My two least favorite tasks? Unloading the dishwasher and making lunches. Both of which I usually end up doing while making my coffee in the morning. Hmm…maybe that has something to do with why I hate both of these chores? I haven’t had my coffee yet!

At any rate, Emma has decided that she really wants to take her lunch every day because the 3rd graders can eat outside on the patio if they bring their lunches. Coupled with the fact that I very easily fall into a rut (I think the girls got the same lunch for a week straight at the end of last year!), this could be the start of a very long year of making sandwiches.

Then I was inspired by Jen over at iheartorganizing and her very cool lunch packing organizational skills. So this weekend I did a whole bunch of prep work that will hopefully make the morning lunch making a little easier. I still won’t be making amazing lunches like Lisa, but having everything all ready made might at least give the girls a little variety and grant Mama a little sanity.

So I set up a tray in the snack drawer…

Granola bars, Grahamy Samys, Fruit Mash-ups, mandarin oranges and snack-size baggies of crackers, Pirate’s Booty and pretzels.

And I did the same in the fridge.

Hard-boiled eggs (the girls LOVE them!), yogurts, string cheese, more little containers of fruit – these are leftover berries mixed up as a little fruit salad.

And, one in the veggie drawer in the fridge…

Carrot sticks, cut-up celery, cherry tomatoes, little containers of hummus and ranch.

I’ve bought a few of the Ziploc brand bento box containers and I also got a set of these EasyLunchboxes from Amazon.

The girls would much rather have a Lunch-able type lunch than a sandwich. So I end up making cheese/crackers and lots of “dippables.” Thankfully they love hummus and yogurt which make good dips and these trays fit into their lunchboxes perfectly.

The only sandwich that they really do love are these Uncrustables that I made the mistake of buying last year. They are crazy convenient, you keep them in the freezer, throw them in the lunch and they unthaw by lunch time. BUT, they don’t have whole wheat ones, and they really aren’t that great on the nutritional scale.

So, I also made our own Uncrustables today.

I think we have settled on the Sara Lee 100% whole wheat bread. It is soft and doesn’t have any seeds or grains in it, so the girls are happy – it is made from 100% whole wheat and doesn’t have any HFCs, so I’m happy. I peanut-buttered both sides of the bread so the jelly wouldn’t seep through. I get to control the type of peanut butter and the jelly (BTW – this Smuckers Low Sugar Jelly? It is amazingly good and smells so grap-a-licious! Yum.) and then I even cut them like the uncrustables.

I decided to leave the crusts on, to help them freeze a little better, this way they can peel them off and have the cool cut-outs. And if the girls are really hungry, they’ll eat the crusts, too!  So I bagged each sandwich up in a Ziploc separately and then stacked them all back into the bread wrapper for extra protection and put ‘em in the freezer.

It feels pretty good to have the entire week of lunches all ready to go!

—Updated—

Heavenly. This morning I made both lunches in under five minutes. They have a pb&j sammie, frozen yogurt tube (it is going to be hot today, so I figure both of them will still be cold by lunchtime), grapes, carrots and a smores “treat.” After I did this post last night I found a little mix of golden grahams cereal, mini choco chips, & mini marshmallows. A little bit of a sweet treat. So I made up a batch of that and a pile of of snack-sized bags ready to go.

I literally just grabbed two of everything popped them into their lunchboxes and zipped up.

AND…I sat down and had my coffee and something to eat with the girls. (No dishwasher to unload this morning – thanks to a lovely dinner with Jeff and JB last night.) The easy grab snacks are making me eat better as well because that is what I reach for when I am hungry. I’m telling you…this is life-changing!