This week is a different spin on meal prep giving you examples of prepping healthy lunches to pack for school (that are great for adults to pack for lunch too!) and breakfasts that are grab and go! I did include some recipes this week but a lot of what I am sharing are ideas and concepts.
It is all too easy with so many prepackaged foods to throw in for lunch for your kids to fall in to buying all those chips, fruit snacks, crackers, lunchables, cookies, go-gurt etc etc etc. I have been there done that and still have some in our cupboards that the kids take too. It gets overwhelmming of what to pack and for weeks on end it is PB&J, and pick three packaged things, and feel good if I threw in an apple.
Just like meal prep for a healthy lifestyle for you, healthy lunches takes a decision and planning & is much easier to do in advance so healthy options are grab and go as well. These plans are all easy finger food that require no reheating and are great for eating at school or in the car on the way to school for breakfast or on the way to practice.
The method: I use the same meal prep containers, you can see in the pic I have a couple sets of divided containers I got a few years ago in my first effort to pack healthy lunches. I will post the link for these..I love them because they are colapsable when done. I also love paper cupcake holders to hold and divide veggies, fruit etc. Some things need done in the morning (cut up apples, oranges, make a sandwich) if so I put a post it note on the lunch & note on counter the night before so it is planned ahead.
Lunch Ideas shown:
Box 1) Ham and Cheese Kabobs, Carrots with homemade ranch, apple slices
Box 2) Bean Quesadillas (Recipe Below) I also love to add in fresh guac, blue chips and pico
Box 3) Turkey, Cheese & Arugula Sandwich on Gluten free or Sprouted Bread, orange, snap peas and hummus (recipe below)
Breakfast boxes:
Protein Balls, Banana Bread, grapes (recipe below)
Crepes (recipe below) rolled with almond butter and strawberries
There are less pictures in the photo this week….my kids were on break from school kept eating the boxes before I took a picture..teenagers!!! Happy Prep!
You will find the following recipes below Protein Balls, Banana Bread, Crepes, Lemon Garlic Hummus, Black Bean Quesadilla Boxes