Anonymous wrote:I wake up at 6 am and make fresh breakfast and lunch. My kids carry lunch from home. It doesn't stay hot or warm by the time they eat but it still feels fresh (according to them). Sometimes I do meal preps the even before (example: sliding carrots or chopping sweet potatoes) but I do all the cooking in the mornings. I clean up as I go. My kitchen is not picture perfect since I also work full time but I try to keep things pretty decent.

Typo correction
* The evening before
* Sliding carrots

I wake up at 6 am and make fresh breakfast and lunch. My kids carry lunch from home. It doesn't stay hot or warm by the time they eat but it still feels fresh (according to them). Sometimes I do meal preps the even before (example: sliding carrots or chopping sweet potatoes) but I do all the cooking in the mornings. I clean up as I go. My kitchen is not picture perfect since I also work full time but I try to keep things pretty decent.

I get up at six to prepare lunch (I have to leave at 7 for work), usually from leftovers if it’s something hot. Husband prepares breakfast (oats, eggs or bread & honey). When I’m lucky, everything is left in the sink.

Hi op. I also make a hot lunch most days. Some days it’s pbj. It takes me an hour and I don’t clear the sink before i leave. Just dump everything and clear the counter top in the mornings.

Our breakfast is steel cut oats from Monday to Friday. I add the oats, chia seeds and flax meal powder to the instant pot at night and the water and set on a delayed start timer. It’s ready when I wake up. DH puts it in bowls and adds milk and dry fruits to it. It may sound boring but I’ve done since the kids were little and they don’t know different. Then use the up to boil eggs. During the weekends I can pancakes or scrambled eggs. For lunch it’s usually sandwich with scrambled tofu or mixed vegetable curry or pasta with vegetables or friend rice. If I know DH is not around to help in the morning, I make the tofu/vegetables the previous night or at-least prep the vegetables.
Some cultures place a greater importance on meals than the present day American culture. It comes with a trade off of additional work. 2 hours seems excessive especially if you also have a commute. Think through how you can streamline the process maybe?If you don’t have a commute, it’s ok.

Do your kids eat the lunch? I’m a teacher and I see those nuggets in thermoses and the ketchup that spilled everywhere. Kids seems to eat the leftovers the least. Some parents seem to get it right but many hot lunches get thrown out and they eat all the sides. They would have been better off with a turkey sandwich.

Anonymous wrote:DP here. I make some stuff at night so my breakfast goes fast.

Today I only made toast and warmed the milk for my kids. They were served -
- 1 boiled egg each,
- guacamole toast
- greek yogurt with berries, seeds and nuts.
- warm milk with ovaltine
- 1 banana with tsp of peanut butter.

Packed lunch was
- Pasta in raos sauce with 4 meatballs each, lots of sauteed veggies (onions, peppers, mushrooms), basil and pine nuts. Packed in thermos. Every component was made ready at night. Heated, mixed and put together in the morning.
- 1 apple
- 1 string cheese.
- home made bars with nuts and dates

Again - it is easy peasy when you know what will go in the lunch box.

Ovaltine? That’s a blast from the past. I didn’t even realize they still sell it! Where do you buy it?

I make pancakes and muffins (both with whole wheat flour) and wrap and freeze them. I defrost them in the morning.

I don't send hot lunch.

I used to do it every day. I have to say I kind of grew to resent it and have cut down on it a lot. I would try to find at least a couple of easy things you could talk them into liking for breakfast for the days you just don’t feel like doing it. For example, I discovered my kids loved vanilla Greek yogurt with peaches, which is a great breakfast. Like a pp above I always make extras of a weekend breakfast—usually waffles or pancakes but sometimes a breakfast casserole—usually a triple batch—and serve some/ freeze some. And we do school lunch some days. It’s been a good balance and I don’t feel like the kitchen serf.

What age are your kids? I made my kids hot breakfast til they were in 6th grade and then they started figuring it out themselves. An 11/12 year old can easily make eggs, microwave sausage, toast a bagel, etc.

If my kids wanted hot lunch, they had to buy at school. Otherwise I made their lunches (sandwiches and such) through elementary school.

If you insist on doing this or have little kids, you should definitely simplify. Like by making a batch of pancakes/waffles or breakfast sandwiches/burritos on the weekend that you can just heat up through the week.

DP here. I make some stuff at night so my breakfast goes fast.

Today I only made toast and warmed the milk for my kids. They were served -
- 1 boiled egg each,
- guacamole toast
- greek yogurt with berries, seeds and nuts.
- warm milk with ovaltine
- 1 banana with tsp of peanut butter.

Packed lunch was
- Pasta in raos sauce with 4 meatballs each, lots of sauteed veggies (onions, peppers, mushrooms), basil and pine nuts. Packed in thermos. Every component was made ready at night. Heated, mixed and put together in the morning.
- 1 apple
- 1 string cheese.
- home made bars with nuts and dates

Again - it is easy peasy when you know what will go in the lunch box.

We do eggs and toast most mornings and it takes ~10 minutes, probably less. The toast takes 3:30 minutes in the toaster and the over easy eggs are done while the toast is toasting.

I cook high protein pasta twice a week and you can put it in a glass container with a sauce and cheese in two minutes. Same with precooked rice and precooked meat and veggies for a rice bowl. I cannot imagine what is taking you two hours.

I leave the dishes on the counter and load them in the evening. I can live with this.

I do what you do, OP, which means I get up at 6 to get the kids out by 7:50, then I leave to work shortly after. I’ve been getting up by 6 since they were infants though, so I don’t think this is unreasonable.

I do hot breakfast most mornings but it's just scrambled eggs or oatmeal, so pretty quick. Hot lunch would have to be either leftovers they microwave themselves or whatever the school is serving. Sure I want my kids to eat well but not to think they're too good for regular food.

I will add the caveat that if my kids were middle school and up, I would support them meal prepping for themselves on the weekends if it were that important to them. But I'm not a personal private chef.

Anonymous wrote:I get up 1.25 hours before school starts, but that also includes time for me to shower and get ready for work, make coffee, feed the cats, etc.

Our hot breakfast is something fast like toast, fried or scrambled eggs, pancakes from a just-add-water mix, frozen waffles. Bacon and sausage take to long and make too much of a mess, but if I have some left over from the weekend I'll reheat them.

Lunch is usually reheated. Dinner leftovers, or I cook a pound of pasta on Sunday and reheat portions each morning. In a pinch, angel hair pasta cooks in two minutes - I can do that while getting breakfast ready.

We rinse dishes so the food doesn't get stuck on, but don't fully wash them. They get washed after work or with that night's dinner dishes.

+1 I get as much as I can done the night before (water bottles, other items besides main entree in lunch bag ready to go, snack in backpack, schedule reminders etc.). I leave before my husband and kids so I leave any dishes in the sink and my husband unloads the clean dishwasher from the night before and loads dirty dishes in. I get up so early more for me, I like the quiet time. Breakfasts are super simple more times than not because my kids leave insanely early for school and they're not super hungry that early in the morning. No way I could a some gourmet meal on a weekday. The weekends, they eat like kings lol

Anonymous wrote:I make hot breakfast and lunches for my kids too. Though I can get it done in an hour. I wash as I go, but I don’t stress out if I need to leave dishes or pans soaking in the sink. That cuts down on stress and save time in the morning.

I also send dinner leftovers which cuts down on cooking time, but not necessarily cleanup time.

Im really only talking 1 hr too, but its just s long rushing hour

7am wake
7-8am cook and clean breakfast, lunch
8-820 wake kids and change my clothes, usually some household chore like trash efc
830 walk to school for 9am start time.