I’m not sure where you’re all reading from today, but if you’re here in the Northeast, these past few weeks have probably involved some transitions. It was back to school week for many of our kiddos and back to work (atleast according to the traffic outside of Boston) for many more.

For our family, it means back to a busy morning routine and, for the first time ever, having actual timeframes to abide by. My son started kindergarten and we like to walk him there in the morning…which means easy, quick breakfasts and easy to pack snacks are a must.

As with most schools, we have to send in allergy friendly snacks, which we’ve also never had to do before. That took a bit of thinking on my part, cause our “plant forward” lifestyle involves lots of nuts and nut butters.

But anyway, the fact that I’m writing this means we did, in fact, survive our first two weeks. (Well, I’m still emotional about the fact that my baby is actually a kindergartener, but I physically survived. So there’s that.

Here are a few of our current breakfast/lunch ideas to make for easy (or atleast easier) mornings.

Breakfasts have had to be a bit quicker cause of the arrival time at school. So I’ve been whipping up a batch of steel cut oats in the beginning of the week to last for a few mornings at a time. Overnight oats and baked oatmeal are also some of our favorites.

I typically work out first thing in the morning, then train a client, then check backpacks/brush their teeth/apply their sunscreen/yell at them to get their shoes on 857 times…you know the drill. So, 5 minutes is literally more time than I have to eat. That’s when I whip up my morning shake (full macronutrient balance/complete meal as is), and I can sip it as we walk the kiddos to school.

School snacks for the kids are actually easier than I expected. This week, it was fruit or veggies from our garden paired with something else- string cheese, brown rice cake with hummus or sun butter, pumpkin oatmeal “muffins” or protein energy bites. All were easy, minimally processed, contained some healthy fats or protein and devoured every day.

For lunches, we’re actually letting my son try out the school lunches, since they’re free again this year (which I think is a totally GREAT idea for always). That being said, we have printed out the calendar and discussed with my son what the healthiest option available is. He’s also starting to understand why we don’t want him to have the chocolate milk every day, though he may not fully agree with this decision 😂 (don’t worry- he’s still getting the French toast sticks when they come- I was a kid once too and I’m not a total monster!) But, if he decides he wants to take lunch in, I’m ready to prep some hummus and veggie sandwiches, Sunbutter on whole wheat bread, vegan bean salads with pita bread and whole wheat pasta or chickpea pasta salad with lots of veggies. He likes all these things and they’re pretty easy to prep beforehand (or atleast quickly in the morning).

Afterschool snacks are much of the same, but when we’re home, they can have some of their favorite sources of nuts. My son will eat fruit or veggies with peanuts or cashews, and both kids love peanut or almond butter with apples, fruit with string cheese or Greek yogurt or occasionally a larabar. All stuff they can grab themselves- WIN/WIN!!

Dinners have become trickier as the kids’ sports, swim lessons, etc…have picked up. But we typically make leftovers whenever we make anything. We roast a ton of veggies at the beginning of the week and make a big batch of rice or quinoa. So cooking up some protein quickly (fish, tofu, chicken) is not as overwhelming as prepping the whole meal when we get home late. I handle baths, backpacks, prep for the next day while Adam cooks. Thank gosh for teamwork!

Wherever this school year finds you, I hope you are finding some preparation tips that fit into your life and still keep your health front and center. It takes some getting used to, but I promise it’s possible!

Here’s to two days OFF and hopefully some sunshine where you are ☀️☀️☀️

To your health,

~Jess 💕