An organised chaos & School Snack Series - Part 1

One question, for sure that all mothers with school going kids would have heard, and would have asked - "what do you pack for the school tiffin for the kids ??? "

It being a daily routine going on right from the time they start playschool...God! its one long journey. The key is that we need to keep it healthy....at the same time, even important is not to be repeating the same stuff all 5 days days a week. They need variety and in a way.....it is a challenge too.

Well for me, i believe not in having just one big serving of single item, but prefers to keep smaller portions of 2-3 different eatables. One of the portions have to be from the "fruit" family.

Here, in the middle-east, unlike back in our homecountry India where the school timings are till around 3-3:30 (we need to take lunch to school),  the schools finish by around 1:30 pm, which means the kids get to have their lunch at home. So luckily, we need just sent some breakfast/snacks for school. A real great blessing especially if you are in for a larger head count. For us with 3 kids, the older 2 are school goers and the youngest is in playschool. Mornings are always the most busiest times of the day - so it does need some forehand planning.

Few simple tips that i follow to make the morning chaos more organised -

1. Plan the previous night what need to be prepared for breakfast. Like, if i am to make puttu for tomorrow, then tonight i would make the mix and keep it ready in the refrigerator to save the precious morning time.

2. Any frozen items (say samosa , nuggets etc)  if to be cooked will be removed from the freezer down to the refrigerator at night. It will be thawed and better to cook this way rather than having it straight from the freezer.

3. The uniforms - Get the uniforms and all the related gears ready all in one place the previous night itself where they dress up, so that it will be easy, rather than rushing at the last minutefor the shoes, and then the socks...and .."oh! my tie is missing!" 

And now, for the breakfast part. A glass of milk is a must. For the younger ones, its one full serving of Pediasure. Along with that, if they do take some solid breakfast like appam, dosa (might be just 1, but something is better than nothing) , then i just pack some light snacks. And days when they are just reluctant to eat anything in the mornings, i very well pack it off for school.

I have started this SSS - School Snack Series just to share some images of the tiffins i pack for our boys. But, a disclaimer -  these have been clicked at the nick of time and when every minute counts, so no props, no backgrounds, no decoration or photo presentation accessories. These were clicked right on my kitchen counter, the minute beofre it goes off to the bags. Kindly excuse the crudeness of the snaps.

 Box 1 - Bread squares toasted in ghee and sprinkled with sugar, sausages, kiwi and juice. (thats for the playschool goer-our boy No.3)

Box 2 - Steamed Banana, grapes and a cake roll. A light pack when they have already had their morning breakfast from home.

Box 3 -  As i said, if they dont take their breakfast form home, i very well pack the same. This day, it was appam (rice pancakes) , so cut it into squares and sprinkled some sugar on top. Alongside is a serving of whole wheat breakfast cereal flakes and cut apple .