Lily’s 13th Birthday: Four Dream School Lunches

Four dream lunches for Lily’s thirteenth birthday, each one built around a different challenge, from a no-limits grocery run to a lunch she drew herself.

Lily turned thirteen, which means she has been on this channel since she was three. So this birthday week is four lunches she designed, in four different ways, with a twist attached to each one: a shopping trip where she could pick anything, a mystery wheel that chose the theme, a contest against her sister, and a drawing I had to turn into real food.

Birthdays are the one week where the rules bend. There is sugar in places there normally would not be, the desserts are bigger, and the food is whatever she actually asks for. Everything else stays the same, because a lunch the kid will not eat is not a birthday lunch.

The four birthday lunches at a glance

• Can’t say no. Thirteen items picked at Target, crammed into one lunchbox.
• Mystery wheel, letter L. Loaded mashed potatoes, little oranges, lollipoppers, lemon yogurt and lemonade.
• Mom versus sister. McKenzie’s mac and cheese lunch against my birthday waffle taco lunch, judged by Lily.
• The lunch she drew. Green tortilla wraps, a sprinkle sandwich with a 13 cut out of it, and strawberry milk.

1. The can’t say no lunch

The rules were simple: pick anything you want at Target, six categories, and because she turned thirteen, exactly thirteen items. She walked out with bread, mozzarella, extra large pepperoni, double chocolate fudge cookie dough, raspberries, freeze-dried apples, a salad, poppy seed dressing, pita chips, hummus, Goldfish crisps, Yakult and an Olipop.

Then came the actual challenge, which was fitting all thirteen into one lunchbox without it turning into a pile. The bread was too wide for the box, so the crusts came off and it became finger sandwiches, which is a nicer lunch anyway. Cream cheese instead of mayo, mozzarella, and pepperoni folded into triangles so it fit.

The detail that made it feel like a birthday instead of a sandwich: a star cutter through the top slice, so the pepperoni shows through as little stars. It takes one minute and it is the thing you notice first in the photo.

The cookie dough was too dark to look like a birthday, so each dough ball was cut in half and rolled in star sprinkles before baking. Smaller cookies, brighter, and better in a lunchbox. Salad filled the back section with mozzarella stars on top, pita chips and hummus went in together, and a few Goldfish crisps filled the gap.

Yakult was the one item I did not expect her to pick. If you have not had one, it is a probiotic yogurt drink, and it is everywhere in Japan. The Olipop was the drink.

What you’ll need

• Bread, cream cheese, mozzarella, pepperoni
• A small star cutter
• Cookie dough and star sprinkles
• Raspberries and freeze-dried apples
• Salad, poppy seed dressing, pita chips, hummus, Goldfish crisps
• Yakult and a sparkling drink

2. The wheel chose letter L

The wheel has thirteen themes on it and Lily spun letter lunch. She picked L, for Lily, and then I had to build a whole lunch where every single thing starts with L and she would still eat it.

The main is loaded mashed potatoes, which was a deliberate cheat in our favor. Cheese, bacon, green onions, sour cream, half and half, salt and pepper, all folded into mashed potatoes and packed hot into a thermos. It is a lunch that wins regardless of the letter.

Then the rest of the alphabet work: a little orange, honestly a mandarin, which counts if you are flexible; lollipoppers, which are mini sweet peppers and she likes the red ones; lemon yogurt with sprinkles on top; Lay’s potato chips, which is potatoes again but nobody complained; lemon cookies; and lemonade, her second favorite drink behind chocolate milk.

One practical note worth copying: the yogurt section has a lid on it because the peppers sit right next door. Without the lid, the yogurt becomes lemon pepper yogurt by lunchtime.

What you’ll need

• Mashed potatoes, cheese, bacon, green onion, sour cream, half and half
• A thermos
• A mandarin orange
• Mini sweet peppers
• Lemon yogurt and sprinkles
• Lay’s potato chips
• Lemon cookies and lemonade

3. Mom versus sister

McKenzie and I each built a lunch for Lily without talking to each other, then Lily scored them category by category. McKenzie went with mac and cheese, doctored with extra cheddar, diced Canadian bacon and peas, and a little more cheese and bacon on top. Baby carrots, grapes, broken up monster cookies, barbecue chips and strawberry lemonade.

I went with a breakfast theme, built on our birthday waffle tradition. Every kid gets a waffle on their birthday with Nutella, strawberries, blueberries, banana, whipped cream, sprinkles and candles, and we sing. For a lunchbox that became a waffle taco: lightly toasted protein waffles bent into a taco shape, peanut butter instead of Nutella, filled with strawberries and blueberries. No banana, no whipped cream, because neither survives until noon.

The fruit was pineapple, the vegetable was cucumber cut into stars, the treat was coconut chia pudding with sprinkles, the snack was pea crisps, and the drink was a yogurt smoothie because Aldi had no chocolate milk.

Lily picked mac and cheese over the waffle taco, pineapple and cucumber stars over grapes and carrots, monster cookies over chia pudding, barbecue chips over pea crisps, and strawberry lemonade over the smoothie. Four to two, which means sister knows best. The waffle taco is still the better idea, and I will be making it again.

What you’ll need

• Boxed mac and cheese, cheddar, Canadian bacon, peas
• Baby carrots, grapes, barbecue chips
• Waffles, peanut butter, strawberries, blueberries
• Pineapple and cucumber with a small star cutter
• Coconut milk, chia seeds, maple syrup, vanilla, salt
• Pea crisps and a yogurt smoothie

4. The lunch she drew

The last one was Lily’s: a blank lunchbox and a pencil, whatever she drew I had to make. She drew a wrap, which I interpreted as a lettuce wrap, and after I built it she informed me I had forgotten the tortilla. She wanted a wrap with lettuce in it, not a wrap made of lettuce.

So: a green tortilla, lettuce, rosemary ham, cheddar, onion, ranch and mustard, rolled and pinned with food picks so it does not unravel by lunchtime. That correction is the whole lesson of this lunch, and it is worth asking a kid what they meant before you start cooking.

In the middle of her drawing was our other birthday tradition: a sandwich version of fairy bread. Nutella on the bottom slice, plenty of sprinkles, and the number thirteen cut out of the top slice so the sprinkles show through. That is the whole recipe and it is the best thing in this post.

She drew strawberries and blueberries, no vegetables at all, so pickles went in on the side and a section of salted chickpeas, which she eats by the handful. She drew salt and vinegar chips, which did not fit, so they went on the side, and blueberry pretzels and strawberry milk finished it.

What you’ll need

• Green tortillas, lettuce, rosemary ham, cheddar, onion, ranch, mustard
• Food picks
• Bread, Nutella, sprinkles, a number cutter
• Strawberries and blueberries
• Pickles and salted chickpeas
• Salt and vinegar chips, blueberry pretzels, strawberry milk

Get the sandwich stamps

The cutters in this week are plain shapes, a star and a number thirteen, rather than character stamps. If you want the shortcut for a themed lunch, the cutters and stamps are in the shop, and each set cuts the shape and stamps the face in one press.

Shipping is a flat $6.95 in the US and free over $35.

What made these lunches work

• Let the kid pick, then edit. Thirteen chosen items still needed crusts off, cookies halved and pepperoni folded to fit the box.
• One cutter elevates a plain sandwich. Stars through the top slice turn pepperoni into a design.
• Shrink the dessert. Half sized cookies rolled in sprinkles look like a birthday and fit the compartment.
• Lid the yogurt. Anything wet next to anything dry needs a lid, or lunch becomes a science experiment.
• Ask what they meant. A lettuce wrap and a wrap with lettuce are two different lunches.
• Keep the traditions, change the format. The birthday waffle became a waffle taco, the fairy bread became a sprinkle sandwich.

Watch all four birthday lunches and Lily’s reactions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsPMQPD052c

More lunch ideas every week on the channel, and the day to day ones go up on Instagram at @thefamilyfudge.