If your goal is just to get a healthy meal into your kids while they are away at school, you just need a few quality minutes of planning, shopping, and prep time. Of course you can get more creative if you want to, but if you don’t, we’ve got a simple, no-brainer plan for those weeks when you just don’t have enough mental energy to get into the whole creative lunch thing.

Sample shopping list:

Selection of 3-4 relatively sturdy fruits (grapes, apples, melon, strawberries, bananas)

Selection of 3-4 relatively sturdy vegetables (carrots, celery, lettuce, cherry tomatoes)

A block of cheddar cheese

Good-quality whole wheat bread/tortillas/pita bread

Eggs

Turkey, chicken, and/or ham for sandwiches

Hummus (you can buy it, even though we think homemade is better and pretty darned easy)

Selection of 2-3 healthy crunchy snacks (veggie chips, whole-wheat pretzels, popcorn, whole-grain crackers)

Yogurt - plain

Nut butter (if your school allows it) or sunflower butter

Couscous or other grains for making a hearty salad

Weekend prep jobs:

Cube fruits and cheeses. Cut carrots and celery into sticks. Cut bread/tortillas into cubes or strips. Hard-boil the eggs or cook the eggs and veggies into a frittata. Make a salad with couscous and chopped veggies.

Now you’re ready to put it all together. Keep in mind that this plan isn’t fixed in stone; the idea is to have a bunch of pre-prepped items ready to grab and pack. Hint: For each day, pick a main course, a fruit and/or veggie selection, and a crunchy snack.

Sample Menus:

Day 1: Pita squares, hummus, fruit, veggie sticks, cheese, olives

Day 2: Turkey kebab sandwich (turkey skewered on a straw or stick with squares or cubes of bread, cheese, lettuce, cherry tomato), fruit, veggie chips

Day 3: Frittata squares, fruit, whole wheat pretzels

Day 4: Confetti couscous salad, hard-boiled egg, yogurt, crackers, fruit and veggies

Day 5: PB & J (or sunflower butter and jelly) cut into cubes, fruit, veggie sticks, popcorn