Lunch: Simplified {Yumbox}

Friends, I have to share this with you!  I have found a way to bring more peace and order to our homeschool lunch routine.

I’m sure you’re thinking it’s lunch, slap some PB & J on a piece of bread and move on, but with allergies, preferences, and a baby/toddler with only 4 teeth, it’s so much more difficult than that.

Typically I would make lunch while the kids were working on school work.  When our school room and the kitchen were on separate floors this quickly became the time of day that everything fell apart.

This isn’t a huge deal, now that we’re schooling on the main level again, but it is still a distraction to have me in the kitchen rather than at the table.

Sometimes lunchtime prep falls right at that moment when a child really needs a little extra encouragement, or explanation for their assignment and another child is borderline hangry (so hungry they’re getting angry), while another has fully passed the border and needs food like 10 minutes ago.

It’s not a pretty situation and it takes so.much.time.

~

When Jo was in public school I packed cute and functional lunches in lunch boxes from Wal-Mart, but I never felt like I could get them clean, they were never the right size for what I wanted to pack, and they never lasted very long.

 

Even though we have been homeschooling for 7 years (5 years with everyone at home), I have kept searching for that perfect thing to pull our lunches together.  Crock-Pot?  Instant Pot?  Frozen pizza and peas?  Nothing worked.  Everything took too much prep, too much cleanup, or was too processed/genetically modified and left everyone in bad moods after eating.

 

Enter… The YUMBOX!

 

The Yumbox has revolutionized our homeschool days.  Yes, I’m serious!

REVOLUTIONIZED

I can’t even tell you how simple it is to pack healthy REAL FOOD (most of the time) lunches in these boxes.

 

They’re cute, they’re functional, and they’re affordable.  Have you looked into the other leading lunch box that is all stainless steel?  I can’t even do that price tag for one kid, let alone FOUR!

In fact, they’re the Yumbox is so affordable that I went ahead and purchased them for all 6 of us!

The baby (I mean toddler, he’s 13 months) and the 5-year-old girlie have the Yumbox Originals in Liberty Blue and Neptune Blue.  I bought Liberty Blue for the 5-year-old first, thinking we’d hand it down to the baby.  It was honestly the perfect size for her and I predicted that it would be for some time, so we bought the baby his Yumbox as a first birthday present.  Liberty Blue is a good gender-neutral color.

The rest of us (10yr old boy, 15yr old girl, me and Mr. Awesome) all have the Tapas version in different colors.

These boxes are designed so well, and perfectly fit any sort of lunch I come up with.

The kids and I aren’t sandwich eaters (not because they aren’t delicious, but because wheat is a neurotoxin).  If you or your kiddos are sandwich eaters (no judgment here), get the Panino for little kids, and the 4 compartment Tapas for adults/big kids.  We have the boxes with the 5 compartments, and I purchased an extra 4 compartment tray for bigger salads, or when Mr. Awesome takes a sandwich meal to work.

 

Now I pack lunches after the kids go to bed and the house is peaceful.  The kitchen is free and I can work quickly and effectively.  When I’m finished the boxes are ready to pull out of the fridge when we need them the next day.  If we decided to do an impromptu picnic at the park, backyard, or with friends, we’re ready!

Things to know:

• The trays are dishwasher safe, but the cases are not.  I just handwash them anyway, so they’re ready for the next day.
• The trays take awhile to dry.  If you wash them right after school, lunch, or hand dry them, you’ll be fine.
• Many people online say they have trouble finding lunch bags to fit the Tapas.  I bought their poche, lunch bag, and some flat ice packs from Shopko (later found out they are cheaper on Amazon).
• Because we nearly always travel with our lunchboxes if we go out during the day, I carry a bigger insulated lunch tote bag that I got from Target years ago.  That’s a good option if you’re taking lunches on the go for more than just yourself.
• Packing cute lunches gets addicting!
• Sporks make lunch even easier.  I bought mine from Amazon and they’ve held up beautifully.  Perfect for a family on the go (or a mom who is trying to cut down on dishes)!
• La Croix is a lovely addition to our homeschool days as well.

Questions?  Just ask!

 

Ps.  This post is not at all sponsored by Yumbox (although in hindsight, sending them a proposal would’ve been a great idea!).  I just love the boxes and what it’s done for our routine.