Sunday, August 16, 2015

Back to School Idea: Grab-and-Go Lunches for Kids


If you have kids going back to school and pack school lunches, my guess is that you've seen different photos/pins on Pinterest showing how to make "grab-and-go" lunch containers for your kids to help pack their lunch.  My oldest is now going into 3rd grade.  The last two years I've been letting her (and now her younger sister) get hot lunch about 80% of the time because it's so much easier for me in the morning and to not have to worry about one more thing.  This summer though I really have been trying to stress to the girls the importance of making healthy food choices and we are trying to make more healthy/organic choices at home too.  As you can see from this blog, I like (no LOVE) making my kids different recipes and food choices, including for their lunches.  However, although I love making these for them, they aren't always the fastest way for me to get their lunches packed/unpacked and get us all out the door quickly.  So I decided that we are going to do 2 things different this first month to see if these changes will work for our family.

1.  The kids are only allowed to choose 3 of their favorite hot lunches to eat at school for August and September and the other days are going to be cold lunches from home.  This allows my girls to still eat some of their more favorite school lunches but forces them to really think about what they want to commit to.  :) (I still can't get over that Allison's favorite lunch is the rib sandwich?!?!?!!?)

2.  I will make their main item, but they are responsible for choosing the remaining ingredients and items needed for their lunch.

We are a "PackIt" lunchbox family mainly because I like that it keeps their items cold without having to deal with ice packs.  And I know that their dairy products are not going to spoil before their lunch time.  

We had to do some rearranging of our cabinets to get all of these containers in one place, but hopefully this will work for us.

The girls are responsible for taking:
1 water bottle (yes we use disposable mini ones b/c I was tired of reusable ones leaking)
Napkin, spoon, fork (if needed)
Plus they can choose ONE item from each of the tubs:
1 Dairy (kept in fridge: includes cheese (different kinds), laughing cow wedges, Greek yogurt tubes, etc.)
1 Fruit (can be fresh (in fridge) or non-perishable such as fruit pouches, applesauce, fruit cups, etc.)
1 Chip or Side: (organic granola bars, freeze dried fruit/veggies, crackers, bag of chips (on occasion), etc. 
1 Dessert/Treat (fruit leather, fruit bars, chocolate covered raisins, fruit snacks, etc.)

I have super high hopes for this plan....here's hoping it works and makes this school year a little easier, less stressful, and a lot more healthy!

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