Source: familyfreshcooking.com via Marla on Pinterest
I have a confession to make. As much as I love cooking my family fresh, wholesome meals, well… I get in a lunch time rut all the time.
It’s usually in the middle of the day that I find myself the most busy so I reach for quick things to make. Pb&j, macaroni and cheese, gazpacho soup, salads, tuna, chorizo, fruits, and cheese make the usual lineup.
It gets boring after awhile. I know the kids think so to.
Source: bentonbetterlunches.com via Marla on Pinterest
Our homeschool starts this Thursday and we’re adding an extra seat in the mix – I know I will have less time to think about lunch.
This year I want to start preparing my lunches the night before in order to have them ready to go when our school day ends around noon.
Some phenomenal woman that have this lunch thing down are Marla from Family Fresh Cooking, Laura from Momables, and Dara from Cookin’ Canuck.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from these ladies is that lunchtime can be scrumptious and simple.
Source: momables.com via Donna on Pinterest
Most importantly… not boring at all.
Source: bentoriffic.wordpress.com via Kelley on Pinterest
Lunch time plan of attack
This is my plan of attack to make sure to have wholesome, fun, and scrumptious lunch time meals for my family.
- Be consistent with planning my lunch time meals just as I would my dinner meals.
- Invest in some cute bento boxes to make lunch time fun. These sistema boxes are super cute and bpa free!Thanks FujiMama for suggesting these😉
- Scour the meal plans made by Laura from Momables. She offers lunchtime menu plans by subscription.
- Scour Family Fresh Cooking and Cookin’ Canuck. They introduced us to project lunchbox last year.
- Scour the #projectlunchbox board on pinterest that Marla started from Family Fresh Cooking. Yeah… pretty much AWESOME!
- Pack my lunches the night before. I hope I can keep up with this. I think that will help me incredibly.
Do you have any lunchtime advice to share with us? Feel free to share your favorite lunchtime meals.
*Note… none of these photos are my own but samples of what you’ll find on the #projectlunchbox board on pinterest.
Love this! We also home school and while I’m great at planning supper I’m usually too burned out to then plan lunch. Thanks for the resources!
I am in Iowa too. Originally from California. I love your lunch post. Normally, with our large crew, I just like to get lunch on the table but what fun ideas you have here. You’ve inspired me~ Thank you for sharing.
~Cinnamon
I love the Sistema line, but how do I find the prices and/or order them?? So confused! 🙂
I also have to plan lunches now that my twins are going to start kindergarten in few weeks, I have just bought some laptop lunches boxes, I fonnd that their little containers inside the lunchbox help in balancing meals, they are also BPA free, and I believe made in USA
I got inspired by a blog, that I discovered few weeks ago,
http://www.anotherlunch.com
Can’t wait to see some of your lunches ideas.
I don’t have advice to share… I just came to take some… because I get in a rut often too!