Healthy Kosher Snack & Lunch Ideas

The Wolin Family is getting organized.
Don't laugh.
This is not a joke, I promise.
Although I am the most disorganized person in the world
It's not fair to make my children suffer anymore.
I'm an artist.
Nuff' said.
OY.

I decided that the first thing I'm going to do tackle
On my master makeover list is..........
School lunches.

I hate them.
I hate preparing them.
I hate making them.
I hate sending them.
I never have time to make them!
I wish wish wish my school provided my kids with lunches!
But they don't.

I guess there is a plus side though.
I get to have control over what my kids eat.
I am pretty particular about purchasing healthy snacks and foods.
Which is not always so simple since my family eats only kosher.

I try very hard to find foods that have
No GMO's
No corn syrup
And I try to buy the dirty dozen organically.

My favorite place to shop is Trader Joes.
They have a huge selection of kosher healthy food and snacks.
I tend to go shopping there every Monday and stock up on everything I will need to make my kids lunches for the week. Mind you I have 5 kids ranging from playgroup to Middle School. So I need a lot of snack and bread!

This is what the new me does :)

As soon as I come home from the market and my groceries are put away I start to separate all the snack in to individual ziplock bags. I cut up all the fruit and veggies before hand and separate them into ziplocks also. I have 4 bins (1) Nosh (2) Snack (3) Fruit (1) Veggies. Every day my kids can take out 1 bag from each of the containers to take with them to school.  I used to do this all 5 seconds before carpool was coming. Now it's just so simple and easy. Everything is ready for them!

Here's what's in each of the bins, but I alternate from week to week
(1) Nosh - Chips, cookies, bars
(2) Snack - Pretzels, crackers, popcorn
(3) Fruit - Apple slices, melon, orange, banana ect.....
(4) Vegetables - carrots, celery, peppers

I store my snack bins in my drawer and the fruit and veggies in my fridge. Every morning I take it out and put it on my counter for the kids to choose what they want to take that day. I refill the bins as needed.

Here are the top 10 lunches my kids love to eat. 

- Veggie burgers (my pickiest eater - go figure)

- Salad (Jr. high kid)

- Cheese sandwiches (LOVE my cheese maker) 

- Tuna in a sandwich or pepper

- Turkey sandwiches

- Yogurt 

- Hard boiled eggs or egg sandwich

- Cereal & Milk

- Fish Sticks & Applesauce

- Chicken Nuggets

I really hope that my ideas are helpful to you.
And I REALLY hope that I can maintain this throughout the year.
It has truly made my life easier in the morning.
At least I've got one item checked off my list.
Next up...... CHORES!

Till next time,
Abbey