My Lunch Box Menu Idea

With Eden starting 1st grade tomorrow, I am trying to absorb the fact that I now will be fixing a lunch box every day for her. Since my creativity has not yet been sparked for this situation, I have decided to let Eden do the deciding for herself.

I figure, if she takes part in the decision process, she will more than likely eat everything that day.

I created a menu with a list of all the things she will eat, I approve of, and have on hand almost all the time. The night before, she circles what she wants and I pack it up the next day. I laminated the paper so that we could easily wipe off a wet erase marker and start over. For the things that require batch preparation (e.g. brownies, cupcakes, rice krispie treats), I just make up a batch, wrap them individually and freeze them. You can always cross out the things that are not available and then erase it when you get to the store again to buy those items.

If anyone is interested in doing this as well and doesn't want to recreate it themselves, email me or comment on this blog and I would be happy to email you a template and you can change it to your child's tastes.

(A smart tip that I remember my mom sticking with when I was a child was that everything she packed had to be 10 cents or less. If she couldn't get our twinkie, fruit snacks or pretzels for a dime or less, we didn't get it at all.)