WAHM lunchboxes

School started back yesterday and so I'm back into the routine of making lunches. I thought I'd share a little tip with my fellow work-at-home mothers (or just stressed stay-at-home mothers)- make YOUR lunch in the morning too!

My lunch on the left, Ashley's on the right 

Honestly, I can't tell you the number of times that I started making dinner and realised that all I'd eaten all day was three LCMs. Or how many times I was in the middle of something and feeling really productive but had to stop to make Ashley some lunch or a snack.

My lunch: cheese&pickle sandwich, hummus, corn cruskits, grape tomatoes. Ashley's lunch: cheese&vegemite sandwich, mini biscuits, golden delicious apple, cherry tomatoes and crackers. 

When you think about it, it really makes so much sense. I don't know why it took me so long (about six months) to start doing it. Maybe I was still stuck in the fantasy that I'd have so much more time on my hands to be so much more productive while working at home. I probably thought I'd mill my own organic wheat into my own organic flour and bake it into beautiful organic wholemeal baguettes and top it with organic lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and homemade mayo while my work waited patiently to be done and my three year old quietly taught herself to read in the corner so that the floor could mop itself.

Whatever the fantasy was, the reality is that most days I don't want to stop multiple times (and always in the middle of something important!) to make snacks and lunch. Most days, if I hadn't pre-made lunch, I'd probably stop and grab a sausage roll on the way out of the shopping centre or maybe just not eat at all. And while I always include fruit and veg in my girls lunches and always have that intention for my own lunch, it never really happened- until I started portioning out fruit and salad and putting it onto a lunchbox for me. Approaching my lunch the same way I approach lunch for my girls can only be a good thing, right?

Here are the benefits as I see them:

• It's much quicker and there is less cleaning up
• I'm more likely to make healthier choices
• Ashley can help herself to healthy snacks (instead of dragging a chair over and raiding the pantry every 40 minutes)
• I'm less likely to skip my lunch 
• Portion control!
• It's good practice for Ashley who is at school next year
• No excuse not to grab our lunch boxes and head outside for an impromptu picnic
• Less wastage- if Bella has half a serve of something for lunch, the rest goes into our lunch, ditto with leftovers
• The lunchboxes sit flat all day so I can do cute bento-inpsired lunches and they won't look like a tossed salad by the time we eat them!

These lunch boxes are Sistema Klip-it 2L lunch boxes and they were around $5 each. I'm a Decor girl at heart (with Tupperware a close second) but I couldn't find anything else that I loved. These have room for a sandwich+snacks or pasta+snacks or salad+snacks, are large enough that I can place smaller containers in the sections but small enough to fit nicely into our fridge (or my bag). We also have a drink bottle each in the fridge.

Do you pre-make your lunch if you're at home or do you like it super-fresh? Do you have any inspiring lunch-related pinterest boards? Leave me a link below!

Laura xx