Back to School Lunch Tips
By: Carrie Walco-Bowman
Setting a time and day for meal prep is a great way to prepare all the healthy school lunches, meals, and snacks your family needs for the week. However, what if you’re going to be away all weekend, or what if your kids are in sports and activities every single night of the week? Blocks of time can be a rare luxury for time-crunched parents. So, to help take some mealtime stress away, we are sharing some of the easiest ways you can incorporate meal and lunch box prep into what you are doing already.
Cook & prep extra food when you are already cooking and prepping.
For example, if you’re making chicken breasts for dinner on the one night of the week you have free, plan to cook extra to use in other meals and lunches for the week. Chicken can be used in hot pasta dishes, cold pasta salads, chicken salad sandwiches, or as a grab-and-go, lean, protein-packed snack when it’s cut up into snack-sized bites.
Other highly versatile foods for bagged lunch and meal prep are:
– Eggs. Hard boil them for a quick breakfast protein, make egg salad sandwiches, or add them to a salad. Or, try our MightyMeals’ egg bites for a new, delicious egg breakfast idea. They are fast and delish–reheat in only 1-3 minutes!
– Lean Ground Beef or Ground Turkey. Cooking up a large batch of ground meat can be very time consuming, and then there’s the clean up. You can skip all that by using our a la carte bulk Lean Ground Beef or Ground Turkey for tacos or taco bowls, taco salad, spaghetti, or chili.
– Grape Tomatoes. Kids and adults love these all on their own, but you can toss them into just about any salad. Or, make your version (of the thousands of versions) of the uber-popular TikTok Baked Feta Pasta trend. The only meal prep needed for these is washing them and maybe cutting. Our entire family loves them cut in half with extra virgin olive oil, salt & pepper.
- Rice. Cooked rice is a huge time saver, especially if you’re dealing with cooking brown rice for 45 minutes. Save even more time by using our White Rice or Brown Rice in burrito or taco bowls, fried rice, rice salads, or a poke bowl with cooked shrimp or seafood. Of course, it also works great as a simple side dish heated up on its own.
Have the kids pack & plan their own lunches, snacks, & meals
There are many great things about having your kids make and choose their own lunches, snacks, and meals.
- Kids learn about nutrition and why some food choices are better than others. They will learn to read nutrition facts labels and grow to be adults who make good food nutrition decisions.
- It makes them more independent. Children feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when they are allowed and guided into doing things independently.
- It saves you–the parents or caregivers–time and stress!!!
- They will probably eat it! When kids choose their food, you worry less about them not liking it and not eating it.
Order from an a la carte & bulk meal prep delivery service
If you’re still too strapped to find time to meal prep, consider all of the bulk, a la carte healthy protein meal prep options that MightyMeals offers. It’s easy to choose from a variety of side dishes and healthy proteins by using our product and macro filters on our menu to sort by a la carte options, protein type, and more. Such as sweet potatoes, seafood, rice, and a healthy version of Bulk Mac & Cheese! Then all you have to do is place your order and select your delivery day.
And the kids really love all of our new flavors of Chicken Bites. They are super easy to pack for lunches all on their own, or click through and read all of the 5-star reviews for more #MightyFam ideas on how to use our chicken bites for meal prep.
BULK ROASTED BUFFALO CHICKEN BITES
BULK ROASTED BBQ CHICKEN BITES
“These are great to pair with any sort of vegetable. These are delicious. We usually get 3 or 4 meals out of these by pairing them with a salad or other vegetables/quinoa/etc. They are a staple in our order rotation.” – CHRISLooking for more healthy meal prep advice for school lunches and meals to help you and your family reach your goals? Make sure you sign up for our Free Meal Planning Consultation with one of our nutrition experts on our MightyFit page.