Our mornings were getting very stressful…
With the busyness of life, the cold weather, the time change, the snooze button- you name it… packing lunches got placed on the back burner. There was barely enough time for breakfast, let alone time to pack lunches, so off my children went with money to purchase their lunches at school. I was very grateful to have that option, however my heart’s desire was to pack for them.
So Monday, I turned a new leaf. I prepared in advance for the entire week and now packing lunches in the morning is fun! I’ll show you how…
After I went to the grocery store, I took an hour and prepped the above. I made sure to have different sized ziplock bags and I went to to town rinsing, dicing, cutting and portioning out all of the lunch items I purchased.
I cubed cheese, cut carrots, broccoli, and cucumbers and hard boiled eggs.
I cut up strawberries and portioned out grapes. I made salami and cream cheese tortilla rollups and bagged them up too.
I rolled up just salami and cheese and made them into rollups and bagged up snack mixes.
I portioned out sunflower seeds, animal crackers and trail mix.
And banana chips…
Then I placed them in containers with like attributes. This was my veggie container.
My fruit container…
The proteins…
Then I placed the dry snacks in bowls and put them away in the cupboard.
Storage in the refrigerator was simple.
Now morning time lunch packing is fun! The kiddos (and Dad) get to choose what they want from each container and all is good in the world 😉
I hope this helps my fellow Mama’s!
Thanks Janelle! It was like a light bulb went on! (insert angelic singing) This momma is truly thankful. Have a blessed day!
This is a perfect solution for me too. I will have to give this try. I am always running around at the last minute in the morning packing my lunch for work and I don’t always choose the healthiest options. Thanks for the great idea.
You are so welcome! It honestly has taken so much stress off of me. The kids have loved having these options and are eating healthier (for the most part, haha)
Thank you SO much for this wonderful idea! I cannot even begin to tell you how helpful this post is…seriously life changing! Haha 🙂 Going to try this next week! You are always a huge blessing in my life with your posts and this one is just another example of why I love following Comfy in the Kitchen!
Do the veggies and fruits not spoil cut up? Looks like such a fun thing to do!
Nope! They sure don’t. The only thing I would suggest is not to wash the strawberries when you portion them. Instead, wait until you put them in your child’s lunch then put water in the ziplock, then drain. The strawberries would get mushy otherwise
Another suggestion for strawberries is to put them with blueberries. I’ve been doing this for years to eat with yogurt and homemade granola (that I also portion out ahead of time). I’m not sure why but cut up strawberries stay fresh much longer without releasing any liquid and getting mushy when they are in a bag with blueberries. They will last an entire week easily and often times well into a second week if we didn’t eat them all the first week.
LOVE strawberries and blueberries together! Excellent!
This is AWESOME. I can’t wait to try some of this. But salami and cream cheese roll ups?!
lol, I suppose it’s just a family thing? But, yep- they are good!
This is so helpful, thank you so much…it’s comforting others were having a hard time too! You mentioned the salami w cream cheese, but what did you put in the other tortilla roll? Looks good! Thanks so much.
Thank you so much Lisa! You can put meats, cheese and cream cheese in the tortilla roll!