School House Rock....

It's back to school day at the Hill home.

Feels so early to be starting, Summer only began just last week.

Boohoohooo.

School time means supplies, clothes, and the dreaded lunches.

Can I just say I am shocked at the price tag of almost $2 a day for school lunch!

With two kiddo's in full time it's almost $100 bones a month.

More money and the nutrition level seems much lower.

I am turning over a new leaf...a green spinach one.

Time to start making home lunch.

Here are my rules:

#1 HEALTHY...but kid approved.

#2 Must be able to be made in advance.

#3 Kids must be involved.

If your making lunches your gonna need gear.

I also spent a couple hours going thru recipes that I thought could be adapted to school size and be able to be frozen or put together  ahead of time.

Here are a few I put together.

Doggie Corn Muffins.

All beef organic hotdogs

Fresh eggs

Corn bread mix

Muffin tin

Mix up corn muffins, stick in a dog {cut in 3rds} bake as directed.

Make a large batch these puppies and freeze!

Drinks get a little iffy. 

So much sugars and processed crap.

I thought making our own juices w/hidden veggies was a great idea.

Plusss it to can be frozen popped in cold and melted by lunch time.

Green Monster Juice.

I dusted off the juicer and the kids went to town shoving in everything they could find.

Guess what, they didn't even question the veggies I put in their hands.

If it went in and came out in juice form, they loved it!

I bought the Ball freezer jam cups to put our juice concoctions in.

Perfect size and the lid screws on.

For the fridge we made Chicken & Chickpea Salad

The trick to salads is to put the dressing on the bottom so it doesn't wilt any veggies.

Just layer with what you like, and shake shake shake at lunch time.

The kids are dying to have this one.

I layered ours with:

dressing

chickpeas

red pepper

shredded chicken

cherry tomato

spinach

Again I used the ball cups in the larger size.

Although I hate to admit I needed them today which meant I had to go to Walmart.

Booo, Hissss.

The kiddos were really pleased with what they had made for their first day of school lunch.

Me too cause it only cost about .75 each

This weekend we have plans to make 

Pizza Pockets

Petite Lasagnas

PB&J Banana Wraps

and more Salads.

Check out these links to some Mom's who also dish out some good lunches.

Benton better lunches

or this one that you can order to your house.

Momables

{does defeat the purpose of saving $$ but you could recreate these}

Thanks for hanging in such a long post with nothing design related...but hopefully this helps some other Mother.

P.S. One little add on.

I wrote a special note in the bottom of each of their lunch bags to remind them how much they are loved all year.

Cheesy I know....but I really really do!