If I am being honest I will tell you that I have a tough time with the whole packing a cold lunch with the kids. I always WANT to do the cold lunch because not only does it save money but it also is often times much healthier as well. I usually get excited, do cold lunches for about 2 weeks and then get lazy. If I haven’t prepared the night before its a mad rush in the morning and it so much easier to just say – “You’re getting hot lunch today!”
So this year I am making cold lunches a priority. I have a plan. Its kind of like freezer cooking but for cold lunches. Once a week I am planning on chopping and bagging up all the fresh fruit, vegetables, crackers and any other lunch item all at once. Then I will add them to a “lunch” bin. I have a cold lunch bin and a dry goods bin. The kids can quickly grab the items to throw in their lunches when they prepare.
The cold lunch bin fits perfectly in my fridge. Once a week I will separate grapes, chop oranges or apples (if I did apples I would use fruit fresh), chop carrot or celery sticks and even make up some sandwiches or other main dish items.
The dry good lunch bin will have the other item such as bagged pretzels, chips, sweet-treats and more.This will be in my pantry.
I plan on counting out the number of days for cold lunch that week times how many children. Here is my own personal math: 4 kids x 5 days = 20
20 bags of various chopped vegetables
20 bags of various chopped fruit
20 bags of chips/crackers
20 string cheese or even treats if I feel nice that week..hee hee.
20 Sandwiches, quesadillas, or other main dish options.
So I would make everything all in one day and get it all prepared. That’s my plan! I am really hoping that if I do this I will be able to save a lot of money on lunches.
Anyone else have any great strategies to keep those cold lunches going? Anyone want to join me on this goal?
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
I do this everyday and now I have 2 kids going to school all day. My problem is finding something new and exciting to put in there lunch. School is starting soon so I guess it is time to start think of new lunch ideas.
I have to do this too. I was among the “first wave” of people in our Country to lose their jobs almost 3 years ago and one of the first things we cut from the budget was HOT LUNCH. I started sending sack lunch with my son and “allowing” one hot lunch per week (he chose Pizza day) and we made due. We prepack lunches for the week and have enjoyed the time together doing it. This year he will be joining “middle school” and lunches are $2.65 each; and he usually only eats the main item…. SO NOT WORTH THE $. he will be pre choosing his lunch items this year and assembling himself. Thanks for sharing how you pre package! Love new ideas to make life easier.
Kari
Love these ideas! I am planning on making uncrustables (an idea from my friend Mandy). You use a pampered chef round ubcrustable maker, bread (the cheaper breads hold together best) and pb&j or pb&honey. Make a bunch bag them up and freeze! Kids can pull one out and stuff it in their lunch frozen! These are a perfect make ahead lunch idea! Also, for quick (but healthy and filling) breakfasts. On the weekends I cook a bunch of waffles (I have a waffle maker that makes 4 square eggo sized waffles). Freeze them and we pull them out and put them in the toaster during the week. It is better to undercook these a little as the toaster makes them crispier and you don’t want to eat hard wafflehere’re normally have cereal, but these fill my kids up more and they love a warm cooked breakfast!
Pancakes work well also. My kids like to have pancake sandwiches in the morning. Also, make a pb&j “hot dog” by simply putting the pb&j on a hot dog bun.
Try this for something new! Fun pasta noodles cooked up with Italian dressing on top, olives, cherry tomatoes(cut in half) and mozzarella cheese are fun to throw in too. At home we throw in cubed ham but I’m not comfortable sending meat in cold lunches. Kids love it and change it up based on the foods your child likes!
What a fantastic idea!!! We homeschool but I’m needing to make cold lunches for co-ops and field trips, this will save time and essentially money.
I make lunches the night before. I am NOT a morning person and the morning is already so rushed, I don’t want to make it cost me $2.50 for an elementary kid’s lunch. She does get to have a school lunch once a year. =)
I put everything in her lunchbag right into the fridge. Sandwich, water (in a cheap reusable bottle), cheese stick, crackers/pretzels, fruit cup (which i might have to make with a little reusable bowl and fruit cocktail this year with more than one kid in school for lunch), carrots or baby cucumber (Costco has these in a bag of 10-12 for $4 or so and my kids love them!), sometimes a hard boiled egg, and a treat if they’ve gone to bed good the night before.
This might sound like a lot, but whatever they don’t eat becomes their after school snack.
I think I’m liking your pre-made idea though…
I love this idea and I do something similar with the pantry items and fruits/veggies, but the one thing I haven’t figured out is how to make the main dish items stay fresh all week… My kids would not eat a peanut butter sandwich the next day and I can’t say that I blame them since I think that they’re kind of gross the next day too once everything has soaked into the bread. Is there some kind of trick to keeping these things fresh?
All you have to do to keep sandwich filling from soaking into the bread is spread a thin layer of peanut butter or mayo (depending on your fillings!) an both slices of bread. It provides a barrier that jelly or tuna can’t get through to “ick-tify” the sandwich. My kids think it’s a sign of how much I love them!
leave out the “wet” ingredients put them in little reusable containers like little ramikins. also i started making jello and putting in containers i get a weeks worth out of one box so essentially it costs me .50 for a weeks worth of jello or pudding and i finally found a use for those mini containers that came with the rubbermaid set lol
Smart idea!! Jello in advance! Love it
I was just reading another blog post and this person suggested making sandwiches ahead and freezing them. I wondered if this would work or if the sandwiches would be soggy? You couldn’t out lettuce in and maybe should leave out the condiments??? The suggestion was that you could include condiment packets. That seems wasteful. What does everyone think?? I have 5 kids who take lunches and was also searching for ways to make it easier as I am starting a part time job also.
Looking back the best cold lunch I had was the one my dad would make if he had time. Toast bread, add turkey, cheese, slice of tomatoes and lettuce. That was only a once a month item. It was up to us to pack our lunch since our parents worked really early. My lunch consisted of carrots, chips, a p&j sandwich because I was too lazy and I always ended up tossing everything away but the chips. Now as a mom, I really enjoy reading this post, I love the ideas! Thank you!
This is a recipe that I used for my daughters school lunchs, and I am pleased to say that my husband loved taking them to work with him as well. The recipe travels perfectly, we have used these for family picnics, baseball games, and just about any grab-n-go event we have to attend. Perfect little after school snack too! They are super hot out of the oven warm with a salad for a simple dinner, or just as yummy served room temp in a lunch box. The best part is they really taste like a cheeseburger with half the fat and calories. = o )
Cheeseburger mini muffins
1/2 pound ground beef ( ground turkey or chicken works well for this recipe as well )
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 1/2 Cups- All purpose flour
1 Tablespoon- sugar
2 teaspoons- baking powder
1 teaspoon- salt
3/4 Cup- Ketchup ( I have also used tomato sauce as a substitute )
3/4 Cup- Milk ( any variety you use, I normally use 1 or 2 percent )
1/2 Cup- butter or margarine, melted
2- Eggs
1 teaspoon- prepared mustard
2 Cups- shredded cheedar cheese
In a skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, cobine the ketchup, milk, butter, eggs, and mustard; stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the beef mixture and cheese. Fill greased miniature muffin cups three-fourths full.
Bake at 425 for 15 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Refrigerate leftovers.
Yield: 5 dozen
Note: Muffins may be baked in regular size muffin cups for 20 to 25 minutes, reciped makes 2 dozen.
I have also made these as ham and cheese mini muffins, using left over ham bits in place of the ground beef, swiss cheese in place of the shredded cheddar, and chopped green onions in place of the cooked onion.
I have also made these with half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. Made both ways, they taste great and are a fun alternative to sandwiches!
Wow – thank you so much for sharing your recipe! That seriously looks to die for good – going to try to make those for sure. Thanks!
Thank u so much this is the best reciepe if have found for lunches in a long time!! U are a life saver!
Suzanne I have made the “uncrustable” pb&j’s and frozen them – they are great! The kids grab and go (the boys usually 2 at a time) and I have even caught my hubby grabbing one. Anything that is pre-made at my house is a winner! Also someone had mentioned making pb&j on hot dog buns, good idea
we also make garlic bread out of our old hot dog and hamburger buns. My daughter loves it when I make turkey sandwiches on hamburger buns and sometimes I flip them over (to the flat cut sides), butter them and make anything grilled – grilled cheese with ham/turkey/bacon, using my bacon press to press them together while they are cooking. YUM 
To help not get soggy pb&j’s spread the peanut butter on each piece of the bread, making sure to cover all the bread, and then put the jelly in the middle. This “protects” the bread from soaking up the jam or jelly. Also we use whole grain wheat tortilla shells for sandwiches too. I have made Cesar Chicken Salad Wraps for the kids lunches the Sunday before and they never get soggy. I will make up a batch and my husband and I take them for lunches all week too, and they are healthy and taste great. Also, we have a recipe for Asian Chicken Salad that can be packaged in tubberware and taken in lunches too. There is nothing that gets soggy in it and it holds up well all week. Other than that I just pre-bag the side stuff and throw it all together the night before.
During the school year, every other Sunday I take time out to make two weeks worth of lunches. I have a pantry shelf designated for 10 lunch sacks (it use to be 15, now we are down to 10. Son went off to college!) The sacks are filled with items that do not need refrigerating (chips, cookies, juice box, etc). I then make 10 sandwiches (usually meat and cheese with mustard. Sometimes tortilla wraps to be different or PB & J) and freeze them all. Each morning, kids grab a filled bag out of the pantry and frozen sandwich and they are off. Come lunch time their sandwiches are perfectly thawed and I do not have the stress of making their lunch every day or arguing with them to make their own lunches. Makes us all happier in the morning!
No kids in our home, but hungry hubby and myself, think I will tackle the lunches so when I get up I am not in a hurry to get lunches for us both all hurried…Looks good to me, you are wonderful, love your blog, how you manage to do this blog, feed your hubby and your kids, do lunches, clean etc. is beyond me I only had one child she was a very picky eater, had to bag stuff not usually found in a normal grocery store, lots of picky stuff, she is fine, tall, beautiful and healthy at 34, she is a great cook and knows her preferences well..happy first days of school our local school district starts 8/31/11!
Awesome idea! I do have a question – when you make the 20 sandwiches, do they get soggy or “old-tasting” after several days? What kind of sandwiches do you make?
Hi Rebecca, I hadn’t thought through the whole sandwich thing too much, but I have read that you can freeze sandwiches all ready made up – as long as you add peanut butter to both sides of bread and jelly/honey in the middle – then it wont get soggy. Same thing goes for meat n cheese – add condiments to the middle or not at all. No lettuce either in the freezer. Often times also for the main dish I will do leftovers from dinner too so that might be what I do there. Or I like the idea of lunch muffins like in the recipes shared..I can freeze them too I bet.
Oh Yay! This idea is fabulous on so many levels. I’m an elementary teacher with a special needs daughter who is a freshman. Getting out the door in the morning is “eating our lunch”! To top it off, I’m having surgery in a week and she will have to assemble her lunch each day on her own. She already does it but this will leave out any guess work for her on appropriate amounts and on which items she can include. I love the cheeseburger recipe and will add those to our choices. I already do the same thing with meatloaf in muffin tins.
A friend of mine gave me this recipe for frozen fruit cups great addition for a quick breakfast or lunch.
11 0z can mandarin oranges – drained
1 cup diced peaches
1 cup crushed pineapple – drained
1 cup fruit juice from drained fruit
30 oz fresh or frozen sliced strawberries – drained
6oz frozen orange juice concentrate
2 TBSP lemon juice
2 Banannas diced
Thaw OJ concentrate. MIx all ingredients. Freeze in little cups with lids. She buys the little disposable cups from URM however he has used tupperware as well.
Change the fruit depending on what is in season. My sister is doing melon balls for her kiddos.
Love that, looks really yummy! Thanks for sharing.
Girl, might I venture to say: YOU HAVE SAVED MY life – AND my sanity! Lordy – how many times does it chaotic in my house when I roll over and say, OKAY – TODAY you both are getting HOT LUNCH! Have you been a’lookin in my window! Your idea is THE best! Mama’s active (for survival purposes of course!) lol Thank. You!
I did that for my own kids about a million years ago….I had a problem with them eating up all the lunch stuff before I could make the lunches! Another thing I did was make up a whole loaf of bread into french toast, freeze on cookie sheets, then bag up in the bread bag in the freezer. My son who loved french toast every day, would grab two slices, put them in the toaster and he’s have hot breakfast really quick! He was always hard to wake up and this way he could still have a nice hot breakfast.
So, I just ran across this and to add another quickie version of a PB sandwich….is to slather PB on each slice of bread and then one of the slices sprinkle mini chocolate chips. Both of my girls LOVE LOVE these sandwiches.
Try putting raw noodles through cut up hot dogs and then cook in water its fun to eat
We do something similar but I freeze the sandwiches. We use the deli slices (round bread) which works perfectly for round sandwich meat and cheese. I have one kid who likes butter on her sandwich and one who likes mayo. Both freeze well. I make them all well in advance and we just pull a sandwich out of the freezer in the morning. It’s thawed by lunch time and never soggy.
Another good idea i do for my kids lunches is use a flatbread or tortilla couldnwork too spread it with creamcheese and cucumbers and roll into a wrap… kids love it!
Love these ideas! We too freeze sandwiches, pb&j and turkey/cheese/butter. I slice diagonally and some days my kids like to grab two different triangles for different “flavors” that day. I also make mini lasagnas in the mini muffin pan with wonton wrappers as the noodles, these keep well, freeze well, and are crowd pleasers. Try pizza pinwheels too, premade dough or bread (we use philsbury pizza dough, but I’ve heard of cresent rolls being used too), sauce, favorite toppings, cheese. Roll into a tube, cut slices, and bake. Super easy, and these store and freeze well. I’ll definitely be trying the cheeseburger muffins too, thanks so much!
How do you keep the sandwiches from getting soggy?
I don’t add mustard or mayo on them, just meat, cheese and bread. But I have heard if you add the mustard/mayo between the cheese and the meat it will not get soggy either. Mine don’t get soggy.
Just found this blog today! I think it’s amazing! One of the biggest problems with me is when the kids come home and tell me they need more lunch money by tomorrow! With your tips I will know that they have a lunch everyday and that I made it! With a new shopping list frozen meals and coupon matching I feel more organized. God Bless You and Thank You!
Love these ideas! I definitely need to get better at organizing instead of rushing to get a lunch packed the night before! My son’s school does not offer a hot lunch so that’s never an option! I also roll a hot dog in a crescent roll and bake them, and send them in his lunchbox with a small container of ketchup or honey mustard! He loves them!