Of all the many things that I love about Christmas vacation, not having to make school lunches is pretty high on the list. On the face of it, you wouldn't think it's such a difficult task. But when you consider picky eaters, the desire to provide healthy, portable lunches and the necessity of packing nut-free snacks, the day-to-day of it can become quite tedious.
If you have some time off work this month (or maybe a patient grandmother around to help with the kids), it might just be a good time to re-consider how you handle school lunches in the new year. In that spirit, I recently re-organized my lunch cupboard. By the way, actually having a lunch cupboard is my top tip for making lunch preparation simpler.
Preparing healthy lunches and snacks that the kids will actually eat and enjoy at school is a daily challenge. My lunch cupboard helps me to streamline the lunch-making process. It is three full shelves reserved for storage containers, water bottles, cutlery and lunch bags. Everything is in one place and easy to grab.
My daughter quickly laid claim to this pink, purple and green Rubbermaid LunchBlox™ Kids Lunch Kit. The bright colours and the fact that the pieces fit together like a puzzle appealed to her. The kit includes a 2.6-cup sandwich container, two 1.2-cup side containers and a Blue Ice ice pack. To be honest, I would use this "kids" LunchBlox set myself. It makes lunch look pretty, doesn't it?
Don't let the star- and heart-shaped watermelon slices fool you. Most days I'm in a hurry and a little bit (maybe a lot) grumpy in the morning, so lunch doesn't always look this fancy. But my daughter wanted to show off her new containers with a particularly charming lunch, right down to the vegan ham slices rolled up and held together with toothpicks.
LunchBlox containers are meant to save space and stay organized in any lunch box or bag. The containers snap together when you stack them so they are secure and compact. (This makes them handy to store tidily in the cupboard too.) The built-in ice pack ensures that cold foods stay fresh.
We find the smaller containers useful for all kinds of snacks, including strawberries, watermelon, blueberries, grapes, pretzels, cucumber, baby carrots, cookies and crackers. The larger container is great for sandwiches, sushi, wraps, pasta salad or green salad. The containers are safe for use in the microwave, dishwasher and freezer, making storage, re-heating and clean-up super simple. Rubbermaid's durable containers are all about making your life easier while looking good at the same time. I'm into that!
Do you have any tips for making school lunches simple?
Disclosure: I am part of the Rubbermaid Blogger Campaign with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.
I work from home but I find it's always a struggle to figure out what I'm going to have for lunch - and I have no excuse, all the cooking things I could dream of are right here! So I'm going to try to do better in the new year and prep a lot of things in advance, like fruit salad and a rice/grain salad so I can have easy sweet or savory snacks throughout the day.
ReplyDeleteI hear ya! I work from home too. If we don't have leftovers from dinner, I'm at a loss! I love your idea of prepping in advance for your lunch. I do that for dinners and I think about what my kids/husband are going to take for lunch, but my own lunch is usually an after-thought. :)
DeleteThese are so cute. I have a (less organized than yours!) lunch cupboard as well and small bins filled with some of the kids favourite snacks (fruit cups, granola bars, crackers) that I can top up their lunch with.
ReplyDeleteThanks Fariha! It's a daily task to keep the lunch cupboard organized, for sure. :) I try to keep bins full of snacks too, but sometimes I neglect the task, or sometimes the kids eat all the lunch snacks in the evening! ;)
DeleteI cannot get over how tidy it is! Mine is a disaster right now, I need to tackle it over the holidays and get it back into shape for when school is back in. Containers are a must!
ReplyDeleteI just re-tidied my cupboard again this morning Tammi! It gets out of control quickly. :)
Deletewow, that's a pretty amazing lunch! I love the lunchblox too, my boys use them
ReplyDeleteThank you! Glad you are enjoying LunchBlox as well! :)
DeleteI use these all the time at home so I can have lunch ready to go and waiting for me when I take a break from my work! So convenient!
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you think about your lunches in advance Cyn. Otherwise I find you can get busy working and find yourself super hungry without a lunch idea in sight! :)
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