With my kids, if I don’t put the right entree in their lunch it ends up coming home for me to throw in the trash. For snacks, they’ll eat anything so at least we have that.

Sometimes I like to get the lunches made before they even get up in the morning just because it’s one less thing I have to try an accomplish while getting them ready to head out the door in the morning. The only problem is that if I haven’t remembered to ask them what they want the night before I run the risk of getting it wrong and wasting time, food and energy.

So I came up with a plan. The Mommyland School Lunch Menu.

In our pantry we have this super cool information center.

Our way of staying organized.

Under all that I have our lunch menu.

This little board is magnetic, so what I did was print out lunch options on my label writer using magnetic label tape. The options available will go on the far right and the boys can pick what they want as their entree each day. I make sure to take down any options that we don’t have so no one gets disappointed.

When I go into the pantry to get their lunches ready all I need to do is look on the menu board to see what they want.

Cameron’s selection goes on the top and Logan’s goes on the bottom.

That’s how I’m making lunch a little easier during the week. What do you do to make school lunches a snap?

One of my New Year’s Goals this year was to finally start eating better. I am a junk food junkie and probably always will be, but I know I need to make a more conscience effort to add some healthy foods to the mix.

I’ve been working really hard to make sure there are fresh veggies in the fridge. To make it more likely that I’ll actually eat them, I try and do some prep work ahead of time. I cut up my peppers and cucumbers to make them grab and go items. All my veggies hangout on the same shelf in the fridge so they don’t get lost, again to make them grab and go. Can you tell I need all the help I can get?

Lunch is the hardest meal for me, it’s the meal that I’m most likely to graze and/or eat crap.

Trying to come up with something quick, easy AND good for me has been a challenge. Today I found a winner…The rice bowl.

I boiled up a few servings of whole grain, brown rice and separated it into serving sizes taking advantage of my extensive Tupperware supply. All I have to do is reach in the fridge and grab a bowl of rice. How easy is that? To that I add the good stuff…The veggies. I keep the basics on hand these days, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes. I sliced up a few and tossed them in the bowl of rice. To that I added some kidney beans and topped it off with some soy sauce.

My rice bowls waiting for another day

In less than ten minutes I made a low calorie lunch that was pretty decent in the nutrition department. Since I get bored easily, this is a great option since I can change it up by adding different veggies and using different sauces. I can’t wait to use the veggies from The Mommyland Farm this summer!

I like that my rice bowl has less calories and sodium than the frozen food version. It’s also A LOT cheaper to make these at home than to buy them at the store, double bonus!

It was tasty and it filled me up too. More importantly, it was fast. It wasn’t until I scarfed it all down that I realized I should have taken a picture of the yumminess. Sorry.

Do you do prep work ahead of time to make mealtime a little less work? How about lunch, how do you get in a healthy meal in the middle of your day? Do you have any suggestions for quick, healthy lunches? Please share.