How to Survive Life in the Suburbs

How To Survive School Lunches In The Suburbs–#WW

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Did anyone else have themselves a good old fashioned cry last week?  Not because your babies are safely tucked back in school, but because it’s now that time of year where you begin the regular morning battle; what to pack for lunch.  Sigh. 

In our house we do lunches the night before.  It’s just one less thing to do battle about in the morning.  My girls are pretty good about making their own lunches (as long as I remember to stock the fridge!)  The problems in our house are more of the; Which girl forgot to make their lunch?  How does she think THAT remotely qualifies as a healthy lunch?  I don’t know what to put in my lunch Mom! I don’t have time to make my lunch, and Why are we even discussing this again? variety.

This year, to help resolve all of this and make our mornings just a little bit easier I’ve committed to one hour every Sunday to preparing some ready to go grab bags and snack containers.  A weeks worth of “Make Ahead Lunch Accompaniments” to help streamline lunch making and ensure my girls lunches are a bit more balanced. 

How do I do this?  I have two Tupperware LUNCH containers, one ultimately destined for the fridge, the other for my pantry.  As I live in a houseful of snackers, I made a point to clearly label these containers LUNCH, to keep little hands and my Husband’s out of my prepared lunches!  I filled my fridge bin with a variety of goodies I know my daughters would love to eat.  An example of this might include a Tupperware like this, stuffed with some of these faves:

LunchFridgeBin

 

*cubed watermelon in reusable Tupperware

*Granola with Yogurt

*Applesauce

*Babybell Cheese

*Grapes –washed and ready to go

*Carrot Sticks

*Yogurt Tubes

*Sliced Cucumbers

*Small washed apples

*Pepper strips and ranch dip

 

 

My Pantry Bin received similar treatment, I stuffed it full with snacks for the week:

LunchPantryBin

*Pretzels

*Granola Bars

*Crackers (Goldfish today!)

*Muffins (still in the oven)

*Nut free Brownies

*Mott’s Fruit Chews

Now when it’s time for my girls to make their lunches all they have to do is pick a couple of items from each bin, re-fill their bottle of water or grab a juice and add in their “main” lunch item.  More often than not my girls gravitate to a bagel with cream cheese, tortilla rolled with turkey and cheese, or the coveted leftover in a thermos re-heated. 

One hour spent each Sunday simply stocking my containers has made a huge difference in our school mornings in the past, hoping it works it magic again this year.  Maybe it will help you too!  Hope everyone had a great first week back to school, and don’t worry, there’s only about four months until Christmas!

* I know this one is far from wordless, but hope you will leave me a comment,

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    • Comments

    2. I need all the help i could get packing a kids lunch is new to me, my daughter just started school ….very helpful

      • It’s actually easier than you think! AND if you take one of your little people along with you, they can help pick out some of their lunch snacks for the week. Win/Win

    5. What’s in the Granola and Yogart? I have a “wont eat a sandwich” child, who thinks I’m made of money to just fork over to the Cafeteria every day. I told him “I can cook you know”

    7. OY – don’t even get me started on school lunches. My oldest (9) is ok about eating and doesn’t complain much, but my 6 year old is a PILL. I have such a hard time coming up with creative ideas of things he’ll actually eat. And guaranteed that he throws half of it away once he’s at school.

      • At my girls school they have to bring everything home that they don’t eat. This includes the garbage. It used to make me nuts that they would come home with their trash but then I got it!! This way I could tell exactly what they were eating! Kind of brilliant!

    9. I gave up trying to make the perfect lunches for my boys–they seem to be so picky about everything. They now eat school lunch and they seem to be pretty happy about it. I love your lunch ideas, though! Thanks for hosting WW!