Start of School Means More Organized Meals

Hanna’s set to start kindergarten Wednesday! I can’t believe how long the days are, and yet how short the years have been. My little baby is going to full day big girl school.

Which means she’s gonna need lunch. 🙂 So this week I’ve been scouring the interwebs trying to find inspiration from lunch blogs. I’ve found a few that I really like, and I’m always on the hunt for more (it’s gonna be a long year folks!) If you have any recommendations for blogs that have healthy lunch ideas please leave them in the comments. Thanks!

In all my reading I realized I’m going to have to do a little planning. Breakfast and lunch around here have always been pretty laid back, but now we’re going to be in a time crunch, and she’ll be eating breakfast at home (unlike the last 2 years where she ate breakfast and lunch at preschool!) I’ll also be sending her lunch so I know she’s getting a healthy, real food meal.

I realized I was going to just have to add breakfast and lunch to my meal plan so I could make sure I had everything I needed for all those meals in the house, without having to make multiple stops to the grocery store during the week.

I’ve also been asking around and here are some great tip I got about getting a good breakfast in her before school.

Make something in batches and freeze it in single servings so I can just take it out, heat it up and let her eat it.

Over the weekend we made Baked Oatmeal. (It was delicious) and there was a lot left over, so I definitely froze that for later breakfast use.

I am also planning on doing a bunch of breakfast burritoes ~ with homemade whole wheat tortillas, veggies, eggs and cheese.

I’m hoping, since I’m NOT a morning person… these tricks will help me get a hot nutritious meal in her belly before she gets to school.

I also have been a little worried about the time limit she’ll have to eat at lunch. We’ve been preparing for school lunch here at home.  She’s actually gotten a bit better about eating and staying focused, so we’ll see how that goes at school.

Another great tip I found is to freeze soup in small canning jars. They are the perfect amount to go in a thermos. I picked up canning jars over the weekend (since it’s the season for them to be on sale!), and will start gathering soup recipes. She’s very excited about having soup in her thermos. I think having foods she excited about will help her eat as well.

So here’s what’s on our menu this week:

Breakfast:

Baked Oatmeal

Breakfast Burritoes

Cereal with fruit and a boiled egg

Lunch:

Sandwiches and fruit/veggies (m and t)

w: Summer in a Bowl (leftovers)
fruit/nuts

th: Coconut Shrimp
salad and quinoa

F: Apple Sandwiches (pb and raisins)
sliced veggies with tzatziki sauce

S and S ~ whatever’s in the house.

Dinner:

M: Ratatouille Polenta Bake (and I’ll be adding some chicken)
salad

Tues: Summer in a Bowl
Side Salad

Wed: Coconut Shrimp 
Quinoa and Salad

Thurs: Lentils and Rice with Sausage
Steamed Broccoli

Fri: Balsamic Pork Roast
mashed sweet potatoes and green beans

Sat: Homemade Pizza
Salad

Sun: Slow Cooker Lasagna (I’m adding hamburger)
Salad

There you have it. Wish me luck sending my little one off to school, and managing more structured meals all day. 🙂 You might notice I’ve linked to 100 Days of Real Food quite a bit in this post. Her blog is a plethora of resources. I just love it, and her mission.

We’re also linked up over at I’m an Organizing Junkie. If you need more meal plan ideas you can browse hundreds of meal plans made by real women all over the country.