January Lunch Menu

Blame it on bad money management, blame it on over spending during the holidays or just blame it on me....I'm in a money situation this January. The food budget is not what I would like for it to be and there is no wiggle room so I have to work with what we have. I love packing lunches for my children. I know this is dreaded by some and treated as a great creative challenge by others but for me it somewhere between those two extremes. I sometimes am creative but mostly just try to pack healthy options that will please my little ones. I had dreams of after Christmas planning fun lunch boxes but due to the money situation we just have to get food in the boxes! So, here is what we are doing for the month of January.

Over the weekend I made sandwiches. I made 10 sandwiches for each child. I put each sandwich in its on little baggy then put the baggies in a container. Each child has their own container (since they do not like the same type of sandwiches) and that container is in the freezer.

January has 20 school lunches left so I have half of their lunches almost complete. My children love tortillas filled with cheese so I have this in the mix, plus they love home made Lunchables so we will do this as well. And then we will add pasta with Italian dressing. We have carrots and cucumbers with dressing for veggie side,blueberries, bananas, applesauce and apples for fruit. Yogurt, cheese, and milk for dairy.

So here is our simple, cost efficient school lunch menu for January.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Cheese Wrap Carrots, Apples, Yogurt Covered Pretzels ,water	PB/honey Sandwich, Carrots, Orange slices  fig newton, milk	Cheese wrap, apples with caramel sauce, Yogurt Covered Pretzels water	School Lunch	Yogurt, granola, carrots, turkey/cheese roll, water
Turkey Sandwich, popcorn, cucumbers, cheese stick, water	Yogurt, granola, carrots, turkey/cheese roll, water	Turkey Sandwich, popcorn, cucumbers, cheese stick, water	School Lunch	Pasta
PB/Jelly Sandwich, Carrots, Apple sauce, fig newton, milk	Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Apple Sauce, Veggie, Water	Turkey Sandwich, popcorn, cucumbers, cheese stick, water	School Lunch	Turkey peperoni , cheese stick, Ritz whole wheat crackers, Yogurt, water
Turkey peperoni , cheese stick, Ritz whole wheat crackers, Yogurt, water	Yogurt, granola, carrots, turkey/cheese roll, water	Turkey Sandwich, popcorn, carrots, cheese stick, water	School Lunch	Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Apple Sauce, Veggie, Water