I sent all three of my little peanuts off to school last week. My oldest is in seventh grade, my middle is in third and my sweet baby is in Kindergarten this year. My kids take lunch nearly every day. Not only is it healthier than most of the lunch offerings at school, but it's also much cheaper.
Here are a few of my tips for making lunch making easier. Because, lets be honest, it's a chore!
line up my small snack containers
fill them up and then put the lids on them and put them in the freezer. I freeze a few dozen and then when it comes time to pack lunches I just pull one out of the freezer. By lunchtime they are still mostly frozen (and help keep their lunches cold) and the kids have a fruit slushie.
One of the staples to any lunch is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My oldest is actually allergic to tree nuts but after having two younger kids, we decided to break our family ban on peanuts (he's definitely allergic but less so to peanuts than say walnuts). Making an assembly line of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches actually makes it easier to make sure I don't cross contaminate and I clean up well afterwards.I always start by freezing my bread. Frozen bread is easier to spread and cut. Take your loaf or two of bread from the freezer and spread them out making sure you have an even number of bread slices.
I put peanut butter on both sides and jelly on one side. Then I put the slices together, cut the crusts off (or not), and slice them in half.
I then put them in sandwich baggies and put the sandwich baggies into a larger ziploc bag. Put the ziploc bag into the freezer and pull out sandwiches as needed. By lunchtime the frozen sandwiches are thawed and ready to eat. Easy peasy!
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7 comments
I never thought about freezing a sandwich. Nut products are banned in schools here, but I bet the freenut butter would hold up just as well. Thanks!
Good tips.
Love that fruit cup idea! Thanks!
We do the same thing with the cups for fruit. We'll also occasionally fill them with pudding or jello made at home as well.
Cereal is another one we'll do from time to time- fill a small, sealable bowl with dry cereal, and fill the thermos with milk. They add the milk at lunch, eat the cereal, then seal it up so that it won't make a mess in the lunch box on the way home.
Great idea, thanks!!
I love the idea of freezing the canned fruit for the little slushie!
I grew up in a big family (I'm the eldest of five girls!) For as long as I can remember, my mom used to make and freeze sandwiches: pb&j, ham and cheese, and my personal favorite ~ peanut butter and dill pickle! I used to freeze them for the kids too before they stopped eating wheat.
Great ideas, never ever thought of freezing either of those items, but I am going to try it.
Thanks!
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