Using leftovers is key to making the bag lunch work during the school year. It saves time, money and energy, and kids love them! When organizing your dinner, think about what you can make that would work for lunch the next day. Make extra servings to use for lunch, set them aside, and when they are cool put them in your containers and refrigerate for the next day.
If you’re making a salad for dinner, add extra vegetables like cucumber, peppers, carrots, celery or tomatoes and put them in your container with the dressing in a separate compartment.
Prepare hard boiled eggs for sliced egg sandwiches, deviled eggs, egg salad or sliced into salad. Just cover any number of eggs with cold water in a saucepan. Turn the burner to high, set the timer for 15 minutes and remove them from the heat when the timer goes off. When they’re cool enough to handle, pop them in the fridge to grab anytime. We keep ours in the fridge door to tell them apart from the raw eggs. They make a great grab-and-go breakfast protein, too.
Try grilling extra vegetables and add those to sandwiches.
If you’re preparing chicken or turkey breast, steak or pork loin, prepare an extra serving and slice it for sandwiches the next day. This is a much healthier alternative to deli meats.
If you’re making meatloaf, make extra and slice it thin for sandwiches.
Make extra brown rice, couscous, pasta or beans. These can beef up canned soups or salads.
Make extra chili or homemade soup ~ excellent the next day. Try combining it with a salad.
If you don’t think they’ll eat something the day after they had it for dinner, just wait a day and try it then.