids love eggs and are adventurous eaters, which makes cooking easier.
I am forever cleaning out lunchboxes at night to pack lunch for the next day and lately my oldest is leaving his lunch supplies at school and that leaves me short-handed on supplies for the next day’s lunch.
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Got your amazing lunch box book! You are such an inspiration to those of us trying to do our best to provide our family with real food and encourage clean eating. Our daughter says her lunches are so good, she doesn’t want to trade food with other kids at school! You’ve helped to make me mindful of using our dinners in creative ways for the next day lunches. Thank you!
Wow. thank you so much Denise! I am touched by your kind words. I am so happy that your daughter enjoys her lunches and that you are using leftovers in new ways! Amazing.
Thanks for this post! I involve my kids by helping them decide what to eat and pack the lunches. I also plan ahead and prepare by keeping a binder in my kitchen with lunch box ideas that I find on Pinterest, etc. and things that I have tried and the kids have really liked. It helps to refer to that when I am shopping or out of ideas.
Laura, I love these! I only had egg whites and I used water instead of milk…worked perfectly! I enjoy your recipes because they are simple, fun, and healthy! Thank you!
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Great to know they work with egg whites too! And thank you so much for using my recipes Laurie. I am glad you enjoy them!
Hi Laura,
I’ve followed you for several years now and you have helped me make my daughter’s lunches exciting and un-boring all along. This summer I have a new challenge…she is going to camp and I have to pack her lunch in a paper bag rather than her easy lunchbox and cooler bag that I use during the school year. Today is day four of camp and the fourth sandwich that I’ve packed for her. Any suggestions on what I can send that will transport comfortably in a zip-loc baggie? I am going to try the above recipe for the pizza quiches and see how they do, but I would love any other suggestions that you may have.
Thanks so much!
Sue F.
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Hi Sue! Thank you so much for following along! You can pack any of the MOMables meal plan lunch ideas inside zip baggies. Send a fork or spoon to assist. A plastic baggie is just like any other container but the walls are not fixed. When you think about it like that… the possibilities are endless.
Thanks Laura. I guess I was just thinking how the skewers and/or picks wouldn’t really work. I often send her lunch meat rolls (she’s also not a big bread fan anyway), so I was just wondering how I could keep them from unrolling in the baggie. I’ll give it a try and see what will work in my “flexible walled container”, haha. 😉
Thanks!
Sue
for rolled meat use the “snack size” baggies so they don’t unroll. they will be tighter in the bag. enjoy!
You have such great ideas!! Thanks so much! I will give that a try! 🙂
I hope you love these!
One of mine is allergic to eggs. Anyway to substitute the egg in this recipe??? These look like a perfect lunch to pack for my 3, but hate leaving her out and sending her with a boring sandwich everyday
Unfortunately, this recipe is for eggs. Sorry, Lacey.