ideas for streamlining SACK lunch preparation - not lunch at home

[Hoggirl]

If you have to prepare a sack lunch five days a week (for yourself, your hubby, or your children), can you give me some tips for streamlining the process? When/how do you prepare your lunches. My ds starts at his charter school on Thursday and has to take a lunch each day. I only have one lunch "bag" - a nylon number from Wal-mart. I also purchased two of those "ice" pack thingies.

 

One idea I had thought of was to bag up chips (in ziploc bags out of larger bags) once a week and just have them ready to grab and go each day. I suppose I could do this with treats as well. But, what about sandwiches? I also have thermos container for him to take hot things.

 

Just looking for ideas!

 

Thanks!

[In the Rain]

Bagging chips once a week is a good idea. What about doing the same with carrots? You could probably do a couple days worth of apple slices at a time too. My kids really like homemade trail mix.

[regentrude]

When my kids still attended school I would always fix lunches in the morning while they got dressed. It took only a couple of minutes.

Throwing a few carrots or chips into a zip lock bag takes literally 15 seconds - I see no big value in doing that ahead. And fresh fruit does go brown... yuck. Cutting up an apple is also no big deal... unless you are talking about 8 children or so (in which case I would have the older ones do their own lunches)

[kalanamak]

I have access to a MW and toaster, and I pack all week on Sunday night, for lunch AND breakfast. I put out 5 of those nice really-seal rubbermaids, put brown rice, WW pasta, or tortellini in the bottom, spoon over veggie stew in each, seal up and put at the bottom of double bagged grocery bags. Then I put two pieces of WW bread, a piece of fruit, and a baggie with a carrot or celery or a bell pepper (whole) in it. In Monday's bag, I put a box of neufchatel cheese (cream cheese), then tie them up, and put them in the far back of the fridge where it is coldest....except Monday's is front and center. If I have a plethora of cheese, I might put a slice in a baggie, too.

 

HTH. I cook enough for M-F for dinner at the same time, and pack it nicely for easy eating all week.

[ConnieB]

My kids make up jello and pudding into reusable containers every Sunday night so we just grab one and throw it DH's lunch each day....or we take them with us when we know we won't be home at lunch.

 

Same with trail mix, Chinese crackers, homemade pita chips and occasionally when we buy chips.....bag them up into serving sizes and then they all go into a large box under the table. Just reach in a grab the first one your hand touches.....that way it's always something different!

 

Check and make sure that you have whatever sandwich fixings you'll need for the week....my DH loves SPAM, underwood spread, tuna salad, PB&J, salami and a few other lunch meats. So I make sure we have those available. I typically make up tuna only on a day when I have tme, because all the others are super fast and easy to slap onto a piece of bread with some mayo/mustard. Having to hunt and figure out what you have that you can use is draining.

 

My DH takes water along with him, so we have two quart size water jugs. That way there is always one in the fridge staying cold. The kids are SUPPOSED to wash it each night, refill it and stick in the fridge, and they're generally good at that....but having an extra in the fridge means that the nights we have activities and the kitchen doesn't get completely finished, there isn't a panic in the morning that we have no cold water for Daddy. (We live in Arizona and in the summer this is vital because his job takes him to various sites around the county and not having water in our heat can be deadly....not so vital right now in nice weather, but he still wants a cold drink!). The other nice thing about the jugs of water is that he can take along flavor packets in case he gets a craving for sweet drink, rather than stopping to buy a soda. The flavor packets live in the pocket of his cooler....when he uses one he leaves the trash in his cooler so we know to restock. He always has 5 of them in the pocket.

 

Veggie sticks....we cut these on Sundays but since everyone in the family snacks on them we tend to need to do more mid-week. Carrots, celery, jicama, zuccini, cucumber, bell pepper, etc. We make a homemade dip and it goes into tiny containers, ready to just grab and toss in the cooler too.

 

So...hubby's lunch always consists of: sandwich in a reusable plastic container (prevents it from being squished and no zippy bags to waste), an apple or orange, a jello/pudding (we put a spoon in each morning but there is an extra in the pocket in case someone forgets), chips, veggies, drink.

 

Takes maybe 2-3 minutes to make his sandwich and literally another minute or two to throw them into the cooler with blue ice. They all fit in a particular way so there isn't even any brain power needed to make them fit, lol. Less than 5 minutes and his lunch is ready for him. Pour the coffee into the thermal drink cup and he's out the door.

 

We spend less than 20 minutes on Sunday making the stuff....there are 3 of us....one does jello/puddings, one does the chips/veggie bagging, and I'm usually the one finding what sandwich makings we have (oh yeah, and I write those on a tiny white board on the fridge so sleepy heads don't have to think...when you decide what you're making a finger wipes it off the board).

 

Not only does taking our lunches save us a ton of money....think of the calories saved and the healthier choices available. DH had a serious, ummm, flatulence problem, when he was eating fast food most days....and thank heavens not anymore! Digestion/heartburn problems went away too. Not to mention a few pounds dropped.

[justasque]

We take leftover dinner (quiche, pasta, etc.) and put it into single serving containers as part of our dinner clean-up. There is always a bowl of fresh fruit on the table, making it easy to grab an apple to chop, etc. I make my own fruit-and-yogurt cups, and keep these in the fridge. Sometimes I make applesauce, or muffins, and either individually bag them or container them. Ideally, on the weekend I would take stock of lunch supplies; this doesn't always happen but I usually have a well-stocked pantry, there's always PBJ, and I have a bread machine I can use in a pinch. Sometimes I'll freeze things, like grab-and-go muffins, or tortilla wraps, or hummus-and-pita, or PBJ - they defrost by lunch time no problem.

 

One thing that helps me a lot is I have a standard grocery list I print out each time I shop, and one of the categories in the "planning" notes is lunches - it lists a number of ideas, so I don't have to think too hard, and so we vary things and don't get stuck in a rut.

 

I try to do a lot of homemade stuff, but I do buy single-serve applesauces, yogurts, cottage doubles, cheese sticks, etc. if I know I'm going to have a busy week. Get to know which single-serve items are reasonably healthy, such as no-sugar-added applesauce, so you have options in a pinch.

[Margaret in GA]

Meal planning and being thorough with my grocery lists are key. That way, I always have plenty of fruit or carrots and chips or crackers. And I try to cook meals a few times a week that make leftovers that pack easily-- like pasta or stir fry. Also, I try to make sure that we have some sort of granola bar or muffin on hand to throw into the lunch bags. So, nearly every day I am baking something. Recently found this recipe for granola bars (here maybe?) and it's been a big hit:

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4 cups rolled oats - [ If you want to

add Wheat Germ or Oat Bran - do it here- no more than 1/4c of the 4 cups ]

1/2c other Grains/seeds ( Pecans, Raw sunflowers, Flax Seeds, etc)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda ( Rumford )

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup honey or 1/2c Agave I use honey

1/3 cup Cane Juice Crystals ( turbinado, sucanat etc) or 1/3c packed brown sugar

2 cups Sweet stuff ( Unsweetened Raw coconut, Ch. Chips, raisins, dried

cherries,dried papaya etc ) You can mix these to equal 2c total.

 

Bake at 325 until it puffs and turns golden. This should take around 20 minutes. Let them cool completely before cutting. Skipping this step will get you crumbly bars. Since flour varies in its humidity etc.... if you find that your bars are a little dry you can add a bit more butter and or honey the next time and find the recipe that works best for you.

[Ferdie]

I have three children in charter school that take lunch. The easiest way for me to pack their lunch is to use a formula: protein + grain + fruit + veggie + treat + drink. I use the same lunch bag and ice packs you are taking about. My kids also love to take a hot lunch in a thermos.

 

I prep everything the night before while making dinner. The only thing I prep on the weekend are hard boiled eggs, (I do a dozen at a time) and baking a treat, (cut and freeze). All the veggies, fruit and sandwich I prep the night before.

 

They have a lot of great lunch box suggestions here:

 

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/lunchboxfood2.htm

[LibraryLover]

I have lots of little containers, a small stainless thermos, and because I thought they were cute (certainly not necessary), these: http://ecolunchgear.com/ You can also make your own if you are crafty (which I am not).

 

My youngest ds goes to school and will not eat school lunch, so everyday he packs his lunch. Today was leftover veggie stew from dinner last night, a kiwi, baked pita chips, carrots sticks, and 2 chocolate chip cookies we made this past weekend (I hide a few in the freezer for him for the week). Sadly, he is not a sandwich eater, although recently he will put hummus in pita, which he didn't used to do, preferring to put the hummos in container and using it as a dip with vegetables.

 

I don't put warm things in pastic (phylates), which is why we have the stainless thermos (another investment, although it is holding up well).

[Hoggirl]

I have three children in charter school that take lunch. The easiest way for me to pack their lunch is to use a formula: protein + grain + fruit + veggie + treat + drink. I use the same lunch bag and ice packs you are taking about. My kids also love to take a hot lunch in a thermos.

 

I prep everything the night before while making dinner. The only thing I prep on the weekend are hard boiled eggs, (I do a dozen at a time) and baking a treat, (cut and freeze). All the veggies, fruit and sandwich I prep the night before.

 

They have a lot of great lunch box suggestions here:

 

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/lunchboxfood2.htm

 

Sadly, the link didn't work for me. :confused:

 

Thanks for the many great ideas. I am sure I am overthinking this. Like LibraryLover's ds, my ds is not keen on sandwiches. He will eat them, but they certainly aren't his favorite.

 

As of right now, there isn't a microwave available, though they are apparently talking about adding a couple so the student council can sell some hot lunch items. Not sure what will happen with that, so I am not going to rely on it. It's hard for me to get a sense of the capacity of our thermos. It doesn't look too terribly large. Of course, it will only hold one thing. I do fix lots of meals that produce leftovers.

 

I mostly want to make sure I am not in a time crunch in the a.m. We have always maintained good routines/schedules, but HAVING to be somewhere at a certain time (especially in the morning) has not occurred much in recent history except for church on Sundays.

 

Thanks, again. :)