The lunch box week plan–a complete guide on how to batch cook to have everything ready to prepare your kid’s lunches in the morning without the stress, and in a fraction of the time. If you want to make lunch boxes without processed foods, cooking a few things in advance and being prepared is key.

This weekly PLAN contains the list of ingredients you will need to make all of these lunches + one family dinner and a weekly batch-cooking schedule so you know when to prepare what :)

What you will batch cook (cook in advance):

MONDAY morning or afternoon:

Cook the zucchini and goat cheese frittata for dinner so you have left overs for lunch boxes on Tuesday. The quiche recipe serves 6. With this recipe, you can make a medium frittata for four, plus the bites for the kid’s lunches. Click here for the recipe. Tips: if you don’t have kids moulds for the bites, use muffin moulds or any other small oven-proof moulds you have at home.

TUESDAY morning, afternoon or night:

1. Cook 2 ½ cups of rice - I choose sushi rice as it is easier to use for sushi roll making, but you can use another type if preferred. You can make the rice yellow (and more fun for the kids, like in my photos), by just adding ½ tsp of saffron powder to the rice after it’s cooked. For this week I choose to make half of the cooked rice yellow nd half white :) so I can mix it for the Friday sushi rolls.

2. Wash and peel the 3 potatoes, chop into small squares and boil until soft. Drain and rinse and save in an airtight container in the fridge for Thursday lunch.

Tips to cook rice: soak rice over night in 4 cups of water - optional - to activate it. Once it is cooked I rinse it in a small colander with fresh water to remove the starch. Drain well and place it in an airtight container in the fridge.

START WITH YOUR SHOPPING LIST: For the frittata you will need:

• 1 garlic clove peeled and chopped extra fine

• 6 large zucchinis

• 6 pasture raised eggs

• 100 g goat cheese

• Small pack of ground garam masala

• Small pack of gound nutmeg

For all the other lunches you will need (quantities are for 2 kids lunches):

• Pocket tortillas - I buy the brand Old El Paso, available in all the big supermarkets

• 2 avocados

• 3 cucumbers

• 2 punnet cherry tomatoes

• 3 carrots

• 3 large potatoes

• Pitted kalamata olives

• 250 g blackberries if in season

• 4 apples

• ½ rockmelon

• 2 oranges

• 4 bananas

• ½ watermelon

• 220 g cherry bocconcini cheese

• 100 g shredded mozzarella

• 1 pack rice crackers of your choice

• 1 pack other savoury crackers of your choice

• 1 tin of butter beans

• 2 ½ cups of sushi rice

• Small pack of ground saffron

• Small pack of pecans

• Small pack of raw cashews

• Small pack of pistachios

• 2 pasture raised eggs - so total you need 8

• Sushi nori seaweed sheets

• 1 jar baby cucumber pickles