Back to School

Today is my son's first day of school. He is entering the 1st grade and will be going to school a full day for the first time too! He is a little nerves and so am I:) Hey, what can I say he is my oldest and the only child in school. Using THIS (scroll to bottom of post about snacks. I have been using this all summer and LOVED it), I expanded on it for lunches.

Well, he will be taking lunch to school every day because he has an allergy to dairy and I feel like this is the only way I can guarantee he won't receive any dairy products (whether raw or baked into something). So with that said, let me give you a little low down on our lunch making center I have in our refrigerator and cupboards. I keep reusable containers for all of the items. I wash them as needed and restock them with lunch goodness.

In a plastic bin I loaded 1 weeks worth of all the essentials:

• non-dairy GoGurts, fruit cups, any veggies he decides he wants (right now it's broccoli and cauliflower), grapes, berries, small container of humus for dipping.

• In the cupboard, I keep another plastic bin loaded with easy to grab items such as pretzels, dried fruit, trail mix, crackers, the occasional cookie, and Luna Bars.

•  Because it is so hot here, the student's are advised to bring a bottle of water every day and keep it at their desks to stay hydrated. So he will have this water bottle to drink from. I also make sure he has a drink with his lunch. He uses a reusable water bottle that I put in water or rice milk. Occasionally, I will let him take a all natural low sugar juice pouch.

I tell him not to throw anything away to just stick everything back into his lunch box and I clean it out when he comes home. This way he doesn't mistakenly throw away any of the reusable containers or utensils.

Then every morning he can pick out what he wants to include in his lunch. All I have to do is make a sandwich and we are good to go!

I received this from Simplify 101 and thought I would share her ideas too. Funny she does something very similar to me:)

"Around here, back to school is just around the corner… which means it’s time to look for ways to simplify the morning rush. One task that will be returning to my morning to-do list is packing school lunches. So, to simplify the process this year, I’m expanding on my pantry lunch-making mini-zone by putting together a refrigerator mini-zone loaded with school lunch essentials. Here are some ideas for creating your own lunch-making mini-zone.

• Purchase (or repurpose) a plastic storage bin sized to fit on one of the shelves in your refrigerator.

• Load your bin with prepackaged lunch-making items such as cheese sticks, and/or small packages of yogurt, smoothies, juice or milk.

• Once a week stock your lunch bin with items such as grapes, baby carrots, celery sticks and dip, stored in small, reusable lunch containers.

• Add sandwich-making supplies such as bread, natural peanut butter, jam or jelly, or lunch meats and cheese.

• Keep unrefrigerated lunch-making items like napkins, cutlery, chips, crackers and cookies in a second bin in your pantry.

• If your kids are older, assign them the task of filling their lunch box each morning with the pre-packed items in your lunch-making mini-zone."