Freeze Ahead Creamed Spinach

 

 

I found this giant bag of spinach for about 4 bucks at our local produce place.  When I got home I was trying to figure out what to do with all of it and Creamed Spinach was the first thing that came to mind.  I always try and convince my kids to be like Popeye and eat their spinach, they don't usually go for it!  BUT this creamed spinach was right up there alley.  The best thing about it is you can freeze it for up to a year!

 

 

 

Ingredients: 6 Packages Loose Leaf Spinach
2 Cups Milk
1 Stick Butter
1/2 C Flour
1/4 C Olive Oil
3 T Minced Garlic
1 t each Salt & Pepper

You will need to use 2 pots, one to make the cream and one to wilt the spinach.

 Get your smaller pot out and ready for making the cream.  First, melt the butter in your pot on med-high heat.  With a whisk, quickly add (and keep stirring) the flour - this is called making a roux and it will thicken any liquid added to it.  When the flour is well incorporated into the butter, add the milk.  Keep whisking and you will see the mixture thicken quickly.  Add salt & pepper.  When it's the consistency of gravy, take it off the heat and set aside.

 
 
 

For the Spinach.  In a large pot, add the Olive Oil and Garlic. Over medium heat, add a handful of spinach at a time.  As the spinach begins to wilt, add more until all of the spinach has wilted.

 

 

 

Finally, stir the "Cream" into the spinach and allow to cool.

Next fill freezer bags with the Creamed Spinach.

 

Separate the mixture into six freezer bags, label and freeze for up to 1 year.  When you're ready to use it, microwave for about 3 minutes in a microwave safe dish.

 

 

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This Week's Menu and Next: Feb 16-22 and Feb 23-March 1

Ill be going on my annual Trauma Momma's retreat in Orlando from March 6-10, so I'm trying to clean out my refrigerator/freezer and cabinets in the next two weeks, hopefully I wont have to make any trips to the grocery store!

 

February 16-22

Breakfasts:
Cold Cereal, Banana Muffins, Cinnamon Sugar Toast, English Muffins
Weekend:  Oven Pancake, Eggs and Sausage

Lunches:
Packed Lunches-  Ham and Cheese or PBJ, Carrots/Celery, Apples, Chips/Pretzels, Tasty Cakes

Home Lunches-  Taco Salad, Pre-frozen Mini English Muffin Pizzas, Carrots/Celery, Apples/Oranges

Snacks:
Carrots, Celery and PB, Raisins, Pickles, Apples, Clear out Pantry

Dinners:

Sunday-              Grandmas for Dinner
Monday-             Grilled Cheese Hamburgers, Macaroni Salad
Tuesday-             Hot Dogs, Corn, Mashed Potatoes, Apples
Wednesday-       Nachos, Salad
Thursday-           Chicken Parmesan Subs, Roasted Potatoes
Friday-                Pizza/Chinese Take Out Night
Saturday-            Leftovers


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February 23- March1

 



Breakfasts:
Cold Cereal, Cinnamon Sugar Toast, English Muffins (Cin. Raisin and Plain)
Weekend:  Oven Pancake, Eggs and Sausage

Lunches:
Packed Lunches-  Ham and Cheese or PBJ, Carrots/Celery, Apples, Chips/Pretzels, Tasty Cakes

Home Lunches-  Grilled Cheese, Soup, Carrots/Celery, Apples

Snacks: Clear out Pantry

Dinners:

Sunday-              Taco Salad
Monday-             Spaghettio's, Carrots
Tuesday-             Hot Dogs, Creamed Spinach
Wednesday-        Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Chese
Thursday-           Slow Cooker Italian Chicken Sandwiches, Roasted Potatoes
Friday-                Pizza/Chinese Take Out Night
Saturday-            Leftovers

Chicken Parmesan Meatballs

CHICKEN PARMESAN MEATBALLS

3 pounds ground chicken or turkey
1 cup breadcrumbs
4 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 egg, whisked
zest of half a lemon
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 14-ounce can pizza sauce
4 ounces mozzarella or 1 bag shredded

 

Preheat oven to 400°F, setting rack to upper third part of oven. In a large bowl, using your hands, gently mix together first 11 ingredients.

Shape into golf sized balls  and place a few inches from each other on a foil-lined baking sheet. In a small bowl, mix one spoonful of your pizza sauce with olive oil. Brush this mixture on top of each meatball. Bake for 15 minutes.

 

Remove meatballs from oven, at this point if you want to freeze the meatballs this is where you would do so.  I took out the amount we wanted to freeze and placed them in a freezer container to use later in the week. 

When ready to use, remove from freezer and defrost (or put directly in oven but you may need to cook longer) follow remaining directions.


Spoon some more sauce on top of each meatball, and cover each with mozzarella cheese, you can use sliced or shredded cheese. Bake another 15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and golden.  Heat remaining sauce in a small saucepan. Serve meatballs by themselves, with spaghetti or on a meatball sub...yummy!

 

Valentines Day Oven Pancake and Heart Shaped Bacon

 It's Valentines day here and I have four hungry boys waiting for pancakes!  What a perfect day to make Oven Pancakes.....that's right one giant pancake, no slaving over the stove making dozens of individual pancakes for the hungry little or big people in your life!  This is super easy and I haven't made regular pancakes since I learned this recipe :)  Of course since its V-day I made heart shaped bacon to go along with it.  My boys would probably tell you the best part of this whole Valentines Day Breakfast was that I let them put their own syrup, butter, whipped cream, and fruit on the pancakes.....no pesky mom telling them that was enough sugar today!

 

 

OVEN PANCAKES

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a 9x13 pan, place a 1/2 to 1 stick of butter (1/4 – 1/2 cup).   Place the pan in the oven to melt the butter (don’t burn it!).  If the butter melts before you are done with the batter, you can take the pan out of the oven while you finish.

While the butter is melting whisk together:

• 5 eggs
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla (optional)
• 1 cup chocolate chips, blueberries or other favorite flavor (optional)

You can use a regular blender or a stick blender to mix this thoroughly, in a pinch I've just mixed by hand with a whisk and it was fine.  By now the butter should be melted in the pan. Carefully tilt the pan to coat it with the butter. Pour the batter in, and bake uncovered for about 17 minutes. It will puff up and is fun for children to watch as it grows. The pancake is done when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. After the pancake comes out of the oven it loses some of its puffiness. You can cut it while puffed or un-puffed.

 

 

You can also try sprinkle brown sugar in the melted butter before adding the batter. When it is done you cut it and flip it over and the butter and brown sugar have made a syrup already

Tip:  You can cut the whole thing with a pizza cutter into bite sized pieces to save time cutting each child's individually.

HEART SHAPED BACON

 

 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

 

Line a baking pan with tinfoil.  Using two pieces of bacon form a heart shape, using one piece for each side of the heart being sure to overlap them.  Cook for 15-20 minutes or until bacon is done to your liking.  Remove pan from oven and let cool a few minutes before moving heart bacon to plates.

 

 



Baked Oatmeal

Baked Oatmeal is one of our favorite breakfast dishes.  It is super easy to make and inexpensive!  You can make it up the night before and bake it in the morning.  I have even made a double batch and frozen it in dollar store tin pans to bake later in the month.


Ingredients:
3 cups rolled oats
1/4-1 cup sugar (any kind or combination will work)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter (or applesauce)
2 eggs

Directions:
Mix together all ingredients. Pour into a 8 x 8 baking dish that has been greased with butter or sprayed with PAM. You can mix this up and put it in the fridge overnight if you want to save time in the morning.  Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.  Serve warm with milk.

 

***You can also add a variety of items to the oatmeal like fruit, raisins, nuts, peanut butter, chocolate chips, coconut, jelly/jams, etc.***

 

Leftovers can be reheated later or cut into squares and used for snacks.

 

 

SINGLE MOM TIPS: Breakfast Organization

In our house breakfast is done individually depending on when the kids get up.  The key to breakfast is easy, easy, easy.  We just do not have the time and I don't have the energy to do a big breakfast on weekdays.  On the weekend we do the whole shebang, but M-F is simple meals.  Generally my youngest two are up first so I help them get their breakfast.  My oldest is nine and able to prepare most of the breakfast choices himself, but depending on what is for breakfast I will prepare it and have it set out for him when I am getting the littles.

Each week I offer certain choices for breakfast and place them on the menu.  In the evening I will ask what the consensus is for breakfast, generally I try and get them to all agree on one thing.  However, since most of the breakfast items are quick and easy it is not a big deal to prepare more than one of the choices.  I try and lay out any of the items we will need on the counter for the next day (unless they need to be in refrigerator/freezer).

I have one shelf dedicated to breakfast items in my kitchen, this includes cold cereals, oatmeal, cream of wheat, pop tarts and any other shelf stable breakfast item.  My oldest is nine and able to prepare any of these items himself (and will prepare for siblings, if asked).  I try and limit the cereal choices to 2-3 at a time on this shelf (extras are stored in the pantry) and only keep what is being offered for a choice that week on the shelf.

Bread items are stored in a drawer in the kitchen:  English Muffins, Bagels, Bread.

I use the weekends to make up extra servings of breakfast items that can be frozen and reheated: pancakes/waffles, muffins, breakfast sandwiches, burritos. These are really easy to take out of the freezer and heat in toaster or microwave in the morning.  Some of our favorite recipes are listed below.

I have a plastic cup with lid and straw for each kid.  I pour them a cup of juice the night before and place in the refrigerator.  Once the juice is gone they can refill with water on their own for the rest of the day until dinner.  Having the drinks prepared in the refrigerator is nice. Since I have two little ones who sometimes want to get up SUPER early, I can send them down to get a drink and put on a TV show while my slow achy body gets awake and ready for the day.  Using the cups with lids and straws in the morning came about after one too many spills happening in the morning when we really don't have the time to mop!  I try and use regular cups at dinner.

More Tips/Tricks to make the morning easier:

1. Fill a large shaker with a cinnamon/sugar mix that can be put on buttered toast/bagels/Eng. Muffins and kept on the breakfast shelf for easy access.  They also sell a premixed cinnamon/sugar spice shaker at the dollar store that is handy and can be refilled with it runs out.
2. If your kids like butter on their pancakes/waffles try melting butter in the syrup over the stove before putting it on your food.  This way there is no need to try and cut and spread the butter on everyone's plates but they still get the butter taste.
3. Use a pizza cutter to cut waffles and pancakes to save time.
4. Make a kid level drawer with plastic bowls, plates, silverware, cups so kids can help set the table or get their dishes out in the morning.

FAVORITE RECIPES:

 

Baked Oatmeal

Oven Pancake

Pancakes/Waffles

Zucchini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins:  My kids LOVE these and have no clue its filled with Veggies :)

Breakfast Burritos

Oh and I don't think I've ever showed you MY favorite area of the kitchen.....a Coffee Bar, just for mom!  Cause lets be honest, nothing is happening till I've had my coffee :)

Zucchini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins....that your kids will LOVE!

I was looking for ways to use of the shredded zucchini I have in my freezer from this past summer.  We were inundated with zucchini faster than I could  make it, so I shredded up a bunch of it and portioned it out in about 2 cup sizes in Ziploc bags.  These muffins were the perfect way to use it up!  My kids ate 2 dozen of these muffins in one weekend.  They LOVED them!  Of course I failed to mention that there were vegetables in them, lets keep that little secret to ourselves shall we??  To them they were just Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins :)

Zucchini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp sugar (The original recipe did not have sugar, but I felt it needed a bit more than just the honey for my kids, feel free to leave it out or add a bit more honey instead)
• 1.5 cups grated zucchini (squeeze the extra water out of it)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1.5 cups flour (I used all purpose but you could use whole wheat)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. 
Grate zucchini (either by hand or using a food processor), then squeeze grated zucchini to remove some of the water.  I used pre-frozen shredded zucchini, left it to thaw and then squeezed it out. Measure 1 1/2 cups zucchini and mix with the mashed bananas.
Add egg, honey, sugar, and oil. Sprinkle baking soda, baking powder, and salt over the top of this and mix all ingredients together.
Add the flour and cinnamon to the bowl and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
Spray muffin pan or individual muffin cups with non-stick spray, then divide batter evenly among cups to make 12 muffins. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

This Weeks Menu: Feb 9-15

Menu for February 9-15, 2014

Breakfast Choices:  Cold Cereal, Oatmeal, Cinnamon Bread, English Muffins, English Muffin Sandwich with Sausage.  Ill be posting tomorrow about how we do Breakfasts.

Lunches:  Ham and Cheese or PBJ (Pre-Made and Frozen), Pretzels, Apple/Orange, Carrots/Peppers, Fruit Snacks.  See how we do Lunches HERE.

Snack Choices:  Apples, Oranges, Carrots, Peppers, Pretzels, Raisins, Crackers

DINNERS-

Sunday: Grandma's for Party

Monday: Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce, Salad, Bread

Tuesday: Mac and Cheese

Wednesday: Corn Chowder, Bread

Thursday: Chicken Parmesan Meatballs

Friday: Pizza Night- English Muffin Pizzas

Saturday: Free for All Day, Leftovers

 

Our menu is posted each day using these visuals next to the meal and time. Ill get a post up about how we use this to reduce food issues.

English Muffin Pizzas with Pizza Butter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pizza Butter-

• 1 cup mozzarella or Italian shredded cheese
• 1can tomato paste
• 1 stick butter
• Oregano to taste

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend away! 
This butter can be stored in the fridge for about a week.
Spread on English muffins, bagels, toast and topped with cheese, pepperoni or any of your favorite toppings.
We put the butter on English muffins and topped with a little extra cheese and pepperoni, baked in the oven at 350 for about 5-7 minutes or until cheese is melted.

 

This is a GREAT activity for you and the kids to do together.  The butter is a lot easier for kids to spoon out and spread around (and less messy) than regular pizza sauce and everyone can choose their own toppings.

Another Snow Day = Peanut Butter COOKIES!!

 

SIMPLE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

(No-Flour)

 



1 egg
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar (you can use a combination of 3/4 white and 1/4 brown or all white sugar)
1teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. 
Mix all ingredients in bowl .
Put small spoon full sized balls on foil lined pan.
Sprinkle with sugar and use back of fork to make the criss-crossed imprint on the cookies.
Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Remove, let cool, and EAT!!

Food Issues

Do your kids have food issues?  I know mine do!  Across the special needs, foster care, and adoption communities I am involved in I am constantly seeing parents lamenting about what to do with their children when it comes to meals.  Some of the common issues talked about are:

Hoarding

Stealing

Refusing to Eat

Vomiting

Anorexia/Bulimia
Picky Eater
Overeating
Holding Food in Cheeks

Before you can address the food issues you have to understand where they come from, this is different for each child.  For us, my children had food withheld from them.  They didn't know where there next meal would come from and were punished when trying to "steal" food.  The food they did receive was mostly junk food without real substance.  They had never sat down at a table for a meal.  Matthew was exposed to this the longest.  When he first arrived sitting at a table and eating caused him so much anxiety that coupled with non-junk food being served would often lead to him purposely vomiting to get out of sitting at the table and eating.  He would "sneak" around and "steal" food, especially in the middle of the night.  He would refuse to eat food that was prepared and given to them and prefer to eat any food that he had taken without permission, regardless of if it was the same exact thing that had been offered.  James struggles with some of this but his main issues stem more from his "spectrum" like behaviors, he doesn't like change, textures, smells and colors bother him.  He gets stuck on liking certain foods and only those foods, he doesn't like meat (unless its chicken nuggets or pepperoni). Joel does not exhibit any ongoing behaviors but he was failure to thrive when he came and took awhile to adjust to taking a bottle and eating.  Now he has some copycat behaviors from watching his brothers but doesn't appear to struggle with food issues.

If you can identify what the underlying issue is you will have more success in coming up with some solutions to ease the daily struggle.

Here are some of the things we do to try and ease the battles and anxiety surrounding eating-

1. Plan meals together:   Each week we sit down as a family and talk about what meals each of us would like to have.  That way everyone is guaranteed at least a meal or two that they will eat and enjoy.
2. Post your schedule:  Once the schedule has been made for the week, breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snack options are posted for everyone to see. I also include the times for the meals.  This has reduced anxiety over meals.  I have taken pictures of food to put next to the schedule, so my younger kids and kids who are more visual can anticipate what is coming.  Even if they don't like the meal coming up they can see on the schedule where their favorite meal is and when its coming.
3. Involve kids in the cooking:  I try and pick a "meal helper" when preparing meals.  I've found when the child has made the meal they are more apt to try it!  This also goes for siblings, we will make it a competition of who is the best cooker this week so they need to try it to vote!
4. Let them pack their lunch:  My kids are responsible for packing their own lunches.  See Lunch for how we handle this.  I have found this to greatly reduce stress at lunch or uneaten food coming home from school.
5. Box of non perishable snacks: One of the suggestions you often hear from caseworkers or in trainings is to provide the child with a box of non perishable snacks they can keep in their room.  This is supposed to reduce anxiety that they will not receive more food and help with hoarding/stealing.  We tried this for awhile and it did help somewhat, however my son would eat everything in the box within the hour.  So we would pick 5 things for the box each Sunday.  When they were gone they were gone till next Sunday.  It helped him portion things out a little better.
6. Explaining the Behavior:  As my son got a little older and was better able to understand past events and what had happened one of the biggest game changers for us was talking about why he had food issues.  Discussing his early neglect and trauma and how this has tricked his brain into thinking he wont have enough food.  Understanding it has been key for him!
7. Get Creative:  One of the great things about the internet is all the wonderful tips and tricks you can find to be creative with food!  Cut your food into fun shapes, put food coloring in mashed potatoes/milk, hide veggies in the spaghetti sauce.  Start browsing around and see what you can find.
8. Rename the food: Its funny how giving a food a new name suddenly makes it edible!  Cowboy Casserole, Ninjago Carrots, the sillier the better.  I like to come up with whole stories to go with the names.
9. Incentives:   Im totally cool with bribing my kids, lol.  In our house we don't do dessert every night. However, if the kids eat everything on there plate they do get dessert!  Set up an incentive that will work for your child.  If stealing food is an issue maybe set up a variation of The Stealing Box.
10. Routine/Rules:  Developing a routine around mealtime can be very important.  Kids need to know what to expect.  Our routine is posted near the table:  1.  Prayer 2.  Go over Rules 3. Eat ____ bites of everything 4. Ask to be excused  5. Clean your area 6. Thank the cook.  We use dinner time to focus on manners (and my kids still totally suck at manners, so take this for what its worth, lol).  I try and focus on one "manner" at a time and post this as well. We add the manners to our Dinner Rules after we have worked on them for awhile.  We go over the rules before dinner.
11. Let it Go: Sometimes the bigger a deal you make of it the bigger the issue gets.  Prioritize what is most important to you when it comes to food and meal times and focus on that.  If the food issues don't bother you that much and their is no real safety issues, just let it go, eating chicken nuggets every day for a week isn't going to kill your kid. 
12. Sensory Alternatives:  You can also try things like Sensory necklaces made for chewing or allowing gum. Sometimes for the overeating bunch, they crave the chewing sensation.

Here is a great video by Dr. Karen Purvis on handling food issues. CLICK HERE

What ideas do you have for dealing with your kids food issues?  Share with us in the comments or join the discussion on facebook!

Chicken Nuggets Recipe

These Chicken Nuggets are awesome!  They taste pretty similar to Chick-Fill-A which my kids love.  I make double the recipe and freeze some for lunch/dinner later in the month.

What you will need:

4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts
2 cup milk
2 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
4 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder (can be omitted)
peanut oil or canola oil

Directions:

Whisk the egg and milk together and pour into a Large Ziploc bag or bowl.  Cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  Place chicken in milk mixture and let it sit for 3-4 hours in the fridge.
In a gallon size ziploc combine flour, powdered sugar, salt and pepper. Shake to combine.
Put about 2 inches of oil in a pot. Over medium high heat let the oil get hot. It should sizzle when you drop a bit of flour in the pot.
Take the chicken from milk and place in the flour mixture. Shake until nuggets are completely covered. Place about 6-8 nuggets into oil and cook until golden brown, this doesn't take to long depending on how big your pieces are it should only be a couple minutes. I have a small basket I used to drop them in the oil or you can place them in and turn them over with tongs or fork Drain on a paper towel and repeat until all nuggets are cooked.
 

Making More Meals: Shredded Chicken

MAKING MORE MEALS

 

One of my favorite cooking tricks is to make a large amount of something that can be used for several meals during the week or frozen for use later in the month.

 

 

SHREDDED CHICKEN:

Did you know you can shred chicken with your mixer???!!!!  It has revolutionized my life.  All you need to do is cook some boneless chicken breasts however you want, thrown them in the mixer with the bread paddle attachment, and turn it on for about a minute or so.  BAM, shredded chicken.

So here is what I do.  When boneless skinless chicken breasts are on sale I will buy several family size packs.  I usually marinate half of them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  The other half I marinate with taco seasoning.  Sometimes I will do a few in teriyaki or other Asian flavoring.  Once they have all marinated I will like a baking sheet with foil (one for each "flavor") and bake for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees.  Put about 6-8 chicken breasts in your mixer with the bread paddle and let it mix for 45 seconds to a minute.  You can keep the shredded chicken in a Ziploc bag.  Feel free to freeze it at this point or leave a portion out for a meal during that week.

Once you have the chicken, what can you do with it:


Chicken Caesar Sandwiches:  Place shredded Chicken in a slow cooker with a bottle of Caesar dressing and shredded parmesan cheese.  Leave it for a few hours and scoop onto buns.

Creamed Chicken sandwiches:  Place shredded Chicken and can of condensed cream of chicken soup and pack of crushed buttered crackers in slow cooker.  Leave it for a few hours and scoop onto buns.

Chicken burritos, quesadillas, tacos:  Use shredded chicken in all your Mexican dishes!

Use it to top your Salads or Pizza.

What are some of your favorite recipes with shredded chicken?

Single Mom Tips: Kids Lunch Edition

Our Mobile Therapist was over yesterday, he told me to go relax for awhile and he would run the therapy session.  He didn't have to ask me twice, I ran as fast as I could!  After enjoying some soup (and by soup I mean Shrimp Ramen Noodles---they are just SO good) for dinner in peace and quiet, I began to get started on my monthly lunch prep.  As I was working in the kitchen, the Mobile Therapist came out to chat and he was amazed at my system.  I started thinking of all the little things us Mom's do to make our life easier and thought it would be a great idea for some blog posts!  My goal for 2014 is to get systems in place for everything, so it all runs smoothly!

Today I'm going to talk about how I do school lunches in our house.  Right now I only have one school age child who needs a lunch every day (but I always try and set my house up as if I have more since you never know who will be here the next day in the world of foster care.  My younger ones also have "lunch bunch" three days a week at preschool, this is where they can stay for an extra hour after school and eat lunch/play.  On the other two days a week we are often out running around doing errands or appointments.  I found I ended up grabbing food while we were out and wasting money and not eating healthy.  So now I try and have all of us pack a lunch Monday through Friday, if we don't end up being out we can always eat it at home!

Our LUNCH fridge, Excuse the awful unfinished basement :)

 



In our basement I have a "mini" fridge, although its bigger than a dorm sized fridge.  You could easily find a full sized fridge on craigslist to use for this or maybe a shelf in your regular fridge.   This little fridge I found on sale at home depot and it is the perfect size to keep lunch stuff in without having anything else in there to distract little hands.  I keep a basket in the top where the lunch bags stay.  In the morning the boys go down stairs, get their lunch bags and make their lunch.  They take one item from each bin/basket and they are on their way!

Drinks- We have these water bottles that are reusable and are easy to fill up at the beginning of the week.  Matthew takes one a day and puts it in his lunch box, at the end of the day he puts it in the dishwasher.  Matthew isn't a big water fan so I sometimes put lemonade powder in or a juice/water mix.  Lunch bunch doesn't allow drinks, they give them water.  I keep some water bottles in the car if we are out and about for lunch.

Water- Free, Lemonade Powder $.05

Sandwiches-  My kids LOVE Peanut Butter and Jelly they will eat it every meal if I let them.  My school age child is allowed to have PB at school but the preschool does not.  To make it easy I just use 'sun butter' on the sandwiches, so as not to upset the preschool or cause any allergic reactions :) You can buy it in bulk on Amazon.    I also mark on their sandwiches that it is Sunbutter- Allergen Free, PB Alternative.....otherwise the preschool gets all crazy at lunch bunch!  Now despite the fact my kids love PB&J I LOATHE making them, all that sticky gooey mess, ugh.  So instead of making sandwiches every day I make them once a month...that's right once a month I make at least 60 PB & J sandwiches (and about 30 Ham and Cheese).  I will usually buy 3 loaves of bread and a bulk size of tortilla shells or if I see any rolls/bread/tortilla on the day old shelf for a good price I will buy them all!  I spread out the bread and shells and go down the line factory style spreading the sun butter/pb and jelly.  I roll up the tortillas, cut everything in half put them in the cheap sandwich baggies from the dollar store.  Then I put the sandwich bags back in the bag the bread or tortillas came in and stick the whole thing in the freezer.  In the morning the kids pull out a sandwich and stick it in their lunch bag, the sandwich will keep everything cold till lunch and be defrosted and ready to eat when lunch time comes around.

PB- $10/month  Bread-$10/month  Jelly- $10/month  90 sandwiches breaks down to about $0.33 per sandwich which can be even cheaper if you buy the items when they go on sale.  I average about $0.15 per sandwich, we stock up on PB/Sunbutter and Jelly when it goes on sale and this is a great way to buy bread that is on the day old shelf and use it up before it gets stale!


Fruit-  Our fruit bin contains fresh fruit like apples, bananas, or grapes in ziplock baggies.  I also will put applesauce, dried fruit, fruit snacks, fruit cups or fruit "chips" in the bin occasionally if something is on sale.  I also have little containers with caramel or sunbutter or our greek yogurt and honey dip in the bin.  The boys pick one item from the fruit bin (and a dip if they want) and place it in their bag.

Fresh Fruit- $0.10- $.25 a piece

Vegetables- The vegetable basket has fresh carrots, celery, and peas in ziploc along with ranch and sunbutter dips in small containers.  I also have veggie chips and dried veggies available if I see them on sale.  Again the boys pick one and put it in the bag.

Fresh Veggies and dip- Avg $.25 a serving

Snacks-  Ah, now we are getting to the fun stuff!  Snacks!  I typically look for snack foods on sale and will fill this basket up accordingly; goldfish, chips, teddy grahams,, yogurt, etc.  You can buy a larger size for cheaper and then break it down to portion size in baggies.

Snacks- The most I will spend on snacks is $.25 a serving, I prefer it to be around $.10.

Desserts-  We are still working our way through Halloween candy over here!  We are so close to finishing that up!  In addition to the candy, I have things like pudding, cookies, brownies, etc in this basket.  Most of the desert items are homemade. Ill make a double batch of cookies or brownies so we have some for after dinner and the rest for lunch.  If I have a coupon and something is on sale I'll grab them for the basket.

Desserts- Most of the desserts are homemade and a serving would cost me less than $.10 to make.

TOTAL COSTS:  So we are looking at about an average of $1.25 or so per lunch.  In reality by buying things on sale and stocking up it probably costs us closer to $.75 per lunch.  This is way cheaper than buying everyone fast food meals and a whole lot healthier.  Not to mention the effort on my end is minimal as I just check the refrigerator at  the beginning of the week and replenish what is running low!


What about you do you have any great time/money/sanity saving tips?  Id love to hear them in the comments or if you would like to write a guest post contact me through the form on the right.

Next week I'll be posting on easy lunches for us busy MOM's!  :)