Here it is. My OC, AR solution to taking the headache out of packing school lunches and deciding what is for breakfast during weekdays.
I am NOT a morning person. And I can’t be depended on to prep everything for the next day, the night before. I’ve tried. Just can’t. Too much to do and by the time dinner has been cleared and cleaned, I don’t have it in me to make meals for the next day.
I have also had it with packing what I thought were perfectly wonderful lunches for the kids only to get everything back after school with 1/12 of it eaten. How do these kids survive all day? (Asked the mother who seems to be constantly eating).
I have also had it with the whining.What? We are having this and that and this and that for breakfast/lunch?
SO.
I have worked with the kids to come up with a two week rotation of weekday breakfasts and packed lunches. All of them kid-approved combinations. No excuses for missed consumption. All simple and realistic.
10-14 breakfast options. 10-14 lunch options. In a chart, on a bulletin board, in the kitchen. They are on stickies. Every Sunday, I mix and match for the week.
Basic components: protein, whole grain, veg, fruit. That’s it.
BUT.
I’m not completely without any sense of adventure, ok? There are a couple of WILD CARDS. For those days that just deserve surprises (or when you REALLY cannot get your act together and dig deep in the recesses of the freezer for something. Just something that can be lunch.)
This chart kind of gets chucked during the summer and school breaks. But it definitely gets invoked as soon as school starts.
Mornings are much smoother. Everyone eats. Everyone is happy.