Tag: nutrition

Take the Misery and Mystery Out of Packing School Lunches!

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lunch

 

Way back in June, a number of people mentioned how glad they were that summer was here because they wouldn’t have to pack school lunches anymore!  I decided then to write a Back-To-School blog to help! 

 

Here are 5 ways to make School Lunches easier, cheaper and more appealing:

  • Communicate with your Kids.
    • Have an honest conversation about what they will actually eat, and how much time is provided for lunch at school. 
    • For example, my teens have early start times, so breakfast has to be nutritious, portable and easy.  And the freshman has only half a lunch period, due to a biology lab class, so lunch will also need to be nutritious, portable and easy!
    • In the interest of time, my youngest asked for half-sandwiches and soft fruits like grapes, dried cherries or raisins, etc., because carrots and apples are yummy but require a lot of chewing.  I willingly agreed, since less food is wasted and he actually wants to eat his fruit.
    • Packing lunches together offers an opportunity to discuss good nutrition like serving sizes, food groups and pyramids, pros and cons of fresh foods and convenience or pre-packaged foods, etc.
  • Choose the right space and time to pack lunches. 
    • Establish a lunch packing zone with lunch bags, sandwich bags, fresh fruit, napkins, plastic spoons, etc. 
    • Our family is much better at packing lunches after dinner than we are at packing in the morning before school.  So as we clean up from dinner, we pack for the next day. When helps us to ….
  • Strategically plan and package leftovers.
    • Taco night?  Put together some tortillas with refried and cheese, they freeze great and stay cold!
    • My youngest loves cold pasta (I can’t explain it, but he loves it!)  So if I make homemade mac and cheese, spaghetti or other pastas, we portion the left overs into 2 or 3 containers for lunches.  Ham for dinner tonight means ham sandwiches tomorrow, etc.
  • Do as much prep as possible at home.
    • When my kids were younger, I learned the lunch room monitors spend a lot of time helping really little kids open hard-to-open packaging.  Make sure your kids can navigate their own sandwich bags, prepackaged chips or snacks, and water bottle.  And peel the oranges at home!
  • Assemble the lunches for the week all at once, if that helps.
    • Use reusable containers and lunch boxes, if possible.  We use lots of little Gladware bowls for prepacking our lunches!
    • I spent half an hour last night chopping fresh veggies into snack-able sizes. 001
    • Pre-package your own foods, to save time and money.  On Sunday, we fill Gladware bowls with servings of pretzels, chex mx, cookies and dried fruit, then use them throughout the week for speedy lunch assembly!
    • For example: I traveled to New Mexico in June, and in preparation,  my 10 year old and I packed as much of his lunch for sports camp as possible for the days I was going to be gone.   We lined up 5 paper lunch bags, and put his name on them.  Then we dropped in apples, bags of chips and bagged up cookies.  We also made 5 ham and cheese sandwiches, cut them into wedges, bagged them up and froze them.  So every morning, he just grabbed a bag from the counter, tossed in his frozen sandwich and cold juice pouch and was ready for camp.   (He loved it so much, we did the same thing the next week, even though I was home!).

Meet the school lunch challenge head on with a few of these tips.  Happy munching!  

And here are a few more resources on the topic:

 

Five (Really!) Simple Steps To Start Menu Planning!

Many of my clients have “Start Menu Planning” on their list of projects. And many never get around to it.  Meal planning is such an invaluable practice, for home management and peace of mind, nutrition and wellness.  People know Menu Planning is a good idea, but getting started proves too daunting.

Why Bother with Menu Planning?  Spending 30 minutes once a week to menu plan will:

  • Save money (shopping the sales, using coupons, using your food better)
  • Save time (plan ahead, cook once and eat twice)
  • Decrease stress. (Avoid the 4 pm emergency grocery run FOREVER!)
  • Allow more flexibility in your schedule.  (Be in command of Dinner Time, instead of a slave to it!
  • Provide better nutrition for you and your family.   (Home cooking is almost always the most nutritious, and family dinners are the foundation of family communications!)

But you probably know all that, just like my clients do.  So the hurdles are still “How do I start?  Where do I start?  What is the small first step that I need to take to start making this good idea a reality?”

Start Where You Are, with What You Have.  And Start Right Now. 

It takes little time and no tools. 

Just start.

  1. Start In Your Kitchen, not at the grocery.  Take an inventory, and base your Menu on what you have.  I was recently in a client’s kitchen, and she had made a list of what was in the freezer.  Brilliant!  Most kitchens I am in have too much food, which means most of us more challenged by “How to use what I have?” than by “Help, the cupboards are bare!”  So, now that you know what you have…..
  2. Make a list of your Family Favorites, and start with those (and not intimidating new recipes).  Start with meals you know your family will eat.  Have everyone list their favorites, and work those into your plan.
  3. Start with just today.  This morning, look in the kitchen and decide what is for dinner.  Decide on your dinner time, thenIMG_1520 check your recipes, if you use them, to determine when you need to get started.  Now pull out 2 baking dishes.  Load one on the counter with the non-perishables to make dinner tonight.  Put the other in the fridge with the perishables.  If you are feeling really ambitious, plan breakfast and lunch while you’re at it.
  4. Do this every day for a few days, until you get the feel for how it works.  Now go the next step, and plan a few days ahead.  Look at that!  You’re Menu Planning!
  5. Be open to changing your kitchen and your habits:
    1. A client suggested buying an extra set of measuring scoops to leave in your canisters.  The largest scoop can go in the flour, second largest in the sugar, third largest in the brown sugar, etc.  Or go to the dollar store, grab all 1 Cup scoops, and leave those in every canister. (thanks LG!)
    2. I am working on a chart for my kitchen cabinets.  The list contains all the items that I tend to use, and how many of IMG_1285each I need in a typical 2 week period (that’s how often I do my major grocery shopping).  For example, if I tend to use 4 cans of tomatoes every 2 weeks, I need 4 on hand, or I need to add some to my grocery list.  Your grocery stores have re-order points, consider this inventory control.
    3. I may not have mentioned it lately, but I love my crock pot.  At least once a week, I spend 20 minutes and assemble dinner at 8 am.  I love coming home those days to the smell of dinner cooking!
    4. A friend shared this link on Facebook, just as I was editing this article!  http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/2014/03/plan-prep-party-3-steps-to-a-cooking-at-home-habit/
    5. Also, go to www.cookingwithchefkate.wordpress.com, and sign up to receive Kate’s blogs.  She has a handy “search option”, and so many of my new favorite recipes come from Kate! (and she is a friend and just delightful!)  Check it out!
    6. Use your prep time for twice the impact.  Soup is on today’s menu, which is great because I can spend 10 extra minutes, clean and cut all the carrots and celery I bought the other day, and have carrot sticks for snacks and diced veggies for a meal later in the week.

So, I hope I have taken some of the “overwhelm” out of getting started with Menu Planning.  It really is a great practice, and saves so much time and money.   Start In Your Own Kitchen, Start Small – Just START!