Outsource Your Meal Prep & Save Time & Money

Posted by Susan Epstein on July 26th, 2010 at 09:11pm

On Sunday afternoon, set up an assembly line at the kitchen table.

You will need:

Bread for as many sandwiches to feed the family for one week.
Luncheon meats, tuna fish, PB& J, or whatever else you and the kids like.
Labels or scraps of paper for labeling.
Sandwich bags or tin foil, whatever you prefer.

How to do it:

Have the kids lay out all the bread on cookie sheets or parchment paper on the kitchen table.
Also have piles of lunch meats, condiments, peanut butter and jelly. Have kids make all the sandwiches.
Have the kids label them.
Put the sandwiches in your freezer where the kids can see them and the labels. (If you have a deep freeze with a top rack, or your fridge has a bottom freezer this works best for kids to see and reach.)
In the fridge or on the counter have a fruit bowl available where the kids can grab an apple, orange, banana…
In the cabinet or on the counter have a dessert/snack dish available with portion size snacks available to add to the lunches. (pre-measure the snacks- raisins, cookies, crackers, cheese in snack size sandwich bags-kids can also do this and it is cheaper than buying them already snack sized)
In the morning before sitting down to breakfast have the kids choose a sandwich from the freezer, a piece of fruit, a snack, dessert, napkin, etc. (If they go to day camp or daycare have them put the items in the lunch box. If you do this for August, getting ready for return to school will be a breeze!)

You do the same- again think of all the money you will save by not eating lunch out!

Parent Hint: If you prefer salad for lunch, while preparing the dinner salad make extra and put in plastic wear. Make extra chicken or other protein, such as tofu, salmon, steak,etc. at dinner and during cleanup add this to your salad. A few cranberries, and almonds, a sprinkle of oil and vinegar and you are good to go! Store in fridge and grab in the morning!