Read Kate Gosselin's Love Is in the Mix Online
Authors: Kate Gosselin
Kate Gosselin's Love Is in the Mix (20 page)
I have eight school lunches to pack daily. That’s forty lunches per week and over 1,400 school lunches per school year! Because of that astounding number, I had to figure out early on how to pack healthy, affordable lunches in a quick, organized manner. The following is a list of tricks and tips that I have discovered along the way:
Package Your Own Snacks.
Because buying individual serving-sized bags of school snacks is very expensive, I developed my own way of having perfect-sized servings at my fingertips to help make lunch packing fast and easy. I buy the large family-size bags of crunchy snacks (chips, pretzels, etc.) and individually package servings into snack bags. You get the same snacks, but they cost less money.
Use Disposable Containers.
Over time, because I have been packing so many school lunches for so long, I have discovered that using disposable restaurant-type take-out containers for fruit servings, nuts, salad dressing, and hummus saves time and money. Bought in large quantities, these containers are rather inexpensive, and for me, vastly useful. By using disposable packaging, I can make more creative lunches and decrease the amount of time I am running my dishwashers each day. And I have done the math and discovered that my homemade school lunches are still less expensive than school-bought lunches, even taking into consideration the fact that I use extra packing supplies.
Label for Easy Packing.
I typically keep enough prepackaged snacks on hand for a week of school lunches—which for us is forty—and store them in a basket in my “school lunch cabinet,” marked “crunchies.” I also have a basket for school snacks (for snack time during school) and bus snacks (snacks for the long bus ride to and from school). Prepacking saves time and money, and it also makes it easier for the kids to help me pack lunches, which helps me even more!
Buy Multiserve Items Instead of Single Serve.
It’s always easiest to grab six-packs of my kids’ favorite yogurts, but unless I can find them at my local discount grocery stores, I usually buy the 32-ounce family-size tubs of yogurt. Then I repackage the yogurt into smaller portions for school lunches. I save almost 50 percent on each yogurt serving! This same principle applies for most everything you can buy in single-serve and family size.
Pack Dinner Leftovers When Appropriate.
Some schools have microwaves available for students to heat items. If at all possible, take advantage of it if your school offers this benefit. Packing dinner leftovers not only saves time (pack leftovers as you are cleaning up after dinner) but also saves money and waste. I highly recommend this!
Stock Up When Items Are on Sale.
This advice applies across the board, of course, but if favorite school-lunch items that have a long shelf life are on sale, buy extra! In the end, you will win all the way around.
Package Your Own Drinks.
I typically buy juice boxes for my kids’ school lunches, but if I can’t find them at bottom-dollar prices, I will pack a no-leak water bottle containing (diluted) juice in their lunch boxes. Juice boxes can get expensive fast, so I always try to think outside the box, literally!
Shop at Local Discount Grocery Stores.
If you don’t know where the discount supermarkets are in your area, start looking around. The stock in these types of grocery stores varies, so if you are serious about saving money on groceries, it will take time, commitment, and determination to find the stores that suit your needs. I typically stop into my favorites at least twice each week.
Bake Your Own Desserts, Prepackage, and Freeze.
This is one of my best-kept money-saving secrets where school lunches are concerned. I plan a “baking” day about three to four times a year and bake a variety of cookies, brownies, cookie bars, and fudge. I package them in snack bags, making them easy to freeze and grab. To make it even easier, I package forty desserts, enough for one week, into freezable containers, and label with the contents before freezing.
Make Lists of Your Kids’ Lunch Preferences.
Each of my kids have their likes and dislikes, and, although I don’t tolerate pickiness, I do like to know their preferences. I have a laminated list hanging inside my kitchen cabinet that I refer to so that I am able to pack school lunches ahead, and get it right every time!
Nutrition is clearly very important to me, especially when it comes to my kids’ school lunches, because what I pack in their lunches is literally the fuel that powers their learning brains during each school day. I take that very seriously, and so I developed school-lunch guidelines that I follow each day, which cover all of the food groups. Within each lunch, I include:
A Main Course.
Some examples include a sandwich, peanut butter crackers, meat/cheese and crackers, salsa and chips, egg salad, chicken salad in a dish or on a sandwich, a salad, or reheatable leftovers from dinner the night before.
A Fruit.
Apple slices, fruit salad in a dish, half of a kiwi in a container (pack a spoon!), orange slices … and the list goes on! Occasionally I make single servings of gelatin and add fruit. That counts, too.
A Veggie.
Peanut butter celery, cucumber spears with a container of hummus, carrots and ranch dressing, for example.
A “Crunchy.”
I prepackage all bags of chips, pretzels, or cheese curls ahead of time into snack bags and make sure to include one serving in each lunch daily.
A Dairy.
Yogurt (packaged into single servings from a large multiserve container), cheese cubes, or pudding.
A Dessert.
I bake desserts in large quantities and prepackage and freeze them so they are ready to grab and pack without fuss. Typically, I make different kinds of cookies, fudge, or brownies to give my kids a good variety and keep dessert exciting.
A Drink.
I typically pack juice boxes, but if I can’t find them on sale, I will use leak-free juice containers and will fill them from a larger and more cost-effective bottle of juice.
A Snack.
Because my kids have always had snack time in elementary school, and they eat while working, I always include a granola bar or other healthy choice that’s easy to grab and won’t make a mess in the classroom.
An “Extra.”
My kids have big appetites, and some days they are hungrier than others. So I have always added an extra snack as a backup just in case the “hungries” strike. I include a little container of almonds or sunflower seeds, or all natural fruit snacks or fruit leather with their lunch. If it’s not eaten, I leave it in their lunch for the next day.
The Love.
Don’t forget that added touch! I remember the excitement I felt when I received notes from my mom in my lunch when I was a kid. When time allows, I try to include a little note packed with love and encouragement for my kids. If you have a picky eater or one who needs encouragement to finish their lunch, you can include a small surprise in their lunch as a reward for finishing yesterday’s lunch. I use small animal figures from a craft store (a different one every day) and little heart-shaped tokens I found at a card store. It works wonders for those kids who are too busy or too distracted to finish their lunch.
Make individual servings of pudding and sprinkle some peanut butter chips on top; cut sandwiches into heart, animal, or star shapes; make meat and cheese roll-ups using whole wheat flour tortillas.
When kids are sick, I quickly switch over to my “sick kid diet.” There is nothing worse than colorful foods revisiting … the carpet! I have always marveled at how it seems that the flu bug always hits after we have had lasagna or chili for dinner … but it always seems to.
Regardless, as soon as someone’s stomach isn’t feeling well, I developed my own diet to help them feel better while decreasing vomiting disasters.
This sick kid diet includes sticking to the top two foods, giving only small sips and only a few goldfish at a time, increasing each as tolerated.
- Goldfish (original) or any plain crackers or Saltines
- Gatorade (clear flavors), diluted with water 1:1
- Eventually, the following:
- Dry cereal (Cheerios)
- Bananas
- Applesauce
- Rice and plain chicken
Working through a sickness can take a few days. Don’t rush this process.
When my kids are sick, I am often heard reviewing who is still on the “sick kid” diet and who can eat regular foods. Sometimes I have to keep a list so I can keep it straight. My nursing background comes in super handy during times of illness. This is not medical advice. It’s just me—a fellow mom—sharing foods that I have found to be helpful when my kids are sick.