Making lunches is a lot of work.
Well, making lunches, breakfast, and dinner is a lot of work.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, morning snack, afternoon snack – so much time preparing food. And then there’s the clean up. My knees are developing arthritis from the amount of time I’m spending at the kitchen counter. I might invest in orthotic indoor shoes.
Let’s not even start in about the grocery budget.
So where does every parent go when they are looking for meal ideas for their family? Pinterest, of course. But what I found there was not time-saving lunch ideas. Nooooo. Instead I discovered a cornucopia of pins dedicated to sandwiches cut into fun shapes, fruit kabobs, and smiley faced vegetables. Um, I was looking to do less preparation. Who are these people?
As a public service, I decided to share my own great tips for Easy Lunches On A Budget. Here’s my first instalment.
Easy Mac and Cheese Your Kids Will Love.
1. Get two boxes, you don’t want to run short. Your kids are counting on you.
2. Prepare as directed. But why not go with 5% cream? It adds just that hint of decadence your family craves.
3. Serve. But not in those plastic bowls from IKEA. The real dishes, mom. Because nothing says “your worth it” like breakable dishware.
4. Here’s a secret I debated about posting. But it’s too good not to share. Fresh-ground paper for a gourmet twist.
Future Posts Coming Soon: Frozen Pizza – Not Just for Dinner, Bologna and You, and Sometimes Leftovers Are Your Friend.
Tough Bananas 
Paper?
On occasion that would be acceptable. Don’t forget I married an environmentalist.
To make it gourmet we throw some hot dogs in it and drizzle some ketchup over top 😉 Just in case you would like to mix it up.
Fancy. I like it.
it really is love in a box. I hate to say it though, this is still a little too time-intensive for me…;)
The key is to pace yourself.
Real mom’s make Bologna sandwiches in bulk (why make them one at a time when you can get an assembly line going and have the week’s lunches prepped)… and then throw in a granola bar, fruit snacks and an apple (to make sure they’re eating healthy)
Insider tip: fry the balogna – it will blow their minds.
We got some free “recipe” magazine from Kraft once. Some of the recipes would list generic ingredients until it got to a Kraft item. e.g.
Eggs
Salt
Kraft 100% natural Italian blend finely shredded cheese
Tomato paste
Anyways, one of the “recipes” was Digiornio pizza (Delisioso for you Canadian folks). The difference? Cutting it into strips. Seriously. That was it.
Kraft recipes are mostly just directions.
I mean, seriously, your kids would tell everyone at school you were the best cook ever if you whipped this up.
I have quite a fan base.
Sometimes I make fish sticks. It blows their minds.
I could hear cheers when they discovered there are crescent rolls in the fridge.