3 Fun Ways to Get Your Family Out of a Lunchtime Rut

We may start back-to-school season with the best of intentions, but packing lunch boxes every day can start to feel a little tedious, especially when the (literal) fruits of your labor come back uneaten. The solution? Establish a sandwich prep routine featuring fresh, high-quality ingredients and clever, kid-approved hacks. Hillshire Farm® brand has you covered on the fun, flavorful sandwich front with sliced deli meats worthy of being in constant lunch box rotation. As for the meal prep hacks, here are three ideas to get you started.

Did you know you can prep sandwiches weeks in advance and they’ll stay fresh in the freezer? Just wrap them in foil and seal them in an airtight baggie, take them out the day before, let them thaw in the fridge, and pop them in your kids’ lunch boxes the next morning. Hearty spreads and fillings like hummus, hard cheeses, and deli meats hold up best here; we recommend trying a combo of Hillshire Farm Oven Roasted Turkey Breast and Honey Ham.

A few more pro tips: Put condiments in between your meats and cheese so they don’t make the bread soggy, and add finishing touches the morning you send your sandwiches off (vegetables like lettuce and tomato tend to lose their texture after thawing, so it’s best to serve them fresh). 

If you’re already batch-prepping sandwiches, why not add a fun step before popping them in the freezer? Break out your favorite cookie cutters and have your kids cut their sandwiches into shapes. You’ll want to use heavier cookie cutters that can slice through bread while keeping fillings intact (and that are large enough to ensure little crust goes to waste).

Soft breads and thinly-sliced deli meats, like Hillshire Farm Honey Ham — a kid favorite thanks to its subtle sweetness — will give you the cleanest shapes.

There’s nothing like handing over sandwich-making duties to teach kids about nutrition, foster independence, and encourage them to try new foods. The more invested they are in preparing the meal, the more likely they are to eat it!

Not all kids are comfortable in the kitchen, so you may need to start by doing most of the heavy lifting as you teach them (younger kids can get in on the fun by assembling rather than prepping). To establish some guidelines, pick a food each week that can serve as a base for multiple well-balanced lunches, and challenge your kids to come up with meal ideas using that food as a foundation. Make sure your fridge is stocked with fruits and vegetables, and let your child go over the options and come up with flavor combos that appeal to them. For example, a package of Hillshire Farm Oven Roasted Turkey Breast can be rolled up with cheese into pinwheels and served with honey mustard dipping sauce on the side, while the brand’s Rotisserie Chicken Breast can be layered with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and toasted bread for a protein-packed BLT, or tossed with parmesan, dressing, and greens and piled into a Caesar salad wrap.