Top 7 Quick and Healthy Lunches for Your Kiddos!

(That won’t Break The Bank!)

*This is a FABULOUS guest post by my nutritionist, Julie Benson*

Packing lunches for my kids is not something I’ve always been a huge fan of. Honestly, I was making dinner and breakfast for them and totally blanking on lunch. Isn’t it easier just to send your kiddo with something pre-made, or have them just buy lunch in the school cafeteria? I mean, who is with me?!

While sometimes the easy button is what you need, making sure we set our kids up for success during school (there is so much pressure!) starts by feeding them quality food to fuel their day.

With a little bit of hard work and determination, I soon discovered the solution to making healthy lunches for my kids (that they will actually eat!) all while keeping it full of variety and within my budget. Keep reading and you, too, can begin to prepare amazingly healthy lunches with incredible ease.

I can guarantee that if you follow my 7 day meal plan, the difficulty in thinking of and making lunches will become a thing of the past! These meals are delicious, healthy, and easy to make for active kids and adults alike. This is real food that will fuel you and your kids and keep everyone going all day long.

No time to read through the whole week’s plan?
Click below to download everything in an easy to use guide!

Prep Day:

Pick one or two days during the week to get some prep out of the way. I promise this will make your life easier when it comes to having dinners prepared, but also when making lunches for your kiddos or even yourself. You don’t have to prep for hours on end, especially if you divide your prep into two days.

If you plan to prepare, then you are setting yourself up for success for the entire week!

With this particular meal plan, the things I like to prep are; flatbread, chicken nuggets, ranch dip, taco seasoning, salad toppings in a jar, coconut wraps, yogurt cups, and fruit cups. The rest you can make as you go throughout the week.

Here’s one quick tip; when grilling sausage for dinner always make a few extra to use for lunches!

Pantry items to have on hand: applesauce squeezies, veggie and fruit squeezies, Simple Mills almond crackers (depending on nut allergy rules in school), lentil chips, organic fruit strips, cassava crackers, organic marinara or pizza sauce (check to make sure there is no sugar) for mini pizzas.

Now that you’ve shopped, prepped, and stocked up, let’s jump into how we assemble these amazing lunches. First things first: I do believe you need some essentials to pack your own lunches.

Here is what I believe to be ESSENTIAL for packing lunches:
A lunch tote with a handle
A lunch box like this sistema box
Silicone muffin liners
Stainless steel thermos
Stainless steel thermos jar

TIP: Use muffin liners to partition food in your kiddo’s lunch box (see picture).

A quick and easy rule I like to follow is to keep it simple! Don’t be afraid to use leftovers. Utilizing leftovers makes prepping lunch so much easier, and definitely takes the guesswork out of what the heck you or your kids are going to eat.

Always include:

P-protein
F-fat
C-carb–and when I say carbs I’m not talking about Doritos. 😉

Monday:
Using the flatbread you so gloriously prepped, spread organic marinara or pizza sauce over the sliced bread. Top with your choice of toppings; organic cheese, veggies, turkey pepperoni, etc. Bake at 350 until warm and bubbly. If your bread isn’t already cut, slice and place in your bento box. Add sliced veggies and fruit for a complete meal.

Tuesday:
This one is probably one of my favorites to assemble; a charcuterie bento box! Slice up organic cheese, organic lunch meat or Bilinski chicken sausage, add sliced flatbread or cassava crackers, sliced fruit, sliced veggies, and a hummus cup or some ranch dip. BAM! That’s it. Lunch made. You rock.

Wednesday:
Since you made Healing Plan Chicken Nuggets for dinner last night, put some leftovers in your kiddo’s bento box for lunch. Add some veggie slices and ranch dip. Lastly pull out one of those beautiful yogurt cups you prepped filled with berries and seeds.

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Thursday:
Fill coconut wraps with avocado oil mayo, avocado slices, greens, and organic lunch meat. Wrap it up nice and tight and if you need to, secure with a toothpick. Blend up a Healing Plan Smoothie of choice and add it to your chilled thermos (remember you left it in the freezer for this day). Grab another yogurt cup to place in the lunch tote and you’re off!

Friday:
You made it to Friday! SCORE! You made a fantastic chicken and cauliflower rice dish for dinner last night, Fiesta Chicken (my son named that beautiful recipe). You even portioned it out the night before in a small glass ball jar. Slice up some fruit, grab your jar of awesomeness and off your kid goes to rock their Friday.

Weekends!
The weekend is here! Wahoo! But wait, you still have to make sure you or your kiddos have lunch. 🙂 What’s a parent to do! Don’t worry. I got you.

Saturday:
You made tacos last night using this awesome taco seasoning recipe. Using the leftover coconut wraps you made, why not make quesadillas! Heat those bad boys up, throw some shredded cheese on there, some taco meat, and you have got yourself a quesadilla. Slice up some avocado, fruit, and veggies and you and your kids have a fantastic lunch waiting for you.

Sunday:
What’s not to love about making soup? If you double this delicious Cauliflower Bacon Soup recipe you get lunch the next day. All you need to do is warm it up on the stove-top, and you have a nutritious, easy, warm lunch ready. If you need to take this soup to-go here’s what I recommend: warm up your thermos by pouring in warm to hot water and put on the lid. After a few minutes, dump out the warm water. Pour in your hot soup. This will keep it warm until ready to eat. Add toppings in separate containers like cheese, avocado, extra turkey bacon, green onions, etc. Don’t forget to pack the spoon!

Be sure to pack something to drink to keep hydrated!

Lunch Friendly Beverages:

Chocolate milk: Mix 8 ounces of unsweetened coconut milk with 1 scoop of chocolate or espresso Revived Greens. Shake it up and fill your chilled stainless steel thermos. This is my son’s favorite drink of choice to take to school!
Step it up! Add in 1 scoop of powdered Bone Broth Protein.
Kombucha: Fill your chilled stainless steel thermos with your favorite flavor of kombucha.
Smoothie: Choose any Healing Plan Smoothie of your choice and fill your chilled thermos!
Water: Remember, our bodies are made up of nearly 70% water and we need to drink at least half of our body weight in ounces of water to stay well hydrated¹. Add in a slice of lemon or sliced strawberries to jazz up the flavor.

Sure-Fire Solutions for Picky Eaters:

Think you’ve got a picky eater? Here are my top 3 ways to sneak fruits and veggies into their diet:

Smoothies
Revived Living Fruits and Greens powder with any nut milk
Blended soups—-I love doing this because not only do they get a good amount of veggies, but they will also get the nutrient rich bone broth that will help keep their immune system strong. Check out this BLOG to learn how to make your own bone broth and read about the AMAZING benefits.

Click below to get your 7-day Quick and Healthy Meal Plan today!

Source:

Richter, Brian. “Walking Water: H20 and the Human Body” nationalgeographic.com. March 2012. http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/06/human-body-water/