Peach Fruit Roll-ups Plus {School Lunch Organization}

In my effort to make school lunches more edible, more diverse, and more healthy for my kids for the upcoming scholastic year, I’ve joined forces with a few of my favorite blogging mamas for a month-long online lunch challenge. Today’s challenge? How to get organized. Today’s recipe? Homemade Fruit Roll-ups. I’m all about organization and I came up with 4 items that will help me in my quest to make school lunches better than ever before. Today’s recipe goes along with this theme as it’s a healthy snack!

Peach Fruit Roll-Ups

I found the recipe for homemade fruit roll-ups from Our Best Bites. I did my best to follow her instructions! Here’s how I made Peach Fruit Roll ups. For more detailed instructions, see her post!

Ingredients:

3-4 peaches (to make 3 cups to diced peaches)
3 TBS sugar

Instructions:

Peal and dice 3 cups worth of peaches. Add 3 TBS. of sugar. If you think it needs to be sweetened. If you don’t, then don’t. Puree. Spread evenly on cookie sheet on silicone baking mat. Bake in oven for 6-8 hours at 170 degrees. You’ll know it’s done when it doesn’t stick to your finger or indent when you stick your finger in the center. {Yep, you can just stick your finger in there and touch it, carefully} Peel off silicone baking mat and lay on parchment paper. Cut into strips. Store in airtight container. Good for a few weeks.

Notes: I baked mine for 8 hours. It was too long. The edges got too crisp. They still tasted great, but weren’t pliable, so I think that the key to making homemade fruit roll ups is just knowing when they are done. Otherwise, they are really easy! Also, in the future, I think I’m going to do these at night. Hubby stays up late so I’ll have him pop them in the oven before he goes to bed so that they have about 6 hours of baking time and they are done when I wake up and I don’t have to spend my day waiting on them.

Getting Organized

Getting organized didn’t take a whole lot of effort on my part since I’m organized by nature. I did make a list of 4 things that I needed to do to up my game though, and I think they’ll really help. New containers, a stocked and organized pantry, printable lunch lists, and bookmarked online ideas topped my list.

Online Lunch Ideas

Keeping an online lunch idea bookmark file, pinboard or the like is one of my favorite ways to stay organized. Here’s my School Lunch Pinboard and the Beyond Bologna: Back to School Lunch Pinboard.

Containers

I purchased some expandable containers for my kids lunches this year so that they can take salads to school. I thought that one of the things that I’d try this year was to introduce green and pasta salads….items that I’ve never been able to pack in the past in a traditional lunch pail. It’ll let you know how it turns out. These containers have forks and spoons and a condiment container built into the design.

Organized Pantry

I always keep a well stocked pantry, and one of the things we did recently was to stock up on chips (not so very healthy) and “bars”. The kids typically each take some sort of granola or soy bar each day to eat at their first recess as a snack. I hate running out of lunch items mid week and I’ve found that if I buy in bulk the non-perishables, I’m a lot more successful making them healthy items for the main portion of their lunch.

Printable Lunch Lists

Tip Junkie produced this printable lunch menu last year that has been so helpful to me {and I’m sure about a million others}! Print it out and then let your kids pick {check mark style} their healthy lunch combo when you are feeling uninspired! Here’s another great list for planning, calendar style: Printable Lunch Meal Planner, that’s super helpful for staying organized.

Check in next week for a new lunch recipe and time savings tips and don’t forget to stop by all the other participating mama’s blogs each day this week as they share their tips. More info. here!