Back-to-School Weekly Meal Planner
Can you believe it? After five and a half months, the kids are back to school! Fingers crossed all stay healthy and the schools stay open.
One of the things on my to-do list last week was updating the kids’ lunchbox situations. I’ve had reusable containers for awhile but I kept seeing these bento boxes and kinda had to have them. At first I ordered the smaller size box but the compartments weren’t big enough, so I swapped them out for the “Tapas” size. The clear divider section comes out for easy cleaning as well. Naturally, I headed over to Pinterest to do some bento box lunch planning. I got a little inspired by seeing so many options! To keep things simple, in the past I typically stuck to these lunch packing guidelines and I’ll continue to do so for this year too.
Protein / Cheese
Fruit
Veggie
Something crunchy
Something sweet
I pick two options of each for the week and make up different combinations to mix it up. Because of Amelia’s Type 1 Diabetes I also have to count carbs, so I try to stick between 30-40 grams of carbs at lunch. For example, here’s a week of lunches:
Monday: Turkey, provolone, mayo & lettuce pinwheels (no wrap, just those ingredients), berries, carrot slices, pretzels, yogurt raisins.
Tuesday: Ham & cheese square skewers, watermelon, pickles, cheez-its, M&M’s.
Wednesday: 1/2 turkey sandwich, berries, pickles, pretzels, oreo thins.
Thursday: Ham & cheese pinwheels, watermelon, carrots, cheez-its, yogurt raisins.
Friday: 1/2 ham sandwich, berries, pickles, cheez-its, M&M’s.
I find that if I try to have TOO much variety per week, I don’t use everything up and stuff goes bad. This system seems to work and I never get complaints!
I also grabbed new lunchboxes for the girls at Target. They are perfect size for the bento boxes. They are also like a giant gel ice pack, so you put the entire lunchbox in the freezer and it helps keep the contents cool all day long! I got them the same design because #1, it’s all they had and #2, it’s just easier that way haha.
In the midst of all this planning I whipped up a Weekly Meal Planner graphic to try to stay organized! I tried looking for one online but I didn’t need the extra note sections or snack sections and I just like things that are clean and simple! If you’d like to download it, click below! What other types of printables would you guys be interested in?
And just because back-to-school pics make me smile so much, I’ll share some of ours with you! :)
