Hellobee Boards

These days we only have to pack lunch and 2 snacks, but when LO was 1-3 we packed breakfast, lunch, snack, water, and milk each day for daycare.

DH has always been in charge of breakfast and still is. He used to make breakfast and pack it early morning. Now he makes breakfast and feeds the girls early morning.

I got into a routine early on of packing lunch for the next day while I plate dinner. I always use some combination of leftovers for lunches. So if I'm making salmon, broccoli, and potatoes for dinner, when I make the girls' plates I go ahead and put the same thing in their lunch containers for the next day. Sometimes I switch out something for another leftover to get ride of it (ex: salmon, broccoli, and leftover rice). By the time I serve the kids dinner, their lunch is also packed and it only takes a few seconds, is "real" food, and healthy. Snacks, I just throw in a ziplock of fruit or a processed grain--cereal bar or crackers or something.

eta: I have always packed the same foods for LO1 and 2. When LO2 was younger, I just made hers into smaller bits.

So the freezer is really what saves my butt during the week. I don't completely stay away from packaged food, but things have to give here and there. I try to make things that can be made in batches and frozen so that I can start working on a stash of multiple things and then that allows me to have variety. Generally, I make double of something and freeze half for later.

The packaged foods we DO use are Aidell's organic chicken meatballs, some chicken nuggets, chicken sausage, turkey breakfast sausage, and some frozen waffles.

For pasta, you can boil a pound of pasta on Sunday (choosing smaller shapes for babies and toddlers like mini shells, mini wagon wheels, or macaroni), rinse in cold water, drain well, then toss in olive oil. That keeps in a gallon ziploc bag and you can use that for pasta with red sauce and quick mac n cheese during the week (I would probably just eat it for dinner with ground meat and veg in the sauce and then pack up the leftovers in a thermos).

I make these egg and rice patties for DS right now that he eats well. Basically, I mix leftover rice, some chopped up leftover meat from the week and some kind of veg (leftover veggies or frozen mixed veggies) and mix with beaten egg and shredded cheese. Then I pan fry them in silver dollar pancake size until golden. These freeze beautifully so I make them in different flavors and combinations using egg and cheese as the binder - that way its different proteins and veggies and flavors, but essentially an all-in-one meal. We always have rice at home or a meal with rice in it during the week, so its not hard. Taco leftovers, Asian leftovers, Indian leftovers - it all works. I haven't tried it with quinoa, but I bet it would work too. I just pack it with some ketchup for dipping.

We make this banana bread:

http://www.food.com/recipe/best-banana-bread-2886

This stirs up in one bowl and its delicious - SUPER moist and slices beautifully (or little cubes for baby) - its perfect for little kids. I double the recipe and then use those 3-packs of aluminum loaf pans. They freeze perfectly. I've made it with browned butter (our favorite!) and coconut oil and both are delicious. We usually add cinnamon to the batter and leave it plain, but you can easily add in junk if you like.

I would invest in one of those electric griddles - those big ones are only like $25 bucks - and you can just assembly line silver dollar pancakes like a beast and freeze them. I do that for pancakes for the family and freeze them. I can use one master batter and then sprinkle different things on top of the batter for different flavors. Usually I do plain, mini chocolate chip, and then raisins with a sprinkle of cinnamon and then flip.

We always keep super easy fruits and veggies in the house. Berries obviously, clementines peel fast, and I usually throw in baby carrots or Persian cucumber sticks into DS1's lunchbox and call it a day.

DS1 is slow on the uptake for sandwiches, but you can make a huge batch of PBJs and freeze them. http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/05/4-weeks-to-fill-your-freezer-peanut-butter-jelly-sandwiches-day-6.html

I make 1-2 big omelets during the week with chopped/shredded veggies beaten into the eggs. Then I just cut them into pieces and pack them for lunch. You can just add a carb on the side.

I also plan on 2 dinners a week that are conducive to leftovers. So pasta with meat and veg is an obvious one. If we do taco night, then I can send a thermos with Spanish rice mixed with beans, corn, and some leftover taco meat with a few chips on the side. Pizza night another good one - I just cut up the pizza into crustless bites. Tuna noodle casserole with peas, mac n cheese with spinach and tiny bay shrimp, jambalaya with smoked sausage - all of these are nice one pot meals that go well to school in a thermos. I am a fan of all-in-one type meals because I don't have to worry about veggies separately.

Friday is chicken nugget day - Mom needs a break. DS gets a few nuggets, I throw in some baby carrots, peel a clementine, and a few crackers or pretzels.

I have a baby that's starting to self-feed, so I rely a lot of frozen veggies. Peas and carrots, corn, peas, mixed vegetables, and broccoli florets - all in nice little bite size pieces. Bite size bits of omelet, those egg patties, small pasta shapes, smaller slices of the chicken sausage or meatballs from the family pasta meal, etc. Add some rinsed canned beans, Cheerios, raisins - you're good.

For baby, I usually pack:
Fruit: blueberries, grapes, clementines, bananas, or fruit cups... nothing that has to be cut AND cored.
Veggie: Frozen mixed veggies or veggie pasta with veggie sauce
Grains: a piece of toast with cheese, butter, or peanut butter (nut free daycare?), puffs, Chex, Cheerios, other dry cereals, pasta
Protein: Cheese sticks (not the peelable kind.... our grocery store has cheddar sticks and colby jack), bamba, yogurt cups

I also really like the Mighty 4 pouches because they have everything. Gerber graduates also has some good veggie-only pouches.

Yup.

We do breakfast at home and the kids aren't picky about that so much, but my daughter does lunch at school and we do hot lunch about half the time and home lunch about half, plus I feed my son at home. Then there's dinner. Between budget (we're trying to buy a house soon, need to walk the straight and narrow!) and my not so great cooking skills and my picky kids (especially my four year old) I feel defeated when it comes to food. I wish I had advice but I don't. Just getting by. So just commiseration here!

@travellingbee: we mainly send leftovers - prepping separate meals just for school would drive me bonkers!

Chiming in late on this...

My husband and I both buy lunch at work, so that cuts down on the workload.

I have to pack one snack plus lunch for daycare. Snack is always hummus and crackers plus one extra. Lunch is usually either dinner leftovers or cubed turkey and cheese plus two extras. An extra is typically one of: Cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks, carrot sticks, berries, or an apple. Occasionally I will throw in yogurt instead.

My son drinks a ton of milk, so while this lunch/snack formula is low on dairy I am not concerned about that.

He is also a great eater so I'm not worried about the lack of variability.

We grocery shop once per week to restock everything. We buy nitrate-free roasted turkey breast from Costco and keep single-portion pieces individually wrapped in our freezer. So, on days that I can't find leftovers I just defrost one of those and slice it up in the morning. It'a basically my backup plan.

If daycare didn't heat up food then I would not be able to rely on leftovers so much.

Lunch for DD is leftovers from dinner before 95% of the time. When I am prepping her plate for dinner I also pack her lunch.

Second (and third...) PPs saying that everyone has to eat the same thing. DD gets the same meal as me and DH with possibly one swap as long as it takes me no extra time whatsoever to do it (ex: I eat avocado toast for breakfast and she has PB/ she doesn't like cooked carrots or peppers so she gets those raw on the side if I make a dish that has those things).

Breakfast around here is carb/ protein/ fruit in some sort of easy combo- bagel/ microwave turkey sausage/ melon and berries or toast/ peanut butter banana

Lunches are leftovers or sandwiches- always served with veggies and fruit. I buy veggie trays with prerinsed, precut veggies so I just have to throw it on the tray. I cut all my fruit the day I do my once-weekly grocery shop but you could also just buy precut fruit.

Snacks are usually healthy-ish packaged stuff- applesauce pouches, whole grain cereal bars, KIND bars, pistachios, little boxes of raisins, individual cups of guac or hummus with something to dip, and of course the occasional cup of goldfish-type cracker or grahams. Sometimes clementines or apples.

I feel like I spend literally my entire day making food, cleaning up food, or sitting with my kid while she eats.