Making It Easier - School Lunch Box Process

154 Shares

A lovely reader of the blog wrote to me earlier this month with a couple of starting school questions. I had already scheduled posts on a number of topics that were discussed, but there was one topic which I hadn’t and it was on school lunches.

Thinking of interesting food to put in the school lunches everyday can become quite a challenge after a while, so I thought it would make a great idea for a post. Thanks for the inspiration Sharon!

School Lunches – A Process

If you have been in the school routine for more than a year, like me you probably have a routine or process that you follow which takes some of the hard work out of making the school lunches. If this is your first year into the school routine, you might like to think about making one. School mornings can be stressful if there is too much to do, making the school lunches into an easy job can help things run more smoothly.

Establish how much food is required.

Through trial and error I have worked out how much food my children need to get them through the day. I originally placed 6 – 7 items in the kids’ lunch boxes, but found there was too much coming back home uneaten or half eaten in the lunch box at the end of the day.

For the last two years I have settled on five items which seems to be the sweet spot – the kids have enough variety in their lunch box which sustains them through out the school day with out (too much!) waste.

Create a template for school lunches

You can only really do this once you know how much food is enough for your children. Each time I make the school lunches I aim to include:

1 main lunch item eg sandwich, wrap or home baked savoury item
1 whole piece of fruit – apple, banana, mandarin, pear etc
1 container of veg – carrot, capsicum, cucumber, celery etc OR
1 container fruit pieces – strawberries, grapes, watermelon, rockmelon etc
1 home baked treat – muffin, biscuit, slice of cake etc
1 selection of crackers – rice crackers, rice cakes, etc OR
1 selection of dried fruit / seeds – apricots, sultanas, sunflower seeds, etc

Once I have included the 5 items in each lunch box, I know that there is enough food for each child and mix of the appropriate food groups.

Prepare as much as you can the night before.

Lots of the preparation for the school lunches can be completed the night before.

Cut up fruit and veg and store in fridge. I find that watermelon, rockmelon, strawberries etc can be cut the night before and placed in air tight containers until the morning.
Cut up fresh ingredients for sandwiches if required. I like to make fresh sandwiches in the morning, purely as personal preference. Some people are happy to make up large batches of sandwiches and freeze them in advance. I will often grate carrot, shred lettuce, slice tomato etc, the night before so that I can just place the ingredients into the sandwich/wrap in the morning.
If there is a home baked savoury item for the lunch box, wrap it and keep in the fridge ready to go.
Make up cracker or dried fruit packs.
Wrap up home baked treat and place in lunch box.

Have a regular baking day/s for treats for school lunches.

I have found that having a regular baking day, helps make sure that there is home cooked food in the children’s school lunches. Through out most of the year I will have two baking days:

Sunday evening where I do the bulk of the cooking and do it quickly by myself.
A weekday morning when I cook with the preschooler. See my post on Children’s Timetable for more info on this.

Here are a few easy to cook recipes that are a hit in my children’s school lunch boxes:

You can find all my lunch box recipes here – lunch box recipes.

Buy in season fruit and vegetables

Not only is this cheaper, but it also helps keep variety in the lunch boxes through out the year.

Then if you are anything like me, there is a sigh of relief when school holidays come around and you can take a few weeks off worrying about what to give the children for their school lunches!

Want to make the lunch box process easier?

In my online course called Meal Prep PrimerI show how you can easily make some easy item for the kids’ lunch boxes that will help make the lunch box process so much easier! Meal Prep Primer shows you how to effectively plan your time in the kitchen over the weekend, and prep food that will make your week days easier.

To keep on top of feeding the family, many years ago I started spending some time on the weekend, prepping food for the week ahead. Even if it is was just one or two things for the kids’ lunch boxes, the difference this made during the week was huge.

As I was rewarded each week for my efforts in the kitchen on the weekend, I began increasing the food I prepped. And the more weekly meal prep sessions I did, the better I became at it. The better I became at it, the less time it took me to do the sessions and the better we ate – win-win all around!

In my Meal Prep Primer course I will teach you the process I have developed over these years. The course will:

save you time
save you money
save you stress through the week days
ensure your family eats well
allow you to enjoy meal time more with the family

For three weeks you will receive:

A plan – the plan outlines what you will be cooking and when. You can tailor this plan to suit your family’s needs and the time you have available. The plan also has clickable links to all the recipes you need to cook for the weekend.
A shopping list – as you may tailor the plan to suit your family’s needs, the shopping list is broken down into items per recipe. That way you can easily cross off items you don’t need to buy, but make sure you have all the ingredients for the recipes you do intend to cook.
The recipes – a PDF of all the recipes you will need to cook for the week.
Plus there is a detailed video and other resources on the course website and further support emails to keep the habit going after three weeks.

You can read more and sign up for the short course here.

Pin154

154 Shares