Hey there, it's Jen. And I want to say welcome to this week's podcast. So, this week, I'm talking about my top five tips that I've put together on how to make vegan school lunchboxes quick and easy. So I have definitely been one of those people who gets to what, like 10pm at night, and realizes that they have nothing to pack for school lunch boxes. And the problem is, so the state where I live in the supermarkets actually closed at 9pm. So if you get to 10pm, and realize that you have nothing for school lunches, the next day, you're in a bit of trouble. So let me tell you, I have had many trips down to our local 24 hour supermarket, which is very small. And I have had a lot of trouble trying to put together a reasonable lunchbox from the few things that I was able to get from the supermarket. Luckily, they brought in some really, really not, I mean, I find them really gross, gluten vegan, every gluten free vegan, everything free chocolate chip biscuits. So they've always been my go to, but they're definitely not sort of what constitutes a healthy, nutritious lunchbox, let me tell you. So before I start with my tips, I want you to know that I know exactly what it's like to have that last minute trip and to realize that you don't have anything for school lunchboxes, and to have to try to put something together from what you have in the pantry. So if that sounds like you, too, then keep listening. And I've got some tips for how to make lunchboxes easy, and so that they just take you a couple of minutes to put together. And I have to confess that these days, my kids can actually pack their own lunch boxes through the week, which is really, really good. I love it. Because not only does it mean that I don't have to do it in the mornings, or the night before. But it also means that my kids are learning how to actually do things for themselves as well, which is really good. Okay, so as I said, I have five top tips. So the first tip is to prep the lunchbox food. So the food you're putting in the lunchbox ahead as much as possible. So I normally say prep ahead on the weekend. But it doesn't have to be the weekend, it can be Monday night, or whatever. But definitely prep everything ahead. And it's not so much the actual prepping ahead. That is the thing that saves time. I mean, that does help. But it's also the fact that you do it all at once. So when you're sitting there and you make something, say you're doing sandwiches, I prep ahead sandwiches as well. So say you're doing sandwiches, if you go to make one sandwich, you have to get everything out all the knife and everything, you make the sandwich, you wrap it all up, and then you you put everything away. While you've already got the stuff out, you might as well make the other four sandwiches for the week. And that actually saves you time because it means that you're not having to pull out everything and put everything away, sort of five times through the wait to make five sandwiches. The same goes for any other snacks and things that you're making, do it all together and do the whole lot. And especially if you're cooking snacks and stuff. So if you're baking or anything like that, you can actually save a lot of time because you can put a bunch of muffins on to cook. And then while those muffins are cooking, well then you just throw together your sandwiches or whatever you're doing. So you can really save a lot of time by doing doing everything at once. And it also means that you're able to do it when you're feeling more relaxed and you have time. So like I said, if you're doing it on the weekend, or have it evening or which whenever you do it. So yeah, so you have more time to do it, you're more relaxed. And then it means that things if you've got your sandwiches done, it takes you like two minutes to throw together a lunchbox through the week. So that's my first tip is to prep ahead as much as you can to save time. Now I know you're asking what do you do with the food once you've prepped it ahead because things only last so long in the fridge. Well, that's where you use your freezer. Your freezer is amazing and And you can prep ahead. So many things like sandwiches, toasted sandwiches, freeze really well. Pizza egg, Cassidy is trying to think what else I do like sausage rolls pies, then muffins, muesli bars, protein balls, cookies, just about everything that you pack in your kid's lunchbox can probably be prepped ahead on the weekend and then frozen. And then that means that all you have to do when you go to make lunches is literally just grab it out of the freezer, and pop it in the lunchbox, you don't even have to defrost it things will defrost by by lunchtime or by morning tea, and you're done. So your freezer is really your best friend. And if you need help on how to phrase things ahead, or coming up with different recipes and things, that's something that I do teach in my vegan lunchbox vault, as well. So you can grab that if you'd like help. It also has freezer head instructions for all the recipes inside that are freezable I think well over half of the recipes, probably about three quarters I should probably check are all freezable. So yeah, if you need help with that coming up with ideas, then definitely grab that one. Now my next one, this wasn't something I came up with myself. Um, this one I got from one of the other moms at school, but it has definitely been a life changer is to actually have two lunchboxes for each child. So I used to have one lunchbox and after school, you'd have to remember to grab it out, then you'd have to wash it before you could actually pack it. So even if the packing itself only takes a couple of minutes, it still takes extra time to wash. And I don't know about you. But I hated washing the lunch boxes out, I have those bento style ones. And they've kind of got the different compartments. And it just used to take ages to wash and dry out. And it was just one of those things that I really hated having to do. Anyway, so when I got a second lunchbox, what I could actually do was the lunchbox from that day just went straight in the dishwasher. So I didn't have to wash it out. I didn't have to wait for it to be able to pack other lunches, which meant that I could even pack the next day as lunches at lunchtime if I wanted to. That is if your kids aren't packing them themselves. And so it means that it takes sort of the washing lunchbox time off of doing lunches each day. It also means that if you want your kids to make their own lunches, well then they've got the lunch box there for them to do in the afternoon as soon as as soon as they're ready. So yeah, that was such a lifesaver for me. And it really made lunchboxes so much easier. So I know that lunch boxes can be expensive, some of them when you're first starting out, but it does because they only get used half as much, it does mean that they last kind of twice as long, which is really good. So yeah, that's definitely one of my big tips is to have multiple lunchboxes. So my next tip is another one of these where you kind of if you're in the kitchen already then take advantage of being there. So I have found when I make lunches at the same time that I'm already making dinner. So say I am making a stir fry for dinner or something and I am chopping up veggies already. Well, I just chop up an extra carrot or two. And then that's the veggies that go in my kid's lunchbox. While the things are cooking, well then that's when I just throw in sort of sandwiches or some sausage rolls or something and add in some muffins or something like that as well. I also will often while I'm in the kitchen, we'll I'll make a batch of muffins while I'm there anyway, I mean, if I'm gonna get up and use all the effort that I have an energy that I need to get into the kitchen. I might as well make it worth my while while I'm there. So yeah, often I will put together a batch of muffins, put them in the oven, and then I'll actually make dinner. So it means that you're only actually in the kitchen for an extra sort of 10 minutes or something. But you actually managed to get the lunches done as well. So it means that you don't have to sort of hole yourself off the lounge and away from Netflix at 11 at night, when you realize that you haven't actually got to those lunches yet. Yeah, so, really, and I find that that's a really good tip for most food most cooking is if you're in the kitchen. And if you've expended that energy to get in there, well take advantage of the time and make some extra of whatever you're doing. My final tip is to always keep some pantry items on hand. So I totally get that some weeks or some weekends, you're too busy. And you just don't get lunchboxes prepped, or you don't get the food prepped for them. And you get to Monday, and you really don't have anything to put in lunchboxes. And I guess you've got that last minute trip to the supermarket again, really. But what I have learned to do, that I find really helps is to actually whenever I do this, there grocery shopping, I always grabbed some foods that can just stay in the pantry or in the fridge that I can put together some lunchboxes from and so I always make sure that they're there so that I can grab them anytime I need to. And if I ever use them, then I always just make sure I restock them. So I guess they're kind of emergency supplies. So things that I do. I know that my kids love chocolate, chickpeas are a good snack. Rice crackers, as well work well. The fruit tube, fruit tubs Sorry, can also be good as just an emergency fruit thing that you can put in. I also do sandwiches. So make sure that there's some jam or some cheese or something in the fridge, that I can just do a sandwich quickly. You can also do things like noodles if your kids have hot water at school, which, cuz yeah, I know, we don't always have bread, it's often the first thing that we run out of in our house. So having something like some noodles, or something in the cupboard can really help too. So and also sultanas are another really good one and muesli bars if you can find some nut free ones at the supermarket too. So I just have those foods all the time. And I try to keep them separate, so that my kids don't eat them. Because otherwise, I'll end up with nothing left. But yeah, so I keep those foods in a separate thing. And they're just my go to ones that I can just grab. Anytime I need something for lunch boxes, when I haven't had a chance to make food ahead. I do give you a really good list of those in the vegan lunch box vote to Yes, so. So those as I said, they're my tips on really how to make lunchboxes easier through the week. So really get in the habit of prepping your food ahead because it saves time in actually doing it and then it makes school mornings easier. And then once you've made the food ahead, then make sure that you have everything you need to freeze them ahead so that you've got them all just in the freezer for you to grab. So the other good thing about freezing ahead also is that you can freeze ahead multiple weeks to I can do up to two or three weeks of lunchbox food. So it's not just each week that you have to do. Yeah, so freezing is very helpful for prepping things ahead also have more than one lunchbox per child is really helpful. Make the lunches while you're already in the kitchen doing something else. So that you don't have to get the energy up to do it yourself later. And also make sure that you keep some sort of emergency pantry supplies on hand for when you don't get a chance to prep ahead lunchbox food just to save you those last minute trips to the supermarket. So as I mentioned earlier, I have my lunchbox vault, the vegan lunchbox vault if you want help on how to kind of bring all of this together and make your lunch boxes really easy. So the vegan lunch box vault is really based on making all of your lunchbox stuff, your lunchbox food ahead on the weekend so that you've got it there through the week, either for you to pack it or everything is packaged up easily so that your kids can pack it as well through the week. So what you get is basically 20 wakes of lunchbox plans which gave you prep ahead recipes for each of the weeks gives you the freezing and the prepping ahead instructions, you will also get full nutrition breakdowns of the recipes. And then there are guides that teach you how to freeze everything ahead how to make sure you've got good nutrition in your kids lunchboxes, and different things like the best fruits to pack the best veggies. And yeah, and basically how to make different recipes not free, how to make them gluten free. There's a there's basically everything in there that you need. For quick and easy lunchboxes, you also get access to over 200 nut free vegan recipes as well. And the plans are fully customizable. So you can swap those recipes in quite easily to depending on what your kids like. So if you're interested in that, I will put the link into the show notes and you can check it out. And I will also put the link in for I have some free lunchbox recipes that you can try out as well. Just to have a bit of a taste of what the recipes are like. Alrighty, so that's everything for this week, and I will talk to you again next week. Bye