Tips To Save Time
Follow our time saving hacks to help busy parents and carers send a healthy lunchbox full of everyday foods.
- Planning ahead will save you time in the morning. It’s much quicker to pack the lunchbox if you already know what’s going in it. Try our ‘SWAP It Everyday Lunchbox Planner’.
- Stock the pantry, fridge and freezer with everyday snacks. If you don’t have ‘sometimes’ snacks in the house your children won’t be able to ask for them. Out of sight, out of mind.
- Make an assembly line and prepare the lunchbox the night before while you are making dinner. Store perishables in the fridge and non-perishables in the lunchbox ready to go.
- Boil and peel eggs either the night before or on the weekend. Eggs will last in the fridge for about a week if they are kept in a well-sealed container with damp paper towel.
- Cut vegetable sticks the night before and store in the fridge.
- Buy fruit that can be packed whole. Try apples, grapes, bananas and mandarins.
- Choose snack sized vegetables like baby cucumbers, snow peas and cherry tomatoes that are ready to go.
- Choose a lunchbox that is easy to clean, seals well and fits in the school bag.
- Have plenty of different sized containers ready to go for everyday snacks such as rice crackers, hummus, pikelets, cheese and vegetable sticks.
- Set up a lunchbox packing station at home with a container for fruit, vegetables and savoury snacks that are ready to go. Ensure it is topped up over the weekend, making it quick and easy to assemble the lunchbox during the week.
- The lunchbox can be packed the night before and stored in the fridge so it’s ready the next day.
- Don’t forget to add an ice brick from the freezer in the morning.
- Make a batch of everyday snacks on the weekend such as zucchini slice or fruit scones and pop them straight from the freezer into the lunchbox in the morning.
- Pre-make sandwiches and store them in the freezer until they are ready to be packed in the lunchbox. Fillings such as cheese, vegemite, roast meat and egg freeze best. Pack salad in a separate container so it can easily be added onto the sandwich at lunchtime.
