If you get to Wednesday and get stressed out at the thought of packing three more days worth of lunches, this blog is for you.
If you cannot seem to pack a lunch that your kids actually enjoy with their selective favourites and picky eating habits, this blog is for you.
If you just want some new and innovative ideas for packing lunches, this blog is for you.
Meet Claire Tibbles-Snider. You may remember her from this interview I did with her about feeding her family of six By Design. She is an expert on packing school lunches, having a plan going into the week and remaining organized in the kitchen.
Claire packs six lunches, two days at a time, even for the kids that are not in school yet. Claire and her husband work, her two oldest girls are in school, her youngest daughter is in daycare, and her son stays with her parents while she works in the morning.
So, everyone in her family eats the same thing on Monday and Tuesday, as well as on Wednesday and Thursday.
She gets a big lunch packing station going in the kitchen on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evening and fills everyone’s lunch kit. Everyone’s lunch kit is divided into three sections and is colour coded, so there is no room for mix ups.
In the morning she takes the lunch kits from the fridge, adds anything that needs to be fresh (apple slices, salad dressing, cheese, heated soup or stew) and pops the lunch kits into everyone’s lunch bag.
When I asked Claire what her best lunch packing strategy was she said it was creating a list of the girl’s favourite foods with them. They keep this master list inside the pantry of each of their favourite vegetables, fruits, fats and proteins. If the girls ever come home from school and say “Mom, I don’t like tuna” she opens the pantry, they look at the list together, and she asks if tuna needs to be taken off the list then.
The list changes often. But Claire has found this to be the best strategy for keeping tabs on her girls’ changing taste buds and preferences.
Favourite lunches are smoked salmon, tuna wrapped in lettuce leaves or sausages. There are always a ton of veggies packed for lunch because the kids are so hungry while they are at school, they will eat anything I pack for them. Snacks are often full fat yogurt with berries, apples and cheese, plantain chips and every once in a while a homemade grain-free cookie.
The nut-free guidelines have not been a challenge because they do not do much grain-free baking anyways.
As you probably know, lunch programs are becoming more and more common. If you find that sub day or hotdog day are a source of tension or anxiety, try this strategy.
On pizza day Claire makes the girls a customized pizza with a grain-free crust and their favourite toppings. The girls are excited because:
- They get to eat pizza with their absolute favourite toppings (one does not like sauce which would be almost impossible to order from a pizza store).
- They get to eat food that they know is good for them, and makes them strong, smart and healthy.
As for challenges…
Developing a routine that worked, and worked well for Claire and her family took time.
Before she started colour coding lunch kits, people sometimes got the wrong lunches.
Before she starting packing two days worth of lunches at once, she was setting up her station and cleaning up five nights a week which was getting tiring.
But as her strategies were refined and she came up with new ideas for sticking to her plan and remaining organized, things got easier and easier and easier. Packing lunches has been a work in progress and is always evolving.
I asked Claire what she would say to Moms that are either new at this or finding it challenging to get into a good By Design lunch packing routine.
“Create a list of your children’s favourite foods with them and guide them to choose healthier foods. Teach them that when they eat healthy food, they feel better and they work better.”
I hope you found Claire’s suggestions and insights helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below and I will respond to you personally.
And if you are still looking for lunch box help...
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