The Columbus Day holiday means that this week’s lunch menu only includes four days’ worth of meals. The extra day off also means that I’ll have additional prep time, but because the menus are exclusively based around leftovers, I won’t need to use the time for important items. The kids will be happy, because that means I’ll make some almond butter cereal treats with my spare minutes!

Thermos containers will also be important this week. I’ll use them to pack the soup and the pulled pork with rice; my kids will eat everything else on the list room-temperature, but you could also pack the egg noodle dish in a thermos to keep it warm.

Weekend Prep:

  • Making almond butter cereal treats for a fun lunchbox treat!
  • On Friday night, set aside lunch portions of the minestrone soup for Tuesday morning (you could pop these in the freezer to keep them fresh).

Weeknight Prep:

  • Each night, I’ll make sure to cook extra portions at dinnertime and set them aside to cool while we eat. Then we can easily pop the leftovers into lunch containers while we clean the kitchen, and half our lunch-packing work is already done!

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The Lunch Menus:

  • Tuesday: Leftover chicken minestrone soup or egg noodles with brussels sprouts and bacon
  • Wednesday: Leftover barbecued pork and rice, or if P. decides he doesn’t want the pork, scrambled eggs and rice in a thermos
  • Thursday: Leftover turkey club patties
  • Friday: Leftover Monte Cristos

The Sides:

  • Sweet potato fries from the freezer
  • Fresh fruit
  • Applesauce
  • Fresh vegetables
  • Cereal treats