Who likes the chore of packing school lunches?
I do…when I have a strategy and some super cool & fun products to use!
I do…when I have a strategy and some super cool & fun products to use!
If you have kids just entering the school system for the first time and are packing lunches for your littles for the very first school year, it may seem fun….at first.
But then it becomes gradually….not so fun.
I have been packing school lunches since the fall of 2001 when my daughter started full-day school at age 5.
Over the years, I have really learned how to get the chore done as quickly and as easily as possible, and I really want to share with you how I easily pack my kids nutritious and tasty lunches.
And I am also here to tell you that although those super cute animal sandwiches being pinned on Pinterest by everybody are lovely…I don’t know very few mom who creates them , except for a birthday party.
Last August, I wrote a post about school lunches, “5 Easy Steps To Packing School Lunches”…which is still one of my most popular posts. This time around, I am going to share just a little more updated information now that I have a daughter in high school. But I still stick to 5 easy steps…which are:
1. Start with a main course.
It can be a sandwich, salad or soup. If you are making sandwiches, remember to switch up the breads every so often to relieve the boredom of the same thing over and over again!
A main course can also be a salad.. If packing a salad, remember to pack the salad dressing separately so the salad doesn’t get soggy. My daughter’s favourite lunch for years was a pasta salad.
A main course can also be soup. Both my kids love hot soup in the winter. I like using stainless steel thermoses over plastic or glass since they are sturdy and don’t leach chemicals.
2. Add some vegetables.
Adding veggies into your child’s lunch is a great way to make sure they are getting their required daily servings of fruits & veggies.My kids like their veggies with dip, so I add a little of their fav ranch dressing to the bottom of the container for a ‘veggies & dip’ snack.
3. Add Fruit.
Fruit cups. Fruit salad or fresh fruit. Apples. Watermelon wedges. It all counts. Just add fruit to your child’s lunch to build towards those daily servings fruit & vegetables. And they are learning healthy snacking habits to serve them throughout life.
And if the thought of cutting up fruit for lunches is a little overwhelming to an already crazy busy schedule, use one of these great helpers from the grocery store!
One new thing that I have discovered this year is these amazing LunchBot containers. Love them.
They are stainless steel and extremely sturdy, and come in different configurations.
I also love that they are a great size…not too big and perfect for serving sizes for elementary school kids.
I also find that the lids are not too tight for little kids to open.
This is the quad LunchBot, which has 4 different sections.
I love it because it holds the main course and fruit & veggies all in one container!
LunchBots also come in a ‘tri’ combination with 3 sections.
Here I tucked a small sandwich into the long section and added fruits and veggies to the other sections.
Brilliant, right?
4. Add a little treat.
After adding a main course and fruits and veggies, I always add a small treat to my kids’ lunches. It can be homemade cookies, granola bars, a muffin or something that I know they like. I give my kids complete control over when they choose to eat their treat. My son always eats his treat at recess before lunch! {If you would like to see the recipe for our family’s favourite chocolate chip cookie, go here.}
5. Add a drink and a napkin.
This is the last step in my “5 Easy Steps” to packing school lunches.
*Now here is some other advice I would like to add.*
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Having lots of little containers really helps when it comes to packing lunches. They hold everything from salad dressings to fruit and veggies.
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Having fruits and veggies washed & prepped in little containers ready to go into lunches in the morning makes lunch- packing a breeze. You are essentially making your own pre-packaged foods for lunches that are healthy and without added salt, sugar, fat or preservatives. This system works extremely well when lunches are prepped on Sunday and then throughout the week, you are just adding prepared foods in containers to lunches.
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Have a container/bin of some kind in the fridge to store lunch items all in one place.
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I love these Lunchskins. They replace the need for plastic baggies and are dishwasher safe and good for 1000 uses, which saves you money, as well as being great for the environment. They are made of high quality fabric, toxin free and come in a couple of sizes…sandwich, snack and sub size.
{Photo Source below: Lunchskins}
- This year, I also found this brilliant lunch bag, which has 2 different insulated compartments…so one compartment can be a ‘cold’ side, and the other can be a ‘warm’ side. They are made by a Canadian company called “BalancedDayBags”.{You can order them here.} It’s the perfect bag for my son in elementary school.
Each side has a number on it’s cover. I used the ‘One’ for the warm side with soup in a thermos and bread.
The number ‘Two’ side I used the for the cold side, with the LunchBot and an ice pack from the dollar store.I love the practicality of this design and it would be great for a school day with 2 breaks where you could let your child know which food is for Break 1 and which is for Break 2.
- Another thing I learned this year is that my high school student is not interested in taking containers of lunch items to school any more. She just wants to take packages she can throw away. And although this is not good for the environment, I do want her to eat throughout the day, so I have made lots of ‘GRAB & GO’ items for her. {She does not like cafeteria food or fast food.}. I keep baggies of fresh fruits and veggies and single servings of Greek yogurt, guacamole and dips on hand for her, as well as bags of pita wedges and crackers, etc. in the pantry. Hopefully, when she gets a little older and out of high school, she will go back to using environmentally-friendly products that her mama has uses!
- I store the ‘grab & go’ items in these fridge bins that I found at Bed, Bath & Beyond. You can read more about this in my post, “Active Kids & Healthy Snacks & Drinks.”
And that, my friends, is how I have made packing school lunches easy!
I hope you find some of these ideas useful for your family!
What strategies do you use to help make packing school lunches easy for your family?
Share the Love!
1
Hi Angie, I used a balanced day bag for my youngest all last year and they really are awesome! Where do you buy your mini dips from?
These tips are fantastic and I love how you organize everything beforehand!! My girls aren't quite in the lunch packing stage yet, but I'll use these tips for lunches at home too!
Thank you for sharing this. I keep seeing those cute Bento lunches online and I just can't wrap my head around going to all that trouble. My son just started kindergarten and decided he doesn't like the school lunches so I have started to make his lunches. These are all great tips! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Hi there…these are some great ideas! I was wondering where you bought the lunch bots containers? I live in Calgary and was wondering about finding them here. Thanks for any help!
Love those lunch containers and the baggies. I got a bunch of three compartment plastic containers for my daughters and have a ton of different sized ones. I am all set for packing lunches. And yes, I'm looking forward to packing my younger daughter's lunch, but I know after a month or so I'll hate it! haha Oh, and I use cookies cutters to make cute sandwiches. However I do not cut out tiny cheese letters or anything else to embellish it. That's just a little overboard. ; )
~ Catie
Love your lunches!
How does your high schooler keep her food cold until lunch?
Thanks for the inspiration, Angie. Lunch making is indeed difficult. Add to that being a vegetarian family and it gets even more complex. I really want to get some of those Lunchskins. And the balanced bag is great! Good tips!
This is fantastic. I don't have children, but I pack my own lunch for work everyday and I'm always looking for new ideas! As a vegetarian, I try to find new ways to incorporate fruits and veggies and easily carry them to work. Thanks for the ideas! 🙂
Hi Angie, I love lunch containers. Where did you get the Lunchbots – only online or in a store?
Sandy
Love these ideas! I love that you're Canadian too so I know I can find the stuff 🙂 I'm a new follower.
So much great advice! This is my first year packing a lunch and we're a week in and I think I need to get a little more creative 🙂 I'd love for you to share with my readers if you get the chance. Hope you're having a wonderful week! http://www.momontimeout.com/2012/08/taking-timeout-thursday-no45.html
Mine pack their own lunch from year 4 onwards. Before that, they get to help put it in the lunch box. But I do love the idea of having it all in one container to grab in the fridge, that would make life easier! The kids also love the mini lebanese cucumbers in their lunches too
Those compartment containers are to die for! Fabulous post! Cheers
So sad that I have to think about packing lunches again!! I love all of your ideas though. I like that lunchbot. There are so many different packaging ideas out there these days. Good luck with your first day of school on Tuesday. Connor will be off to Kindergarten this year. sniff!sniff! Have a great long weekend!
Jenn xo
P.S. I'll be featuring this tomorrow.
Thanks for the great post! Your advice is fab and I love those 'Lunchbot' boxes! Rebecca @ heronscrafts.blogspot.com
Just saw this post featured over at Clean and Scentsible. What a great list of tips! And help on finding great products and containers is always nice – I'm loving those bins you have in the fridge for storage! I'm pinning this right now. Thanks for sharing!
you have got it down to a science – thanks for the tips!
Love your ideas! Found you via Home Stories.
Just pinned this post!!! Awesome.
Meegan
What Meegan Makes
Great tips! Stopping in from Talent Show Tuesday 🙂
I use the trio & the quad LunchBots, I love them! I bought mine at Vesta Parenting Centre. They also sell them on line at vestashop.ca. I think they were about $22 each.
Love your idea about having a section in the fridge with lunch supplies all ready! Definitely will be using that tip!
You have given me something to think about for tomorrow's lunch. How do fruits like strawberries go if they are cut up the night before? Do they start to go kinda gross?
Sheree
This post is just on time for back to school. You have great ideas. I just shared on my FB page!