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In two hours my daughter, Alana, will be leaving to catch a 5:00 am bus to Idaho with her ballroom dance team for a competition. Performing tours are not cheap and food is another expense.
Since they'll be riding the bus for a number of hours, I packed up some food for the trip. I told you about our Easy Lunchboxes months ago, but after this exercise in meal packing I was so impressed, I had to take photos.
Using one of our Easy Lunchboxes, I packed away enough food for the entire first day of travel. (Read that: less restaurant money down the drain.)
In one lunch bag cooler, I packed the following:
- Food container #1 (breakfast): apple/maple oatmeal with vanilla yogurt; clementine; raisins
- Food container #2 (lunch): whole wheat turkey cheese bagel; baby carrots; celery sticks with peanut butter; M&Ms
- Extras: apple; banana; 2 yogurt containers; 3 cheese sticks; ice pack; spoons; napkins; note
All that in one cooler! Better food; less money. We use our Easy Lunchboxes all the time. Love them!
Alison Moore Smith is a 61-year-old entrepreneur who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 40 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons. She is the author of The 7 Success Habits of Homeschoolers.
LOL! If we didn’t have white tile in our kitchen I would think these were OUR filled- to- the- brim lunchbags Alison! Go Team Alana!!!!!!
Is that THE Kelly Lester? The one in the vid with Greg Brady that you told me about? Loved it!
Thanks!!! It’s me, THAT KL, lol. So appreciate your compliment 🙂
Personally I use road trips as an excuse to have all the unhealthy foods I ate on vacation as a little kid but dont eat now.Pringles chocolate covered peanuts cheese-its..also one-hand non-messy foods that dont have to be eaten hot like empanadas left over pizza a white pizza with grilled chicken and spinach would be delicious cold calzones ahd fried pies are great and easy if you dont want to stop to assemble sandwiches at a rest stop..
I like those containers with the separate compartments. Clever. I’ve been looking for something like that for my kids to take to school.
Hi Alison,
We do this when we take long trips! Nothing like avoiding the yuck fast food scene. Admittedly, I do eat more fast food than I should, but we get so tired of spending the money to eat out. BTW, my kids love yogurt. They would absolutely love the kind in the pics. Thanks!
There’s just something about sitting in a car (or on a plane) for hours, isn’t there. The boredom just pulls your hand into the pringles can. But we’ve been pretty successful packing up healthy food to alleviate some of that. Of course, eating an entire bag of baby carrots has it’s own drawbacks. Don’t ask me how I know.
Well-balanced meals, easy lunchbox packing and I’m a Great Value yogurt eater as well 🙂 Nifty article!
Jon
Thanks, Jon. Glad you could stop by!
I actually love the GW light yogurts. Not perfect formulations for clean eaters, but some flavors are mighty tasty.
Hey Alsion,
I love these kind of lunch boxes too. I just wish my kids would actually eat the food I put in them – only half gets eaten some days. Usually the reason cited is ‘we didn’t have time’ or ‘I had to go and do something’ etc…. Makes for ravenous kids at the end of day! Still, I think compartmentalised lunch boxes do encourage variety and just make the food look nicer. I should use mine more often…..
Moin, I know what you mean! Packed a lunch just last week for a kid with a day full of commitments, only to have it come home completely intact…a few days later when it wasn’t edible. Ack.
Generally, though, if my kids come home ravenous with a half-eaten lunch, they will get de-ravenous by eating the rest. 🙂
I have these and love them too. My kids want to take a home lunch to school more often because they think these containers are so cool. I love that they’re not eating the garbage they serve at the school.
That’s great Vennesa! We homeschool and sometimes my kids want to use them even if we’re eating in the kitchen. We also take them on field trips and to long rehearsals, etc.
I wish someone prepared such box for me every morning – in this case I would have no problems with weight 🙂
Packing such meals really does help with weight! Planning out some healthy meals — when you’re not starving and/or super busy — is the best way to make it easy to eat healthy food. 🙂
I have an idea (maybe I should apply to the company that produces such boxes) – they should provide the list of possible things for packing, for example, several variants for those who prefer healthy food, for those who eat fast food and so on. It can be rather useful as we will not have to think – just buy and enjoy.
Kelly Lester, the owner of Easy Lunchboxes posts regularly on her blog with great meal ideas. She does focus on healthy eating, to be sure! But if you have ideas, do pass them on to her. She loves to share information.
But I want to know how the competition went??!!! 🙂
They won some awards, placed in a few events. Got robbed in syllabus because the event organizers messed up and ended up combining heats so there were 50+ couples in opening heat with only a handful of judges. You can’t just that many people with no time and few judges. Alana got some serious camera time (it was televised) for her dance with the T-Wolf mascot.
Got third in Team Match — if you’ve never seen team match, it is a hoot. Basically it’s a four-event competition where weird takes all, competitors bow in homage to the judges, get higher scores for best judge bribes (even getting 10.5 out of 10 if they go all out), and generally just get crazy.
And Timpanogos won the Spirit Award of the event. 🙂 They had a blast. She missed choir tour for ballroom tour, but drama tour is next week. Sigh.
Well congrats to all then! What a ball (pun intended) she must be having with all this. Ah… to be back in high school again….well, maybe not 😉
It can save money and time as well. As a kid, they used to eat more often so it’s much advisable to let them bring their lunchboxes. It’s also important to have them something that they can eat easily to avoid any hassle. Something that they can just pick and put in their mouth. Of course, as parent, you must also think of the nutritional value of the food too.
Samantha, I sure wish someone would prepare my food, for the very reason you said!
I really like the containers with theseperate compartments I had one before but have been looking for another, They are very useful as sometimes things get squashed in the lunchbox. Its nyc to hav things sitting seperately.
John, they really are great. Last night I used one to send our St. Patrick’s Day dinner with a daughter in a rehearsal. Kept it yummy. 🙂
Very true… Less money down the drain in expensive restaurants and fast-foods. I work as a salesman and I’m always on the go. I started packing a lunch box and it really made an impact on my checkbook.
Way to go!
This is good idea that you keep fruit with you on any trip . . and your lunch box is so large !