Do you find packing school lunches for your little ones to be a daily struggle? I know I do, but when I follow my own LivLight tips, I find it to be much more manageable and not all that bad. I actually even enjoy it (sometimes!).
Tips for Easy School Lunches
- Plan ahead-On Sunday, make a list of the five lunches you plan to pack for the week. If your child is old enough to have input, let them help choose their lunches.
- Bulk up-Buy healthy items in bulk (i.e. organic squeeze packs, organic apple sauce, organic mini hummus packs, Lara Bars, Skinny Pop, string cheese, etc.). Costco carries a lot of great organic and healthy products these days in large quantities.
- Stock up-Make sure to always have the basics on hand. I always keep fresh bread (or bread in the freezer), turkey, cheese, peanut butter (or SunButter if your school or child is nut-free) and jelly, fruit, veggies, etc. in my kitchen.
- Make lunch during dinner-I generally try to pack my daughters’ lunches while I make their dinner the night before. I figure I’m already in the kitchen and know it will be a huge timesaver in the morning.
- Use leftovers-If your child loved what they had for dinner last night, put whatever’s leftover in their lunch the next day. I promise they won’t mind!
As my daughter has started after-school activities, I find that I need to pack even more in order to cover morning snack, lunch and afterschool snack. Here is a recent pic from my Instagram @livlight_ (below right) where you can see what I sent for Elle’s 8:15am-4:15pm day!
Stay tuned for more of my LivLight kid lunch ideas and in the meantime, check out one of my favorite sites http://weelicious.com. I learned about Sandwich Sushi (above left), one of my girls’ faves, from her great videos!