Back to School Lunch Routine with Monster Pop!

Back to School season is in full-swing. Whether you have already started, or will be starting after labor day, lunch packing is always a pain point for many families. I am here to share some back to school lunch packing tips. I know, I know. I am a homeschooling mom. What could I possibly teach you about packing a school lunch? Right?

Here is the thing. I still do packed lunches for my kids every school day. It streamlines our time, and makes lunch time much less of a fight. This also makes everything easier for the days when we school on the go. We can pack up a lunch quickly, and be on our way. I like implementing systems that save us time on the boring things so that we have time for more fun. If it saves fights early in the morning, this is even better!

To make lunch packing easier, and save my sanity, we have four bins that the kids can choose from. The bins get pulled out every day, and they choose one item from each bin to go along with our main dish. The bin contents are sweet, salty, dairy, and fruit/veggie. Stainless steel water bottles full of water go along with lunch every day as well. Doing these bins has given them some control over their meals each day. This means they typically don’t fuss about lunch and will eat everything that they pack since they chose it. They also know that their sweet, which is usually a dessert type of side, must be eaten last.

Here are some ideas for things to put in each bin.

SWEET:
raisins
dried cranberries
granola bars
muffins
banana chips
granola
fruit leather
fruit snacks


SALTY:
chips
almonds
pretzels
meat sticks
crackers
Monster Pop!**

DAIRY:
string cheese
cheese wheel
yogurt

FRUIT/VEGGIE:
applesauce pouches
fruit cups
carrot sticks
celery sticks
banana
sliced apples (soak in 4 C water and 1 Tbsp lemon juice for 5 minutes to keep from browning)
strawberries
grapes
snap peas
blueberries
pears
cucumbers
mandarin orange

We do not do a bin for our main dish, but here are some ideas of what we love to do. Use a thermos to keep hot food hot.

MAIN DISH:
sandwich
pizza kits (flour tortilla wedges, sauce, cheese, pepperoni)
bagel pizza
crackers, cheese, deli meat
mac and cheese
hot dog
chicken nuggets
pita and hummus
hard boiled eggs
tuna salad and crackers
pinwheels (tortilla, deli meat, lettuce, and cream cheese rolled and sliced)

Monster Pop has been gracious enough to sponsor this post alongside Moms Meet. Monster Pop Big-Time Butter Popcorn has been such a fun snack to incorporate into our salty snack bin! It is made with only four ingredients– popcorn, sunflower oil, clarified butter, and sea salt. Hooray for a cleaned up kids snack! Plus, the packaging is the cutest ever. I know that I am not the only one who is a sucker for good branding. Monster Pop is also gluten free, Non-GMO, and kosher. It does not contain any trans fat, added sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, or artificial ingredients. It is so important to fuel our kids with healthy and real ingredients. Kids’ brains function better when fed real food. Reaching for Monster Pop makes this easy. It retails for $16 for 16 half-ounce bags, $15 for three sharing-sized bags, or $27 for six sharing-sized bags.

The big-time butter flavor is delicious. If you aren’t a fan of butter popcorn, be sure to pick up their cheeseriffic cheese flavor. It’s so yummy, and my personal favorite. Each flavor has it’s own personal monster. Bud is your pal on Big-Time butter while Cas is your friend on Cheeseriffic Cheese. What kid doesn’t love a cute monster?

Not only is Monster Pop super fun for your school lunches, but it would be so cute to pass out on Halloween and even at a Halloween Party, if you celebrate! You can grab them for on-the-go snacking– going to football practice, dance class, gymnastics, and during baseball games. Pull it out for after school playdates! When my middle daughter turned two, we had a monster themed birthday party for her. Monster Pop would have been such a cute addition to her party! I told you that I’m a sucker for good branding. There are so many fun ideas that you can do with Monster Pop.

You can buy Monster Pop Big-Time Butter and other flavors online at monsterpopshop.com. Be sure to use the code MOMSMEET25 to get 25% off of your purchase! This code is valid until 10/31/21.

**Monster Pop Big-Time Butter and Cheeserific Cheese flavors contain dairy. Please be aware of this if you have food allergies in your home or classroom.

If you have any great ideas to add to this lunch setup, please share them in the comments! I’m always looking for ways to shake things up.









Other sources:
lunch boxes
pink bins (similar)
clear fridge bins (similar)