48 // The Lunch Packing Plan You Need As Your Kids Transition Back to School
The Lunch Packing Plan You Need As Your Kids Transition Back to School:
3 steps to take BEFORE school starts (that don’t include pinning a single idea on Pinterest)
This time of year, it is easy to get sucked into saving all of these aspirational lunch box ideas (even if we know half of them our child wouldn't ever eat). We start the year strong and with good intent, but too often, our kids end up burnt out on the same PB&J every day before we even make it to Christmas break.
That's why, in this episode, I want to give you my three-step plan to take BEFORE that burnout hits so that the variety you want and the foods your kids crave can coexist well into the school year. These tasks don't take a lot of time now, if you work through what I outline in this episode as you listen! Instead, take these five minutes being proactive before the lunch-packing season is in full swing to save your sanity and your child's stomach before back to school.
Listen to this episode of The Veggies & Virtue Podcast now!
Full Episode Transcription
Please note this a raw transcription. If something doesn’t read correctly, toggle to that timestamp in the show so that you can listen in on what was actually being said!
[00:00:00] Hey there. And on today's episode, we are gonna talk about something I would like for you to do before back to school. And not that your mind, isn't probably already Swar with a million different tasks. You need to take care of to get your school back to school, or excuse me to get your kids back to school already.
[00:00:17] But this is something that is super actionable and doesn't take that much extra effort now. If you are proactive about it. However, if you ask me three, six months from now, and you're already started in school year, and you're having some of the struggles that I wanna help you prevent during the school year.
[00:00:38] Then they will be a lot harder to be able to address, especially within school already being underway. So take a listen to some of the tips I give you three steps that I want you to go ahead and do to help add variety to the offerings that you're gonna be sending in your kids' lunchbox. And I promise they're not going to be go look at Pinterest and go get more ideas.
[00:00:59] That's not where I'm gonna tell you to start. So tune in and make sure that you take care of these three. Before you move on to the next task today.
[00:01:10] Hey mama, I'm Ashley, and welcome to the veggies and virtue podcast. In this podcast, you will find simple menu ideas, kitchen, organizational systems, spelled out for mom life and feeding tips and tricks that are both evidence based and grace laced. I believe that you can find flexibility when it comes to feeding your family so that you can feel calm, capable.
[00:01:28] Did in the kitchen as a registered dietician and Christian mom of three myself. I want you to break free from the mealtime battles and to feel equipped while feeding your kids all day long, pull up a stool at my kitchen counter. And let me pour you a cup of coffee and say a quick prayer for you. It's time to chat about the meal times messes moments and ministry of motherhood.
[00:01:50] So I wanna share a story with you guys today. I think back to gosh, like six years ago. Now when my oldest I didn't even have my second daughter yet when my oldest just started moms day out, it was a couple months before I was due with my second. And it was the first time, like we were really packing lunches for her to go anywhere outside the home.
[00:02:11] And she was going two part days a week. And it was really sweet and everything, but the reason I bring this up is because I remember. As a new mom, particularly as a dietician mom, how defeated I felt over how little she would eat in her lunch box. And I would send her these lunch boxes that I felt were so nutritionally sound and, you know, would give her the fuel that she would need for the day.
[00:02:38] And she would eat so little. And I struggled a lot because then at school, her, the preschool that the little mom stay out, that she went to. would serve, they would serve snacks. And I still remember, I can like vividly remember the way this teacher looked. And I don't even remember all of her teachers over the last six years, which maybe that's sad, but I should remember them all.
[00:03:00] But I remember this one so vividly. . And I remember her telling me about the day that she let Claire eat the whole box of like letter cookies at snack because she asked if she could have more. And the teacher gave her the whole box because she hadn't really eaten much lunch. And I just remember, I.
[00:03:19] Feeling such shame, not that she wanted those cookies, but just that, like, I hadn't done my job of fueling my kid for school. And, you know, here, she was like, just about two. And we were already in the thick of having these struggles that the foods that were offered elsewhere and that, you know, the snacks that the preschool would offer versus the foods that I was sending from home were so vastly different that it was creating.
[00:03:45] An issue. And this was really the birth of love it, like it learning it. And I quickly realized how many learning it foods I was sending in her lunchbox. And while as aspirational as it was, and as much as I would've loved to have my daughter eating all of those options, the reality was is her love it list was really, really, really short when we.
[00:04:11] Started ever filling a bento box for her. And I remember as a mom with such competing interests as a dietician you know, wanting these foods for her that were really learning at foods versus knowing that the foods that she would eat the very few love it, foods that we had were really what I needed to be sending her to school so that she had some safe options that she had some preferred options that she had.
[00:04:35] Some things that I. that she would feel comfortable eating, particularly when she was in an entirely new environment. And she was, you know, not just going to a new little day program, but also eating in a new environment with new people. And there was just so much newness to it. And I'll, I'll be really honest.
[00:04:55] It took me years to, to both transition her into a wider variety of Lovet foods. Was a process that unfortunately cannot be rushed, but you absolutely can do things to help assist and equip your child to expand their love it list when it's starting out really small. But it also took me years to adapt to what I think she really needed me to send her to school.
[00:05:24] Again, I, I knew what I wanted to send her and then I knew what she would eat and they were in conflict at times. And so it took me longer, I think, to accept the reality of what she would eat at school and at lunch. And when there wasn't this, like learning to like it at home and environment where I could help like pace her meals and snacks throughout the day and not expect her to just, you know, work within what times food was offered.
[00:05:49] And so I just share this because you know, whether your child's starting daycare, starting moms day out starting preschool, or, you know, full time pre-K or moving into elementary school, or maybe moving from one elementary school to another, and it's just a new environment. And, you know, the meal times are different and there's just so many dynamics as we get back into.
[00:06:10] I share this story because over the last six years, and with each of the kids, you know, they've each had different appetites. They've all had different preferences. And you know, our lunch packing process has evolved a lot and thankfully their love it. Like it learning it list has evolved so much, but I think that early introduction to motherhood.
[00:06:33] that was so vastly different than what I had both imagined. And also what I had like so deeply yearned to have with my daughter shaped me a lot as a dietician to understand the realities of feeding our kids, especially when they're not in our care. It's one thing. If you're really squishing the control for someone else to be in charge of feeding them, whether it be a caretaker at home or at someone else's home, but when you're sending them to school and.
[00:07:01] day after day, you know, it is your job to provide that. And there isn't, you know, a, a meal program at the school or something as an alternative, we wanna know that we're sending our kids foods that do help them to feel safe and secure and ultimately satisfied after that meal is done, whether they choose to eat at all or not is not always indicative of the food being sent.
[00:07:25] Kids can self regulate. Even the foods that they. But my point in bringing this up is that we have to be cognizant of are these familiar enough foods that we would actually expect our child would eat of them in a different environment. And so I wanna jump into today. Some of the things that I would encourage you to consider over the coming week.
[00:07:47] Before your child may be starting any sort of educational program outside the home where they might be eating lunch away from home and away from you. And so with this, if you listen to the episode on Monday, I shared about, you know, preparing them and giving them the just real tactical, practical life skills of knowing how to open their lunch box, refill a water bottle.
[00:08:11] You know, twist off snack container lids, or, you know, open any packages that might be common. Things like that, that just can help them have as much time as possible to actually eat because those things are not barriers to them being able to access their food. But in today's episode, I want us to talk about the contents of that lunch box.
[00:08:30] Whether you send items in zip blocks or reusable bags or a bento box or whatever you choose, what I want us to talk about today is the content. Of what's in that lunch. And I approach this not from an idealistic standpoint of me giving you all these super healthy ideas that are very unrealistic from an honest perspective, that your child is going to eat.
[00:08:54] What I want you to do is first, I want you to write down, whichever is easier. You can look retrospectively or prospective. At least three days worth of meals that you have either, or excuse me, three days worth of lunches that you either wet lunches. Did you serve your child over the last three days?
[00:09:12] Sometimes that can be easier to just recall the last three days lunches or tell me, what do you have planned for the next three days? Or if you wanna be really aspirational, do three days back and three days forward, if you kind of know in general for over the course of the week, what you might be feeding your child, because I want you to look at your family's unique, starting.
[00:09:31] And to use that as your template to move forward with, because we can go pin all these different, cute lunchbox packing ideas, which is great to give us some new ideas as we start the school year. But so often I see all of us moms doing this as we start the new school year with, you know, Fresh excitement and fresh ideas.
[00:09:50] And then come Thanksgiving and Christmas were already kind of burnt out. And if you have a child who's more adventurous and isn't as selective around food, maybe it doesn't matter for a year for you or for your child, what you send in their lunch box. And if that's you, that is awesome. And I would almost encourage you to not even to not even bother listening to the rest of this episode.
[00:10:12] However, I am going to. It's important that you do have some understanding that that's not the position all parents are in. And honestly, I think that's why I went through so much of what I went through with my first born being so selective early on is because I needed that perspective. I needed that perspective as a mom, so that.
[00:10:33] in my empath personality type. I could deeply feel as a dietician. What so many families I work with are going through. And so I'm not, you know, sharing advice and my expertise from this soap box and high horse that has zero understanding, but so that I really can relate to how hard that is when. You want your child to learn, to like, and accept everything.
[00:10:54] And yet ultimately they aren't. And so I share that perspective because if you are with a child who will eat, whatever you send them in their lunch box, I am so happy for you. That that is not one of the struggles that you were facing in motherhood, because we all face different struggles and I'm happy for you that that's not one of your struggles.
[00:11:11] And so I praise God for that. And. I just give the teaser that this episode is going to be more for the mom who does struggle to come up with what to send and does struggle with their kid, not eating anything that's unfamiliar and does feel like they're in a Ru because they send the same thing every day.
[00:11:30] And so, as I said, the first thing I want you to do is to go ahead and write down at least three days worth of lunches. If it is the same exact thing every day, write that down. If it is switching up the fruit or the cracker or the beverage or anything that changes anything, the bread, the smear that you put on the PB.
[00:11:51] Any difference. I want you to note that and if it is the exact same lunch, three different days, that is totally fine. We are talking about your starting place. There is no perfection here. We are looking at how we can make progress between now and when your child does go back to school. So you feel prepared in what to pack for them for lunch.
[00:12:08] So I want you to write that. and then usually if you know me and my framework and my meal, Times's made easy method. Well, you know, that usually I would be recommending a love it, like it learning it framework. So that there's the love, it foods that, you know, your child prefers the learning it foods that your child may or may not be familiar with and likely won't eat.
[00:12:30] And then they like it foods that they may or may not eat, but you've, you know, seen them enjoy it before. And as I mentioned in the intro with my story, what I was doing with my daughter early on, before I, when I knew the division of responsibility and I knew this responsive feeding approach that my job was what went and where food was offered.
[00:12:48] So I felt very confident in that, but I felt very stuck because what I was offering, she wasn't eating and it was just this. Tug on my heartstrings to nourish her and make sure that like she had enough food in her belly to sleep at night and go to school during the day and not just, you know, want all the preschool snacks that I wasn't sending with also giving her good nutrition and setting her up with a good foundation for feeding that would fuel her growth and development.
[00:13:17] And. what I want you to consider is as you look over the next two days of lunches again at home, and when you know that you know, they may not be relying as heavily on whatever food you've sent, because you have multiple eating opportunities during the day to feed your child. But if your child's eating their.
[00:13:36] You know, any number of meals and if it's, you know, snacks and lunches at school, we wanna be more in tune with where do those foods fall. So I want you to look at the lunches you're offering right now. And you know, whether you're a color coding kind of person, you know, find three different color pens or highlighters or just right next to 'em, are they love it?
[00:13:54] Foods that, you know, your child preferentially enjoys and eats majority of the time. Are they like it? Or are they learning it foods? And I just want you to take a quick snapshot from those three days. Again, if they're the same three things or the same meal, three, each of the three days make a note of that.
[00:14:11] But if there's any difference, any cracker difference, any difference in the packaging of cheese you offer any difference in the packaging of pouches or fruit or any single difference between the items. I want you to specify that because that specificity is going to be really important to our next. so step one, write down your menu.
[00:14:31] Step two, identify if it's a love it a like it or a learning it food. Then your third step is we are going to look at those menus and the distribution of love it, like it and learning it items that you are already offering, because I want you to think about it like this. We need, especially at the beginning of the school year, when there's so many things new, we need the majority of the food that we're sending to be a Lovet food.
[00:14:55] It's just the reality. And I would say you can send some like it foods, but if you're sending a learning at food, you need to think it's about the size of what you would give a Lego man. You might have heard me quote, Don Winkle, man. I believe her last name is, and she uses that reference and it always, I think gives such an exceptional visual, but I want you to literally visualize a Lego man in your child's lunch box, offering a learning at food.
[00:15:19] And that's the size of the learning at food that you're offering. You're offering a small portion. If you feel. That is effective and worthwhile and not going to stress your kid out at school because no one's gonna be there to help facilitate the learning to like process. And so if it's a food that you know is just blatantly gonna be rejected or help cause so much anxiety for your kid, that it makes them shut down about all the other things you've offered.
[00:15:42] in my opinion, it's just not worth it, especially in those early weeks. But what I do think is worth it, especially over the next few weeks before kids go back to school is to see how can we expand on the love it foods that you know, your child already loves and eats and grow their comfort level with some of those like it foods so that we can build in some variety to this menu, because whether you already have three different days of menus that you're starting with, or you have the same menu on repeat three times.
[00:16:11] We need to make sure that as we get into the swing of things with school, that our child doesn't lose one of these safe foods, because when we make our love it, like at learning at list and our child has a shorter love, it list a shorter list of foods that they really enjoy and that they preferentially eat.
[00:16:31] And that we can just lean on as kind of our staples and probably a lot of what make up those go to lunch items that you've either been offering or planned to offer this. when our child starts to lose those. And we're already starting with a short list. It makes it very challenging to find ideas of what to feed them because we lost our safe option.
[00:16:52] And so I, what I want you to see is what are those Loveit foods right now? Or even going into what are those like it foods now. And that's where I was asking you note any variation, because if you've looked at my lunch deck of combination cards before you know that I talk a lot about the variations, because we can come up with a mealtime combination, we can kind of come up with whatever that day's menu is.
[00:17:14] But what we need to start doing is making these small variations. Two, the items that we know our child loves because then if they only like PB and J on one kind of bread with one kind of peanut butter, with one kind of jelly, cut one certain shape, then if they're either on a food Ja with it where they like it so much that they eat it every single day, but then they burn out on it.
[00:17:36] We're back to nothing. I mean, we don't have a lot of options then for what to send them for lunch. Additionally, God forbid, you run out of bread or peanut butter or that jelly. And you have to make shift for a day until you get to the store or whatever, you know, you're sick and your husband makes it. And God forbid, he makes it different than you do.
[00:17:55] Your child is not prepared for that real life scenario. And so what I want you to be working on these next couple weeks is take with where you're starting. Start with that few days worth of menu and look at it and identify, is there any small change I can. to help expand the number of foods my child might.
[00:18:16] Because what we're looking for is, you know, in the feeding space, this is called food chaining. And again, I share this on the back of every single combination card on each of the lunch decks. So on each of the lunch items, they give you different variations that you can offer of the given foods that you're.
[00:18:32] Putting in a, in say a lunch box or whatever it might be, but that might not be a necessarily a realistic starting place for you. But what you do need to do is look at what's the cha what's the biggest change I can make that my child won't care about because right now, whatever you're offering, if you know, it's a love that food.
[00:18:50] That's great. But you wanna ask yourself how big of a change can I. without it interrupting the fact that my child really eats and enjoys this food. So if you know your child loves pizza and you're gonna send pizza in your kids' lunch, is it only one brand, one flavor cooked one way sent in one specific temperature in the lunch box?
[00:19:12] Or is it that you could make English muffin pizzas? You could send leftover pizza. You could send pizza rollups you could. You know, pizza pockets, you could do pizza quesadilla. I mean, you could do a million different variations of pizza and they just like the flavors of pizza or where is the level of specificity there?
[00:19:30] Because if you can begin identifying this and you can begin understanding what qualifiers play into your child's. Preferred love it. Foods, you will begin to identify a lot of additional variations that you can continue to expose them to over the coming weeks before they go back to school. So that when you branch out a little and try and add in some of that variety to their lunchbox.
[00:19:53] They're not rejecting it in the lunch room, but they know it's, it may not be their always complete perfect preferred food, but it's familiar and they know what to expect. And they know that it's similar enough to something that they've eaten before, or maybe it is something they've eaten before. It's just a different variation of how you've offered it.
[00:20:13] and you build in more range to the options that you have. And ultimately that's gonna add variety to the foods that your kid eats, not just at the beginning of the school year, but as the school year goes on. So I really wanna encourage you to do those three steps, make your list either retrospectively over the last few days, what you've been offering for lunch or prospectively, what you plan to serve for lunch over the next few.
[00:20:35] And then step two, I want you to identify how many, love it. Like it are learning at foods are being offered again at home. I think it's great. If you can work through helping your child learn to like new foods, but right now, what I would identify as the third step and the main goal is how can you expand on the love it foods that they're eating or.
[00:20:56] make those like it foods bring in some of those elements that they really enjoy so that it may be something that you can continue to include in the lunch box and that you don't lose these love it, or these like it foods once you get into the school year, because your child burns out on having the same PB and J every day.
[00:21:12] So work through those three steps. If you have questions, reach out to me, tag me on social. Or if you think this episode would be helpful for a friend, I would so appreciate you sharing the podcast for sending them the link for this. So that they can be equipped with this before school starts.
[00:21:28] Additionally, I appreciate, and I read and I am so blessed by every review I see on apple podcast. So if you wanna be entered to win a free set of combination cards, you get not just the lunch deck that I referenced today, but also the breakfast and snack decks. I would love to enter you into. the drawing for those as one of the, just little back to school things I'm doing before the combination cards go away and get completely grandfathered into my meal times made easy method.
[00:21:57] So if you wanna do that, just leave me a review on apple podcast, screenshot it and tag me over on Instagram at veggies and virtue. And I will enter you into the drawing so that you have your chance to win the complete set of combination. Or if you wanna go ahead and get these while they're on an awesome special that I'm running before they get grandfathered into my new.
[00:22:17] Make sure that you go over to veggies, number two.com/shop and order your deck snap. You can get just the PDF of the lunch deck. You can get the physical deck of the lunch deck, if you want something that your kids can flip through. And, you know, there's so many methods to coming up with new ideas, but you can ha you know, let your kids flip through them and put a little sticky note on any of the lunch ideas that they might like.
[00:22:40] And. And that can be a really helpful tool. Also, if you want either the digital or the physical copy of that as you go back to school. So with that, go get working and before maybe you even move on to the next mom task, write down that list right now, even if it's just on the note tabs on your phone. and if it helps to keep you accountable, screenshot it and tag me on social.
[00:23:00] I'd love to encourage you. I'd love to give you ideas. I'd love to help you work through whatever questions you may have as you do those three steps.
[00:23:10] It has been a joy having you on podcast today. And if you've enjoyed it as well. I have a quick favor to ask. Do you mind hopping over to apple podcast and leaving me a written review? This will only take you a hot second, but it truly blesses me every time I get to read one of you right over there. And it allows me to bless others through this podcast and the episodes to come.
[00:23:30] The other thing that you can do is to take a screenshot of this episode and tag me over on Instagram at veggies and virtue, I would love to see what. That you're taking from this episode and also to support your family in the journey moving forward until next time. Thanks for coming over to chat at my kitchen counter.
[00:23:46] Remember that you'll always have a seat and a snack waiting for you here.
