It has taken us a very long time… But we’re back. Last year with the military retirement, moving, new schools and a new job for my husband… I never realized how long it would take us to really settle into all of the things that we would want to settle into. Took us a while to find our new normal.

But we finally come back around to prepping some of our foods again… I won’t lie. knowing high school and middle school is about to start again is definitely giving us a little bit of a nudge.

But here you go…

I figured the best way to do this might be to break down what is in each one, where we got it from and roughly the cost. And of course, I will include the macros and the calories for each of them. I do track these things for my husband and I, but I do not do the same for my children. However, they have a tendency to really love what we make anyway, and steal ours… So for a lot of them, I’ve just started to make extra.

Our Bento Boxes

We invested a little while back in getting the glass bento boxes from Amazon. We had gotten pretty frustrated with some of the different plastic meal prep containers warping, cracking or breaking overtime. This was an investment that has already paid itself back. We also use Pyrex glass containers for our leftovers and other things in the house. If you’re curious about more of this, you can look into Meal Prepping & Batch Cooking Guide .

With jumping back into this, I had some help. My 14-year-old daughter loves to cook and loves a different flavor combinations. We sat down and drafted up a few. That just sounded good to us this week and what things we could pair with it that would make sense for the other flavors and taste and snacks that the rest of the house likes. We always look at things from that perspective because there are six people under this roof and each one of them likes what they like and that’s okay but to help our budget… We pay attention.

Family Meal Planning

For what we do as a whole for our dinners as a family, check out A Guide to Family Meal Planning. This guide gives the benefits of family meal planning, such as saving money, and time, and minimizing food wastage. It offers our framework with schedule planning, creating backups, and time-saving strategies like a full-month meal plan rotation. We are big on creativity in cooking, adventurous choices, and theme nights for an enjoyable family meal-planning experience, so that is included here too.

These are the blogs that followed up because we do change things on a seasonal basis.

This Week’s Meals

For our breakfast, snack, and possibly lunch meal prep… We have very specific needs. We do have some taste and texture things within the house. And this is also very dependent on who the specific meal prep is for.

Greek Yogurt, Granola & Berries Breakfast

This second one that we did included a greek yogurt, granola, berries & mixed nuts. This was a combination that I put together for my husband have breakfast, but also to put together the extra fruit cups for my girls in the house. They like to take these and add them to their own Bento boxes. Their creations end up being more on the side of berries, nuts, cheese and crackers. They’re not too big on veggies and that’s OK. They’ll eat the ones that we include with our dinners, but they’re still getting some kind of fresh produce and really great amount of fiber.

Walmart

Total

$21.15 for 4 full bento boxes AND 4 additional mixed berry cups packed individually

Print Recipe

Greek Yogurt, Granola, Berries & Mixed Nuts Breakfast Bentos

Prep Time15

Total Time15

Course: Breakfast

Servings: 4

Calories: 467kcal

Ingredients

4 :ratio Protein Vanilla Yogurt 25g of protein
240 grams Strawberries
240 grams Blueberries
1 Bag Granola
1 Canister of Raw Mixed Nuts

Instructions

Wash all berries. Cut strawberries.
Add greek yogurt container, 60 grams strawberries, 60 g blueberries, 1/3 cup of granola and 14 g of mixed nuts to the bento box

Notes

Remaining berries were used to create an additional 4 mixed berry cups. They were individually packaged and stored in the refrigerator.

Barbecue Chicken Southwest Salad Wraps

This first one that we did included a southwest salad barbecue chicken wrap, cheddar cheese, hard, boiled egg, and carrots. This combination would be specifically for both my husband and my son. They prefer things that have a little more kick to them with spice or heat. Also, my son’s produce like are more on the vegetable side than he is on fruit side.

Aldi’s