Meal prepping may sound more like a homemaking than a homeschooling issue, but it can significantly benefit my homeschooling day.
When I plan ahead and have lunches that are quick to make, can be thrown into the crockpot that morning, or are made ahead of time and just warmed up, it benefits my homeschool.
My children are more focused in the morning, and we try to do the majority of our schooling before lunchtime. While everyone’s time schedule is different, we try to have chores, breakfast, etc., done by 9 a.m., and then we jump into our morning routine. Morning time is complete by ten, which leaves us approximately two hours before lunchtime.
For my elementary school children, two hours is sufficient to complete most of their daily schoolwork (we do music and art lessons in the afternoons). However, if I do not have a good lunch plan, I am cutting into those two hours, and we cannot finish everything.
We can finish after lunch, but that cuts into outside time, hobbies, house cleaning, my work schedule, etc. It is also harder for them to refocus and finish up after having the lunch break.
When I meal plan for lunches, I think about things that can be made in 10-15 minutes or can be prepped ahead of time. As an added bonus, I find that when I plan and prep for lunch ahead of time, it is far easier for me to make sure that we are eating well-balanced meals with plenty of protein and vegetables.
Some of our favorites:
- Salads (chef, fried chicken, taco, etc.)
- Soups
- Calzones (prep a batch and freeze, then pop them in the over)
- Chicken Salad
- Pasta Salad
- Nachos
- Quesadillas with fruit and side salads
- Loaded Baked Potatoes (cook the potatoes in the crock pot or instant pot)
- Pasta with veggie and meat sauce (sauce in the crock pot and boil noodles for lunch)
I would love to hear more about your favorite quick and easy lunches and how you set things up to make your homeschool days more efficient.
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I meal plan for lunch, too. We do frozen pizza and beef tacos once a week, and I may throw in a day of chicken tacos, too. We are in a busy season right now, so often, two meals a week are eaten out, and we take our taco leftovers to the co-op. I try to have fruit with all the meals we eat at home.
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Great ideas!
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