I'm going to be the first to admit that waking up on a Monday morning to prep school lunches is not high on my list of favorite things to do.
I deeply desire to be this crazy, organised Mom. But then there are days (note the plural) when I discover that the bread has a suspiciously moldy appearance, we are out of peanut butter and that three out of the four bottom of the fridge apples are long past their use by date.
Now maybe this horrifies a few of you? Then this post is not for you. This is for the Mom who is now nodding her head in solemn understanding. This is for the Mom who would really appreciate this little printable (you're welcome).
MORE BACK TO SCHOOL IDEAS
- Running late for the bus? Try one of these22 On the go Breakfast Recipes
- Hair tangles taking up too much time? Give my miracle homemade DIY Hair Detangler a go.
- Is your daughter rocking the Hermione Granger (aka the fluffy haired one from Harry Potter) hairstyle a little too frequently? Here are some easy back to school hairstyles to try this year.
I'm definitely not going to say that I have my lunchbox making agenda 100% under wraps, but I can tell ya that I have a few tricks up my sleeve that makes this painful school morning ritual a little easier to deal with.
With four kids to get out the door by 7.45am every morning, I am really good at cutting corners and pulling together a quick and generally healthy school lunch.
MY SCHOOL LUNCH PLAN
When it comes to making school lunches, for the sake of our long term sanity, we should all be striving to make this incredibly unfulfilling, mind numbing job a little easier.
No-one should be expected to whip up a Mary Berry Masterpiece before 8 am. No-one.
If you have ever been on a school outing and taken a sneak peak into the 'other' kids lunches (chances are it's the one sitting next to your kid), you would have noticed that there are those Moms who make the rest of us look hella bad.
Watching that much loved kid eat a warm chicken casserole and home made bread, makes your kids peanut butter sandwich look a little dry and rather sad.
I am not aiming for Mom of the Year. I'm OK with third or seventh place. Anything less though and my competitiveness gets twitchy.
My school lunch routine keeps me comfortably nestled in that 'I've got this covered' zone.
Feel free to tweak it if you are aiming for the Mom of the Year Trophy though. We all need goals :)
A MORNING PLAN FOR MOMS WHO HATE MORNING PLANS
So, we've established that I am not a particularly organised Mom. I'm more of a 'sometimes organised Mom'.
It's not that I don't try. Every now and again I will get my ass in gear and get my life sorted. I obsessively stick to my to do list, print off my Life Planner and for all of 1 ½ days I feel like I've got this Mom thing down.
But then I drop the ball for a moment and everything turns to custard.
It's like watching a cycling marathon and the guy in the front nose dives. You can't look away as the 121 trailing bike riders pile up on top of him into one big mess of tires, dirt and Lycra. My life feels like this way too often.
THE UNBREAKABLE RULES
So despite the chaos that could be happening on any one day. And it is surprising what comes up. It can vary from 25 runaway sheep to a chicken nesting in my sink.
There are a few things that happen on a school morning no matter what:
- We make it in time for the school bus (I'm not driving 45 minutes to school in my PJ's).
- All four kids to eat Breakfast (even if it's this kind of breakfast) and
- Everyone leaves home with a packed School Lunch.
But to pull those three things off consistently 5 days a week - rain or shine - sometimes needs a little hussle.
So here they are ....
5 Sneaky Lunchbox Hacks to Help you Up your Morning Mom Game.
1. FOR HEAVENS SAKE, GET A REAL LUNCHBOX
I'm going to start with the most obvious, because this is the thing we sometimes get sidetracked with. Forget the Dora, Teen Titan or [fill in the latest TV show] licensed lunchboxes.
Get your kids a good quality lunchbox.
I'm not talking about the over priced cutesy, bento boxes that flutter about on Pinterest. They are a pain in the butt to clean and your dishwasher will swallow up the small pieces.
Just No.
You need a hardy, no moving parts, dish-washable lunchbox with big, real kid appetite sized compartments. If you've read a few of my posts then you know I swear by these.
They are super tough and perfect size for all ages. We have had ours for over 3 years now and they still look like new! There are three good sized compartments which you can actually fit a whole apple inside.
2. SAVE $600 A YEAR WITH A REUSABLE DRINK BOTTLE
Enough is enough. Let's stop buying bottled water. It's bad for the environment and one day we're gonna figure out that it's just silly. Why spend money on something you can get for free out a tap. I read the other day that some people spend up to $600 a year of buying bottled water - per person! That's almost enough to buy a holiday to Fiji.
Invest in a good quality reusable water bottle for each member of your family and full it with water every morning. Don't mess around with the bitsy, hard to clean varieties out there.
Get something solid that you know will last. We use these bottles and I love them! The wide mouth makes them easy to clean and in Summer, I can actually fit ice cubes inside them without pushing and shoving ice into a little bottle neck.
For a bit of fun, my husband bought one of these gadgets to mark his tools on the job site and my kids had a blast customizing their metal water bottle. It's pretty cool!
3. NINJA MOM MIX AND MATCH LUNCH PLANNER
I've been using my three compartment lunch boxes for years now, so I've made a simple mix and match lunch planning system to help me fill it every morning. You can download a printable copy of it here.
How my Lunch Planner Works:
You simply select one item from each box to fill your lunchbox:
- Main Meal
- Snack
- Fruit or Veggie
That's it. It's an easy to use system that takes the guesswork out of school lunches. Get Mix and Match Lunchbox Planner here for FREE here. {It's normally $3 but don't panic, when you go to checkout, it will be 100% free)
4. NO FUSS BIODEGRADABLE LUNCH WRAP
I tried the no wrap thing but it was messy. And a messy lunch is not very appealing.
So now, I wrap sandwiches, wraps and rolls using lunch paper. You can compost it so no landfill issues and it makes your regular sandwich look a little like something from the deli. If you are working on a more zero-waste lifestyle, then take a look at these beeswax sandwich wraps. I know a few real life Moms who swear by them.
Here's a quick tutorial from SeriousEats on How to Wrap a Sandwich Deli Style
5. FRIDGE & PANTRY SNACK BOX
Once or twice a week I stock up two boxes: Our Fridge Snack Box and Pantry Snack Box.
This is where my kids go for snacks and it's the source of the two 'snack parts' of my lunch box compartments. Every morning, I grab one thing from the fridge box and one thing from the pantry box to pop in the kids lunchbox. Keeping these two snack boxes full makes my life a whole lot easier every morning. It's easy to check if I need to stock up and then all I need to do is add the main meal - which is generally leftovers or a sandwich.
Download the Free Mix and Match Lunchbox Planner for some ideas on what food to stock in your pantry and fridge snack boxes.
One More thing ....
Don't make life harder than it needs to be. Save your energy for things that matter by creating simple, fool proof routines for daily chores.
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