Another new organizational, Mom thing I’m getting into – meal planning! Instead of just ordering pizza when I get hungry, I’m going to start actually planning out my meals for the month, have the ingredients on hand, etc. The more I research this (Pinterest, A.K.A The SAHM Manual) I realize how involved this can really be. So to start it off, I’m planning Lucas’s lunches for the week.
I prefer to pack his lunch than have him buy. Mostly because it is $10/week for school lunch (although I haven’t done the math to see how much my at home lunches cost, the general idea is that it is usually cheaper to make than to buy – that is for advanced meal planners and I’m a beginner). I also like that I can see what he eats for lunch because I can check the food containers.
I started off pretty much alternating peanut butter sandwiches with spinach salad, but I know that will get old fast. So I spent hours browsing lunch ideas on Pinterest (this one was a big help 40 Weeks of Nut-Free Lunches), made a long ass list of ideas to draw from, and created a .pdf page to laminate for my Home Planner to plan out the week’s meals.
Here is the printable I made. I kept the design simple because once you write in all the food items, you don’t want there to be too much to look at on the page. Lunchbox Planner
And here is my first lunch for Monday morning:
apple, baby carrots w/ light ranch, rice cakes (not pictured), hard boiled eggs* on fresh baby spinach, string cheese, and a good2grow with Spiderman top.
*the eggs…”how to boil an egg”…yes, I had to Google that tonight, because I didn’t know how to make them. Squeee, I totally got it right. They weren’t neon yellow like they appear in this picture. I also learned how to easily remove the shell with a spoon.
Update:
Per Lauren’s request, week 1 of planned lunches:
Mon- see first post
Tues- awesome ham rollups, carrots & ranch (that he didn’t eat the prev day), pineapple, cheese stick, water bottle
Weds- school lunch
Thurs- loaded grilled cheese sandwich (grilled cheese with ham, spinach, and avocado), lima beans- very well cooked 😉 , strawberries and blueberries, water bottle
Fri- fried chicken salad in a pita pocket (fried chicken nuggets leftover from CFA, baby spinach, diced cucumbers, diced tomatoes, HM dressing), apple, cucumber slices, fruit cup (from CFA), good2grow, school ice cream day
ally-cat 