Lunch Box Organization

[monkeywrangler71]

I hate packing lunches, it is my absolute most despised chore. Starting next month I will have to pack 4 a day, only one can reheat leftovers.

I'm thinking of setting up a sort of lunch packing station. A hidden place stocked with individual portions of snacks and lunch stuff that I can just grab and pack. Sort of like an assembly line. Then maybe have fruit and veggies for the week already cut and portioned out in containers in the fridge. I'm even thinking of getting some covered bowls and dishing out the breakfast cereal for the week. My kids are going to be getting the bus at 7:30, so mornings are going to be really hectic.

Does anyone do this? Any other ideas for making lunch packing easier?

[Neeley]

That is pretty much what I do. I have a counter off to the side with a basket where I keep the bananas, chips and any other lunch item not requiring refrigeration.

On Sundays I
*wash 16 lbs of grapes, divide into 10 baggies
*cut up 3 lbs of cheese, divide into 10 baggies
*separate the bananas from each other (slows down the browning process)
*make 10 baggies of Veggie Straw chips
*baggie up 10 servings of baby dills

I think portioning out cereal is a good idea. Mine eat bacon and eggs everyday so I have mastered the art of scrambling eggs, cooking bacon and making sandwiches all at once. ;o).

Each night I add two Powerade Zeros and four bottles of water to the freezer for their lunches the next day.

DS buys a few days a week. But since he is at school until after 6:30 each night due to football, I send him two Powerades, two waters, a baggie of grapes, cheese and pickles everyday.

Both kids are out the door by 7:00 and if I didn't do some things ahead of time, I would have to get up before 5:00 just to have everyone out the door on time.

[Contrary Housewife]

I do this for DH, but he packs his own. I use a mix of premade and self packed stuff, and I don't portion everything out at once. He has a box of 100-calorie snacks, applesauce cups, pickle cups, some soyjoy bars and walnuts that I portioned out, ready to go. During the week, as the need arises I will make cheese cubes, small salads + dressing in cups, grapes, carrot sticks, etc to add to that and he picks what he wants for the day.

[ms.mel.who]

I pack the night before. The kids have never complained. Actually one of us does bedtime the other lunches, and we switch off.

Bus comes at 7:04, ughh.

[missyali]

I pack as much as I can for the kids lunches as well as my "salad bar" for the week on Sunday afternoon. I have baskets in the basement fridge and a list on the door so whoever is packing the lunchbox the night before knows what is planned for each day. I do a sandwich on Monday only as the kids don't like bread that had been refrigerated long.

[McD]

Generally, I just take leftovers for my lunch. As I clean up from dinner, I portion my leftovers out into a pyrex or corningware bowl (so not a fan of tupperware style containers).

My kids aren't of an age to where I pack lunch for them yet. I do make lunches for hubby to take in case he can't come off patrol for dinner. I usually make a sandwich and bag up some chips, homemade trail mix, or cayenne pretzels. We're very limited on what we can send him with lunch due to the fact that it has to stay cool via icepack and be easy to consume while driving and not messy. I send him the little powder packets of G20 or Propel to flavor his water.

I am loving these suggestions though. I didn't realize pulling bananas apart will slow the ripening process. Good tip!

[mndtrp]

No kids, but I do this for myself and my wife. Each week, I'll buy, clean and portion out fruits and vegetables. After each dinner, one of us will portion out the leftovers into individual containers. On the odd chance we have chips or crackers, those will go into individual containers, as well.