I’m so glad you asked! Let me help you simplify! After making homemade soup, fill your mason jar or freezer container 3/4 full and freeze it with the lid off for 24 hours so the glass doesn’t break. Focus on five foods you can prep this week based on your meal plan and schedule: making soup, cooking and shredding chicken, washing storing greens, baking muffins, etc. I did this all school year and both of my thermoses kept very well (and I use the thermoses at least twice a week.). Homemade soup is the ultimate real food convenience meal. My original plan was to talk about baked goods this week in the prep day series; instead Renee was generous to offer a very practical prep day post/tutorial. Puoi modificare le tue preferenze in qualsiasi momento in Le tue impostazioni per la privacy. Per consentire a Verizon Media e ai suoi partner di trattare i tuoi dati, seleziona 'Accetto' oppure seleziona 'Gestisci impostazioni' per ulteriori informazioni e per gestire le tue preferenze in merito, tra cui negare ai partner di Verizon Media l'autorizzazione a trattare i tuoi dati personali per i loro legittimi interessi. It can be difficult to provide a large variety of real food choices for everyone in your family. Homemade soup is made with simple ingredients: veggies, meat, and water/broth/milk. This post may contain affiliate links. Stock up on squashes when they’re 80 cents a pound and double this soup for the freezer. You can back off on the spinach if you think it means the kids will eat it more happily at first to ease into “green.”. I just love your comment and the heart behind it–you’re doing an amazing job! I either store the soup in the fridge to use the next day, or freeze the leftovers for another time. But when you make prepping soup a part of your dinner (by making a large batch or doubling a recipe), or schedule a prep hour or two on a weekend, homemade soup can make lunch packing easier…and nourishing. This chicken stew has a secret ingredient to make the broth super creamy and sweet with flavor – when you add a little squash puree to broth, it makes the most amazing soup base! I can’t think of very many kids that don’t like potatoes so this potato & spinach soup usually goes over really well. Now, I help families all over the world do the same, one small step at a time. It is so flavorful. In the fridge, soup will keep for 3-4 days depending on the freshness of the ingredients. Hey Natalie, Thank you so much for sharing!! Spinach is practically tasteless when wilted into a soup so I use it a LOT in my soup making. Noi e i nostri partner memorizzeremo e/o accederemo ai dati sul tuo dispositivo attraverso l'uso di cookie e tecnologie simili, per mostrare annunci e contenuti personalizzati, per la misurazione di annunci e contenuti, per l'analisi dei segmenti di pubblico e per lo sviluppo dei prodotti. I started Live Simply to share my family's journey toward a real food and natural wellness lifestyle. This will keep your soup from getting cold by lunchtime. If you have older kids who are responsible at the stovetop, I would make this apart of their morning routine! Chili is so hearty that I usually just pack a small salad and a piece of fruit on the side. Fill your thermos with the hot water, and let the hot water sit in the thermos with the lid on for about 5 minutes while you warm up the soup on the stovetop. A Note From Kristin: A huge thank you to both Renee and Kimberly for filling in for me this week as we finish the Live Simply Kitchen Remodel (you can follow the progress on Instagram). My all-time favorite lunch soup (and my girls too!). This recipe makes a lot of soup, and it has an amazing creamy flavor. Please consult a doctor or specialist for specific concerns about any skincare issues, cleaning products, or dietary needs. Thank you so much for the last note you included about the bone broth. I usually just pack a piece of fruit and cheese with this one. If they’re old enough to be in school, they’re old enough to wash their gear ;). If you aren’t quite there yet, don’t pass by these recipes. Well you can live off of this, but it's not the healthiest thing. For a dairy-based soup (with cheese and bacon), try homemade creamy cauliflower soup. It takes less than 10 minutes to prep soup for the thermos. I’m Kristin. My oldest daughter’s first year of full-time school really snuck up on me last year. I was reading through your post and was already thinking I can’t make these soups because I’ll have to make the bone broth first and I’ll never even get to the soup. Your email address will not be published. So…. This is a nice hearty soup so you don’t need much more than a piece of fruit and maybe a salad, or some crispy nuts and cheese on the side. These ingredients are relatively inexpensive when compared to the large amount of nourishing soup you can make at one time. I appreciate that you understand that we all do want to do the right thing by our family and kids but we are at different levels. You can freeze soup in pint or smaller containers (small freezer-safe mason jars work great) if you just want single servings. I can pull out a quart or so the night before. Chicken stew is a great one to make for dinner and pack the leftovers for the next day. This week, your homework is to create a meal plan, go shopping for the food you’ll need to implement the meal plan, set aside a specific day/time for prep time, and then print and fill out the Prep Day Action Plan printable. No chopping fresh broccoli (if you don’t want to) – I purchase the big 5lb bags of frozen organic broccoli at Costco. I’m so glad the bone broth note was an encouragement. A classic tomato-y flavor, this vegetable beef soup is just like the red can of veggie soup you grew up on. Think of the soup aisle, but in your freezer! Well, let me put it this way. Soup is a good food to help keep weight off, but canned soup has too much sodium and not enough fiber. Prep Day: How to Make Easy Crock-Pot Shredded Chicken, Prep Day: How to Wash & Store Lettuce, Kale, Spinach and Other Leafy Greens, Prep Day: Why, What, & How To of Preparing Food in Advance. I have three little mouths plus myself to feed for lunch (my husband stores real food in his work refrigerator), so I tend to freeze more in quart or half-gallon containers. We are all at different stages of learning real food and it isn’t doing anyone any good to get overwhelmed and just give up. Information about my products or recipes haven’t been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This means you can focus on other morning activities (like getting breakfast ready) while it’s warming up. Small steps are still progress. In my mind, I figured I could just take the same nourishing meals she was eating at home as a baby, toddler, and preschooler, and figure out how to pack them up. That classic red can has absolutely nothing on homemade! This is every kid’s favorite, and it is a great way to get bone broth in pickier kids – the noodles cook right up in the broth in this large batch chicken noodle soup so they are getting a lot in one bite! Put that sweet school-aged kiddo to work washing that bad boy up! Chicken Noodle Soup. Dear momma, with too many things on your agenda already, pop that thermos right in the dishwasher. If you know me at all by now, you know I’m a huge fan of gut healing and body nourishing bone broth. So to balance things out and create a whole meal, you can add a piece of fruit, a protein like whole yogurt, a granola bar (soaked or protein) or energy bar, cheese, tuna salad, hummus or refried beans, or a shredded chicken sandwich, and a carbohydrate like a biscuit (gluten-free or wheat-based) to dunk in the soup, a make-ahead burrito, a muffin, some crackers, or tortilla chips. “So I’m going to pack soup for lunch (or maybe a quick dinner), what else can I pack with soup to make it a full meal?”.