The hardest part of getting out the door on co-op day is, hands down, the food. You’d think it would be gathering up backpacks, or making sure I have my tutoring supplies, or checking to be sure everyone has actual clothes on. Nope. It’s the food.
Homeschool moms are conditioned to a completely different rhythm in the area of food prep than our institutional school counterparts. We provide three meals a day for however many people are in our family— and most of those are hot meals, set on the table and not served out of lunchboxes. Co-op day breaks us out of our norm on so many levels. First, there’s the breakfast that must be prepared, served, and cleaned up in a timely fashion. No dawdlers! There’s a train (van) to catch! Next there’s a packed lunch, which let’s be honest, we’re kind of newbies at. And finally, there’s walking in the door, exhausted… and wondering who is going to be the adult tonight and make dinner for all these people. Oh, wait. It’s you.
If meal planning isn’t already on your radar, it will be on co-op days. Unless, of course, you have the finances to hit Starbucks every morning on the way in, dash out to Chick-fil-A every afternoon, and stop by Papa John’s every evening on the way home. And who are we kidding? You don’t have that kind of money. You’re a homeschool family. You live on one income. Save the drive-through lines for celebration days and instead, use some of these tried and true ideas for keeping the your family eating fresh, healthy food despite the chaos of co-op.
Breakfast
The key to co-op day breakfasts, I’ve learned, isn’t actually the prep, or the time spent eating: it’s making sure the kitchen is clean when you leave. Maybe you’re not a freak about this like I am, but I can’t stand coming home after being out all day and finding a sink full of dishes waiting for me. We have a normal post-meal chore rotation posted on our fridge, breaking down duties like clearing the table, wiping counters, loading the dishwasher, but it’s bust on co-op day since there’s usually a quick sprint out the door. So keeping the prep dishes to a minimum (preferably one pot) and making sure everyone takes their plate immediately to the dishwasher are my criteria for co-op day breakfast. As such, these are the meals on morning rotation:
Bagels—with peanut butter or ham and melted cheese, fruit on the side.
Breakfast Casseroles—we have several we like, but Sausage and Egg is the fastest on co-op mornings, and is easy to make dairy-free for my kids with allergies.
Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats—we have many recipes we like, and most can be loaded with chopped nuts and flaked coconut, for a meal that is substantial morning fuel!
Instant Pot Yogurt—top with a generous amount of granola, nuts, and fruit to keep kids full until lunch.
Lunch
Truth—most homeschoolers do not buy items in single-size servings. Actually, most of us will go out of our way not to buy those little pouches, because as a lot, we’re generally terribly environmentally conscious. Give us a giant bag we can parcel out into our own little reusable waterproof snap pouches, and we’re a happy bunch. Which, of course, makes packing lunches that much trickier. Instead of lining up paper bags on a counter and dropping in one fruit cup, one cheese stick, one pack of nuts, one Lunchable, and one fun-sized Snickers bar like we could, we buy adorable metal bento boxes and carefully fill them with pinwheel sandwiches and sliced grapes and quinoa salads. Which is fabulous, except, well… it’s time consuming. Not only that— my kids don’t care. I’ve learned this the hard way, as I agonized over providing what I felt lunch should be. Turns out, my kids actually just want to shove their hungry little bellies full of some fuel so that they can run and play with their friends. Well, in that case, I’m done being Pinterest lunch mom. My solution now is to pack one large cooler bag for the whole family and serve it buffet style. That being said, here’s what’s in my typical co-op day family lunch bag:
Fruit—I try to bring two pieces of fruit per person.
Nuts—we buy huge bags of almonds, walnuts, and pecans at Costco, so I just grab a smaller container and tote it along.
Chobani Flip Yogurts—this is our weekly treat, because at $1 per Flip, they are not in the general budget.
Baby Carrots—one bag gets split amongst the whole crew.
Beef Jerky—because more protein is always good.
Tortilla Chips and Salsa—these are a staple in our house, and again, easy to toss into an oversized cooler bag for family snacking.
Do we lunch like this every day? No, we do not. As a rule, we’re a leftovers for lunch family (which you can absolutely pull off if your co-op has kitchen access). But this gets the job done on co-op days, it’s easy for me to throw together, and it keeps us all going until we can get home for dinner. That’s the idea, right?
Monday, I’ll what those dinners look like. I’ll include links to recipes as well as tips for making co-op evenings some of the most restful of your week!