school lunches, the easy way

Hi!! My name is Jennifer and I used to be a school lunch over-achiever. Red day? How about only red things in your lunch! D day? Only things that start with the letter D. Pencils for the first day of school and cats for C day.

Now, hear me out. If you’re the queen of packing cute lunches for your kiddo’s, I love you. Seriously, I do. But, I got tired of it and I wanted a quick and easy way to include healthy things in lunches.

So I bought a couple of Yum Boxes. This isn’t sponsored at all, I bought them from Amazon after a friend recommended them. Don’t freak out when you see the price, I let them sit in my Amazon cart for 3 weeks trying to decide it they were worth and let me just save you the overthinking. They absolutely are.

And I have a completely new and improved method and I promise, if you follow these easy steps you’ll be packing lunches in seconds and they’ll be healthy!

So here’s what I do. On Sunday, I let BK pick a couple of veggies, fruits, grains and proteins (keep reading I have a ton of options). I wash, dry, cut or prep all of the items and store them in individual containers in the fridge. I even dedicated a drawer to school lunches, so I can just pull the containers out and put them back in the same place.

This is where the Yum Boxes  come in handy. The boxes are compartmentalized, I bought the option with the most compartments because BK loves variety. So I just take the containers out, fill the compartments and lunch is ready! Everything goes right back in it’s place, no cutting or washing fruits, a little prep time makes everything easier. But you can choose different inserts.

And don’t even worry about getting stuck in a rut! I’ve compiled a ton of options for you! We don’t do a ton of dairy, so I do two compartments for vegetables or fruits, but you’ll see that I included some great dairy options below. You can put yogurt right in the container, they’re completely leak free.

Here are some great options, there are obviously so many more, but these are favorites at our house:

Protein

• Deli Meat
• Pulled Rotisserie Chicken
• Sausages (my kids love Aidell’s Chicken and Apple Sausage)
• Hot Dogs
• Hard Boiled Eggs

Vegetable

• Carrots (sticks, chips, or mini carrots are all great)
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Bell Pepper Strips
• Snap Peas
• Edamame (shelled)
• Grape Tomatoes
• Celery Sticks
• Cucumber Slices

Fruits

• Grapes
• Strawberries
• Cantaloupe
• Watermelon
• Apple Slices
• Pineapple
• Mango
• Berries

Grains

• Brown Rice
• White Rice
• Whole Wheat Pasta
• Quinoa
• Whole Wheat Crackers
• Pretzels

Dairy

• Babybel Cheeses
• Cheese Sticks
• Slices of hard cheeses
• Milk
• Yogurt

The Yum Box we have also has a small section for a special snack, last week it was marshmallows, but you can put anything fun in that compartment.

If you’re look for anything I used in this post, here they are:

Yum Boxes / Yum Box Inserts / Plastic Storage Containers