i used to be a teacher with no kids, and now I’m a stay-at-home mom with a small business.

while a lot has changed in the last ten years, two things have stayed the same: I detest making breakfast and lunch, and I detest eating the same thing every day.

while I love making dinner and spending twenty minutes to an hour in the kitchen in the evenings, I prefer my breakfast and lunches be a quick, grab-and-go situation. (and I especially don’t like to waste precious naptime making food for myself.)

so through all these years, both before kids and when I worked outside the home - and also now - it works really well for me to make my breakfasts and lunches ahead of time. but I personally need a little variety - I can’t just make one single thing for the whole week and eat it six straight days in a row.

here’s a few things that have become tried and true favorites for me.

a meal rotation

while I didn’t start this until KK came around, I would’ve totally benefited from this in my teaching days, as a big frustration for me as a teacher was the constant, “What am I going to have for lunch this week?” the decision fatigue killed me, and I was already so fried from teaching that a lot of times I’d throw cold cheese quesadillas - or Sonic grilled cheeses when it was the end of the school year, no lie - in my lunchbox and call it good.

(I did learn other systems that worked for me - more on those in a second - but a meal rotation would’ve totally saved my poor, tired brain.)

anyway.

here’s my full post on our meal rotation - it’s one of my favorite posts because I walk you through my thought process on how I created ours and why ours works so well for us. by thinking out loud the entire post and asking myself questions, it guides you on how to create one that works for you in your current season.

the gist is you decide now what you’d like to have for certain meals for certain days. so instead of, “oh my gosh, what am i going to have for lunch today?” I look at our meal rotation and see we’re having XYZ.

we’re just deciding now for Future You, so all Future You has to do is follow the meal rotation instead of reinventing the meal three times a day, every single day. it eliminates stress you didn’t know you had, and frees up an incredible amount of mental space.

creating a meal rotation completely changed breakfasts and lunches for me, and I wish I had started this ten years ago when I joined the working world.

mason jar salads

it’s really hard to pick a favorite on this list of favorites, but mason jar salads might be it.

have you heard of mason jar salads? i could kiss whoever discovered them.

here’s my favorite tutorial on how to build a mason jar salad.

i loved these as a teacher, and I love these now as a stay-at-home mama. they work beautifully both on-the-go and at home. i loved them equally both during planning period back then and naptime now.

but, let’s back track. i never really liked salads. but then I learned I just wasn’t making good salads. here’s my go-to source for good salads. she is the best and she taught me I actually like salad.

so now I really like to make a good salad or two each week for dinner. and I’ll prep enough salad ingredients for dinner to make sure that I can also make a mason jar salad or two for Future Haley’s lunches. (this is why I menu plan to include salads in our dinners.) cook once, eat twice!

or, similarly, when I was a teacher, I’d make, like, four or five mason jar salads on Sundays, and I’d use them for quick, amazing lunches or dinners all week. when done correctly, mason jar salads keep well for days.

okay, anyway. mason jar salads. i use the above tutorial, and I use it with my favorite salad recipes. and it makes for the best lunches. a salad by itself, with a sandwich, with soup, with a smoothie, with toast, with a muffin - it’s all so good!

here are my favorite bigger jars, here are my favorite smaller jars. (but know that I usually buy my mason jars when they’re 50% off at hobby lobby.) here are my favorite lids. (you can totally use the metal lids that come with the jars - I just like the ease of the white plastic ones.)

mason jar yogurt parfaits

remember those mason jars I just mentioned? let’s use them now for another favorite: yogurt parfaits.

i’ve posted these way back in the day on instagram. i loved these as a teacher, and rediscovered my love for them while pregnant with KK, as I’d go from fine to hangry in two seconds flat. i love that they’re another option that’s great for on-the-go and at home.

and nowadays, our morning snack always has yogurt as an option in our meal rotation just because I love these parfaits so much.

my go-to formula is usually the following:

greek vanilla yogurt or vanilla whole milk yogurt
chia seeds, flaxseeds, and/or hemp hearts
fresh berries, frozen raspberries, or diced peaches
my favorite granola*
and a few slivered almonds if I’m feeling feisty

but! i’ve been meaning to explore other options, so I’ve been saving ideas to my "yogurt + oats" Pinterest board.

*I usually wait until just before eating to add my granola, but I’ve heard of people who add it in when meal prepping as the uppermost layer in the parfait. you do you!

veggies and virtues taught me to keep my chia seeds, flaxseeds, and hemp hearts in shakers - we use shakers like this because I didn’t have any old spice jars at the time. it makes adding these seeds to anything - yogurt parfaits, oatmeal, toast, etc - so easy!

dinner leftovers

the moment we invested in leftover containers we loved, dinner leftovers became significantly more appealing to us.

so in our meal rotation, “leftovers” is always an option for lunch.

because sometimes, dinner was so good, that those leftovers really hit the spot. or those leftover muffins. or those Sunday breakfast leftovers. or that meal-prepped-egg-thing leftovers. or or or.

leftovers has a wide interpretation over here. and we consider it a heavy-hitter for lunches. the MVP, if you will.

cook once, eat twice! always and forever!

(alternatively, sometimes those leftovers do not sound good, and that’s okay. that’s why I like having a second lunch option always.)

soup

have you tried soup pucks? this was my FAVORITE lunch as a teacher - and I’ll still do it now!

similarly, for as long as I can remember, I’ve made soup once a week. (except when it’s august in texas - my love for soup takes a hard break then.) when I was a teacher and cooking for myself, I’d make a big crockpot of soup every Sunday for easy meals all week. nowadays, we have a weekly soup and sandwich night - because Brett isn’t a huge soup guy, but I still crave my weekly soup.

either way, by making soup once a week, I can guarantee that at least a few lunches are taken care of for Future Haley. is there something you love having for lunch and is there a way to turn that into a dinner theme so that you’ll always have those dinner leftovers to take care of a few lunches? cook once, eat twice!

but also? I love freezing leftover soup from these dinners. (freezing soup is one of my favorite ways to take care of Future Haley.) and I love pulling frozen soup out of the freezer during Sunday Meal Prep for this week’s lunches. here’s my full post on how I freeze and reheat soup.

frozen PB&Js

wooooo, my love for frozen pb&js goes way back.

“wait, haley. frozen pb&js?”

let me explain.

i love eating pb&js, but I hate making them. (is that weird?)

so i make a huge batch of pb&js at a time. i use my favorite bread - it tastes great, yet has a good amount of whole grains, protein, and fiber. and I slather on the peanut butter on both sides of the bread, and then I add the jelly - the peanut butter keeps the jelly from seeping through the bread. mama knows nutrition taught me to sprinkle on some flaxseed on the peanut butter for an added nutritional boost.

and then once the pb&js are all made, I freeze them. here’s a post that shows a step-by-step, if you need.

to defrost, I just throw the frozen sandwich in a diaper bag, a swim bag, a teacher bag - whatever bag I’m using. and after a good swim, after our errand, after that teacher meeting, after that whatever, the pb&j is perfectly defrosted and amazing.

these also saved me postpartum - see the instagram post here. I’d either move a few frozen sandwiches to the fridge for the week as a quick, one-handed nursing snack and I’d eat them cold out of the fridge, or I’d put the frozen/refrigerated sandwich on the counter for a hot minute to come to room temp.

snack boxes/bistro boxes/adult lunchables

and both back when I was a teacher and now as a stay-at-home-mom, I love/loved to prep a few snack boxes for the week. or bisto boxes. or adult lunchables.

whatever you call them.

because true joy is looking in the fridge and realizing a delicious, no-heat, ready-to-go, snack-y meal is already made and waiting. (true, true joy was having these on hand during the especially crazy seasons of teaching. like testing season. and back-to-school season. and end-of-year season. and field trips season. and and and.)

when I was a teacher, I had these boxes, but now I have glass, divided containers like this or this.

but basically, on Sundays, I’d take whatever container, and I’d peruse my “bistro boxes” Pinterest board for ideas, and I’d get to prepping. (kids’ lunchbox accounts on instagram is a great place for ideas, too.) basically I’m just making a few ready-to-go meals for Future Hangry Haley. these saved me while teaching, yes. but these also saved me while pregnant, while working on weddings, and while navigating life with a newborn.

i really need to make these gemstones again. they are one of my favorite ways to take care of Future Haley, and they’ve saved me from frantically devouring entire bags of chips.

smoothies

see my full post on my smoothies here.

muffins

I love to make muffins on a pretty regular basis. and I love to freeze leftover said muffins. (one of the easiest, best things to freeze, IMO. our freezer stash of muffins saved us postpartum.)

you know why?

because muffins make one of my favorite lunches. (breakfasts, too.)

because is there anything better than a muffin with a cup of coffee? or a muffin with, say, a goooood salad? or a warm muffin slathered with butter and/or jam?

i mean, yeah. there are other better things. but a goooood muffin ranks pretty high up there.

both back when I was a teacher and now, I love having muffins on hand as a breakfast/lunch option. this is why two days a week, we have “muffins” as a breakfast option, and why “leftovers” are always a lunch option (those muffins totally count as leftovers).

and like, yeah. i have a child now and muffins are a great thing to share with her. but let’s all note that I loved muffins way before she ever came along.

oats of some sort

one of the easiest, best things to make ahead. and holy moly, there are countless recipes out there, so getting some variety is easy peasy.

and, side note. up until, like, a year ago, i swore I disliked oatmeal. but it turns out I was just eating the wrong kind. my mom one day made oatmeal like this with good oats, and served it to me plain with a generous slab of butter stirred in. it was this savory risotto-like situation. it was heavenly. and from then on, I was a converted oatmeal lover.

so now I make a batch - at least once or twice a month - of the above recipe, and I portion them out into smaller mason jars like this. that way, when it’s breakfast/lunch time, I can grab one of the containers, heat it up, stir a slab of butter into the hot oatmeal, and enjoy. i thank Past Haley profusely whenever I find these gemstones in my fridge.

and, now that I’ve learned to like oatmeal, I’m venturing out and trying new recipes. and holy moly, there are countless recipes out there. so far we’ve tried (and loved!!!) this maple pecan baked oatmeal and these healthy breakfast bars with jam.

and kk loves oatmeal, so we have oats of some sort twice a week as one of our breakfast options.

eggs of some sort

another favorite that’s easy to make ahead, and enough recipes out there that Picky Haley can find a few recipes she likes.

for this reason, we have eggs of some sort twice a week as one of our breakfast options.

a few favorites:

life changing soft scrambled eggs
- yes, I’ve been known to make these ahead of time for the week. Project Meal Prep taught me how: “For [make-ahead scrambled eggs], it’s best to just slightly undercook your eggs. Maybe 30 seconds away from when you would actually want to eat them. You’re going to have to reheat everything and you don’t want hard overcooked eggs! They’ll cook a little more in the microwave during reheating.
potato, egg, and cheese breakfast tacos
- life changing soft scrambled eggs + some monterrey jack cheese + crispy roasted yukon gold potatoes + gooooood flour tortillas = my favorite breakfast tacos.
- hoping to figure out a way to make a make-ahead potato, egg, and cheese freezer breakfast burrito thing that I love, even if that means enlisting the help of tater tots.
egg muffins with bacon and cheese
- let’s all promise to find some sort of egg muffin recipe we love because I swear egg muffins are one of the best ways to take care of Future You.
freezer croissant breakfast sandwiches
- this is the original recipe, but I love to get Costco croissants and pile them high with life changing soft scrambled eggs and slices of american cheese. recreates my favorite breakfast i ate all the time in college. i made a big batch of these for postpartum (see the instagram post here) and they were life saving.
my favorite breakfast casserole
- I have a bigggg weakness for McDonald’s Sausage Egg and Cheese Biscuits after a good, hard swim. this casserole tastes pretty similar, so of course I’m a fan.
- also, also. this casserole freezes well. what I do is after baking this casserole, I let it cool and cut it into granola-bar size strips. and I freeze the casserole in these strips so that when I need a quick breakfast for the week, I take a few of these casserole “bars” out of the freezer. I did this all the time as a teacher.
my trashy tater tot omelette thing
- this is the original recipe, if you’d prefer to add classy adult things like vegetables and meat to yours. figuring out some sort of baked omelette, frittata, or quiche you love to make for the week is a super lovely way to take care of Future You.
instant pot hardboiled eggs
- i will not touch hardboiled eggs with a ten-foot pole, but Brett and KK love when a stash of these are in the fridge, so I thought this recipe was worth noting.

beans

wooooo, buddy. my love for a goooood pot of beans runs deep.

remember how I said when I was a teacher, I’d make a crockpot of soup every Sunday? nine times out of ten, I’d also have a crockpot of beans going, too.

yes, dueling crockpots. that’s when you know you’re doing something right.

back then - and even now - soup was definitely a favorite meal. but so was beans.

beans for breakfast, beans for lunch, beans for dinner - I love it all. by themselves, with rice, with eggs, with fritos, with mashed avocado, with queso, with a crispy taco shell and shredded monterrey jack cheese, with a flour tortilla and monterrey jack cheese (a bean and cheese breakfast taco!), with a chalupa shell and shredded lettuce, shredded monterrey jack cheese, and a generous drizzle of crema, etc etc etc.

beans. definitely a breakfast and lunch (and dinner!) favorite for me always.

when i’m feeling refried beans, this one is my go-to.

when I’m feeling regular ol pinto beans, I make this. this eaten with club crackers is straight childhood nostalgia. or, these beans eaten with mashed avocado and thick, shredded cheese with a big handful of frito scoops. or pinto beans over a bed of brown rice, topped with thick, shredded cheese and mashed avocado mighttttt be one of my favorite meals of all time. for this reason, I’d make a crockpot of pinto beans almost every week when I was a teacher.

sandwich night

as I mentioned before, we have a weekly soup and sandwich night. and yeah, having soup leftovers on hand is so nice for us. but what’s also nice are those sandwich leftovers.

whether that be BLT leftovers, build-your-own-sub-sandwich leftovers, chicken salad leftovers, meatball sub leftovers, chicken caesar wrap leftovers, french dip sandwich leftovers, turkey pinwheel leftovers - it’s all good as an awesome lunch option, IMO.

(but as I said before, sometimes dinner leftovers as lunch just don’t sound good. and that’s okay. so I like to have a second lunch option on hand.)

or, I will ALWAYS love this sandwich as a quick lunch option. always always always. so we always have these ingredients in our fridge.

again, is there a dinner theme you can create where the leftovers take care of a few of your lunches? i don’t know about you, but I’m always so happy that we have both soup and sandwich leftovers on hand. you may feel the same about something else!

meal prep

I think you can tell by now that I love taking a few minutes on Sundays to prepare some food. sometimes I only do five minutes, sometimes I do an hour. sometimes I’ll do it in one session, sometimes I’ll break it up into several smaller sessions. sometimes I do it all on Sunday, sometimes I’ll do some here and there throughout the week. (for this reason, our daily rhythm has space to do any meal prep, if needed.)

but here’s the thing: even taking five minutes to do one thing helps Future Haley tremendously. even if it’s just making some oatmeal and pulling frozen muffins out of the freezer helps my week go so much smoother.

each week, I just ask myself if there’s anything I can do to make breakfasts and lunches that week easier. and, if I have time and energy, I’ll ask myself if there’s anything I can do now to make dinners this week easier. because while I love cooking dinner, I don’t like making breakfasts and lunches - I prefer breakfasts and lunches to be of the make-ahead variety.

so meal prep could be starting a crockpot of soup, washing produce, whipping up a salad dressing, putting together three snack boxes, cutting up salad ingredients, making an oven omelette, pulling muffins out of the freezer, and so on. there’s no wrong answer. it’s whatever you need.

and I personally need some things to have on hand for breakfasts and lunches.

always have, [probably] always will.

need some meal prep inspiration? sign up for my weekly newsletter - I send out that week’s plan for meal prep (and that week’s menu plan!) with alllll recipe links!

love, haley

Want to see our favorite lunchboxes and containers for taking lunches to-go? And my favorite things for lunches? See the new post here!

Follow me on Instagram - there I’m always sharing routines, systems, and dinners (like this!) we love.

Sign up for my newsletter where I send out our weekly menu plan with recipe links. Dinner inspiration sent right to your inbox!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.