As a Mom who decided that sending my kids with a school lunch from home was a more feasible and healthy option, I have found some nights that I simply do not want to make these kids lunches. The problem is that my oldest was gaining a lot of weight years back from eating school lunches, so I won’t ever go back that route. I had a dilemma, I wanted to continue to make home school lunches for the kids, but I didn’t want to be spending hours every night making all three kids lunches. What is a Mom to do?
I turned to Google after recently hearing about a local Mom saying she made uncrustables for her kids at home. This was a brilliant idea! I went off to search the Internet, I searched high and I searched low. I came across ways to make uncrustables and found some snacks that I could make too, this would save money and time during the week.
How you make Uncrustables at home is relatively simple. I made Turkey and Cheese (plain without condiments) and PB&J for the kids. I took two pieces of bread, the sandwich ingredients and a coffee cup.
- Place one piece of bread down upon a flat surface.
- Place the meat & cheese or the PB&J in center of the bread.
- Place the second piece of bread on top.
- Use coffee cup or heavy glass circle shaped household item, or a sandwich press to push and hold on the combined sandwich for about 30-40 seconds.
- Once you have held the item to press the sandwich for the allotted time frame, pick it up and voila you have a home made uncrustable!
You can freeze these for each week ahead of time and then not have to make sandwiches every single night for your kids! It’s a perfectly awesome time saver for the week nights. I heard that you can store the PB&J ones for up to a month, so feel free to make these for a couple of weeks ahead of time at once if you have the ambition! Oh and in case you are wondering, the meat uncrustables do not taste bad at all, you wouldn’t even know one had frozen them. (I had my fiance taste test over weekend for his work day on Saturday to confirm if that turkey & cheese was a good idea or not)
Next I moved onto home made snack ideas, above this text you will see an image of funky looking apple pies. These were derived from the recipe Lunchbox Sized Apple Pies, but made into my own unique shapes.
Pictured above are the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins I made as a snack for school lunches too. This is an easy to make recipe and since I had all but the pumpkin and chocolate chips at home, it was really not that expensive. I had fun making 48 muffins for the kids school week and the fiance’s work week lunches, The fiance was rather skeptical about pumpkin as he hasn’t ever had much luck with pumpkin flavored food, but he LOVED these.
Pictured above is the home made chex mix crock pot recipe I found and decided to test out, but in all honesty, this was a bad idea. Next time we will use the recipe provided on this page, but will not use the crock pot. It didn’t come out great at all, not enough flavor spread through the mixture, but we will eat it.
To me, spending all of this time taking over the weekend while my kids were with their Dads made sense. It took up time while they were away rather than taking away from time that could have been spent with them, for those who don’t have shared visits of children, you can do some of this baking after the kids are asleep. This will keep yo from you having to do some made dash to make lunches every night and allow for more time where it matters; with the kids enjoying family time!
What are some ways you save time with school lunch prep that allow you more family time?
I had no idea you could make uncrustables at home. How neat. I don’t buy them because my kids don’t like grape jelly, but if I made them myself, I could put in any flavor jelly I want to 🙂
I love these! I’m trying to think of snacks and breakfast foods I can make and take on a quick trip out of town. Thanks.
these are great ideas… I wish my kids would eat! If I did this… they would trade the lunch I made them for something like a bag of chips… UGH!
Fantastic ideas! These all look great and I can’t think of many (if any) kids who wouldn’t wolf down on all of these.
What a great idea to make so many things ahead and freeze them. My kids have actually been making their own lunches lately and it helps a lot.
I let my kids come in the kitchen to cook with me often and I have started to show my son what to do it gives us a chance to talk and for me to show him some stuff
Oh I love these ideas! You are creative in the kitchen girlie!!! I will have to try all of them. I always make my kids lunches too. They have never eaten school lunches 🙂
I didn’t know you can make uncrustables at home. I’m always peeling off the crust of my daughter’s sandwiches because they hate it! I’m glad there is another option!
You made such great things, I love the sandwiches that you can freeze. My daughter isn’t in school yet but I’ll have to remember these ideas.
This is a really great idea. It looks pretty easy and I’d much prefer to make it at home.
I make uncrustables all the time! I love them…I was never a fan of bread crust!
That is great to make things ahead and freeze them. I am a big fan of packing everything the night before too. Saves so much time as I am not a morning person.
Thank you for these lunch ideas! Our kiddos aren’t in school yet but we always try to do easy lunches so I’m not stuck in the kitchen when home alone with a 3 year old and 3 month old. I’m going to make up my own batch of uncrustables!
I really need to make more stuff ahead of time and freeze them. It would save so much time and stress later!
Homemade Uncrustables?! MUST… MAKE… My daughter and I love those things. I could make a dozen and freeze them for the whole week. This would save so much time!
I don’t make lunches at present. Both of my kids get lunch at their schools.
I remember the days of making lunches well. These would have been fun!
I definitely feel your pain. I have to make things the night before or make big batches and put them in containers in the fridge.
My kids are not in school yet, but I pack my husbands left overs up as I clean up dinner so that he has a lunch ready to go for the next day!
These are all great ideas that I had never thought of before. I like the Crock Pot chex mix!
When my kids hit middle school, they started making their own lunches.Then I knew they’d pick things they wanted to eat. 🙂
I love the slow cooker chex mix! I will have to try some of these out! 🙂
My daughter hates eating the crust, so I love your easy way to make uncrustable sandwiches, as well as the slow cooker chex mix–love using my slow cooker.
I saw your apple pies on Facebook the other day. Those are so adorable, and you are such a great mom for going the extra mile to send them a healthy lunch.
Yay-I love these, but they have so much calories. Im glad you can make them at home.
I love making quick Uncrustables at home!! I also love the idea of the slow cooker chex mix!
I LOVE the idea that you made homemade uncrustables – how creative! You have totally inspired me to get more creative in the kitchen for the kids lunches!
What a good idea to make the sandwiches and freeze them. I make lunch for everyone, but I get up so early (we’re talking dumb-early here),it’s not taking time from the kids. I do love the idea of planning ahead like this though, and would do it in a heartbeat!
What a great idea. I had not thought about premaking lunches. I like the lunchbox apple pies!!
You have a bunch of yummy things cooking there! I made something similar in my crockpot this week – I just love snack mix!
Having my daughter help prepare snacks helps her get involved. We spend time making things she likes which ensures that she will eat them .
My son loves to help me with dinner when I make certain things. I try to remember that letting them get hands on is ensuring they will be that way in their future.
Great suggestions! I definitely want to give those pumpkin muffins a whirl!
I just talked my husband into making stuffed french toast and he loved it!
Great tips. My kids are not school age yet but I try to save time in the kitchen by cooking meals that can turn into lunch the next day.
Pampered Chef makes a sandwich cutter that seals the edges of the sandwiches. We use it all the time to make uncrustables!
I didn’t know it was so easy to make those little sandwiches at home! I will give it a try. These look like great ways to save time in the kitchen.
I got to make those pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for my MOPS group sometimes. I’m totally diggin’ your uncrustables too. I’d much rather make something homemade for my son rather than it being processed.
We have a pampered chef crimper thing that I use to make our uncrustables and freeze them. My toddler thinks they’re great!
Sorry that your Chex Mix recipe didn’t turn out well. I have never heard of it being made in the crockpot. Maybe it will be better when you try out the other recipe or perhaps you could tweak the one you already used.
Nice job on the snacks! I need to do this more often for my family.