Making Your Own Lunch Kits

My nephew is in love with Lunchables, pre-made lunch kits marketed at kids which come in several varieties and have generic immitators, but crackers+meat+cheese+cookie is the general formula.  They're wonderfully simple and convenient.  But they are generally more expensive than assembling the same foods yourself, generate trash, and cookie/candy without fruit or vegetables is not the best lunch routine.

So I've started making "lunchables" for my nephew in the morning for his lunch that usually look like what I've pictured above.  Since they're only stored for a few hours instead of potentially weeks, it's not important to separate the different foods with dividers.  That's 8 Ritz Crackers, 1 slice of swiss cheese folded and broken into four pieces and stacked on top of four folded thin slices of turkey.  I usually give him fruit in a separate container as well.

I'm bringing this up on a blog for single adults, because you can make adult versions of this.  Reusable divide containers help:

Kind of looks like a meal of party leftovers, but it hits 4 out of 5 food groups.  I had two slices of chicken left, so I used 2 different meats, 2 or 3 different cheeses, and fresh grapes.

Crackers (or other dry sliced bread) + cheese + meat + fruit (and/or veggies)= meals you can prep in advance and grab quickly in the morning.

Vegan version is subsituting the meat with hummus or nuts like almonds or peanut butter, and a calcium rich vegetable like spinach (or something else from this list: "33 Vegetables High in Calcium").

If you compare the price on the adult premade lunches and snack kits, the savings become pretty obvious.