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#867 Time Crunch Moments: Lighting Up Lunchboxes · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

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  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families Podcast. It's the podcast for.
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  Speaker 2: The time poor parent who just answers Now.
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  Speaker 1: All this week on the Happy Families Podcast, we are
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  Speaker 1: talking about those time crunch moments. Every day there's something
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  Speaker 1: that makes life a bit challenging when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: kids and school and family life. And the topic for
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  Speaker 1: today is I think one of the one of the
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  Speaker 1: most annoying things food. Have you noticed how much of
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  Speaker 1: a problem food is, Like.
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  Speaker 2: It's never ending. You need it for breakfast, lunch, and
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  Speaker 2: dinner every day, and there's always tire.
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  Speaker 1: Life as it is. I for variety, except when the
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  Speaker 1: kids don't want variety, but we want them to have variety.
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  Speaker 2: Well I don't care if they have variety or not,
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  Speaker 2: but I need it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, But we just want them to eat,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes they won't eat. I mean we had we
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  Speaker 1: had this situation just recently with one of our kids,
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  Speaker 1: maybe a couple of months ago, where you were saying,
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  Speaker 1: you need to take a sandwich for lunch, like you
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  Speaker 1: need extra food. You can't just take an apple for
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  Speaker 1: the entire day. And she said, literally, Mum, I can
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  Speaker 1: take a sandwich if you want me to, but it
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  Speaker 1: is just going to end up in the bin, and
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  Speaker 1: you kind of go on.
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  Speaker 2: When I think back to all the lunches that I
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  Speaker 2: threw in the bin.
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  Speaker 1: As a kid, with no consideration for how much Mum
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  Speaker 1: and dad we was spending on all those loads of bread.
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  Speaker 1: Mind you, back in those days, a loaf of bread
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  Speaker 1: probably cost about twenty nine cents.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was still added up to the family.
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  Speaker 1: Budget, right, Yeah, well that's right because mom and dad
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  Speaker 1: were only earning fifty cents an hour or whatever it was. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: So today our conversation is very much about what to
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  Speaker 1: do when it comes to lunch, how we can deal
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  Speaker 1: with that time crunch around lunch and making sure the
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  Speaker 1: kids have got something to eat, that they will eat,
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  Speaker 1: that they're going to feel good about eating, and that
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  Speaker 1: we're going to feel good about sending them off to
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  Speaker 1: school with. We have five ideas, proven ideas, time tested ideas,
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  Speaker 1: hard won wisdom ideas to help to deal with the
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  Speaker 1: challenges of getting the kids eating food at lunchtime. I
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  Speaker 1: think that I'm going to start, but this, the first
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  Speaker 1: one is my favorite one. Well it's mine too, I
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  Speaker 1: think it's everybody's favorite one, and it is tuch Shop
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  Speaker 1: is awesome. That's what I was going to say. That
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  Speaker 1: was going to be my final one. We're coming back
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  Speaker 1: to that later, Okay. Do you not write down the
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  Speaker 1: same list that I wrote down? Obviously? I know we didn't.
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  Speaker 1: I did. We have to tak Shop is awesome, It's
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  Speaker 1: literally my number one, okay, But tuch Shop is also expensive.
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  Speaker 1: It is expensive and it's not realistic. Especially I mean
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  Speaker 1: over the years, we've had as many as five children
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  Speaker 1: at one school, and on tuch Shop Day we used
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  Speaker 1: to find every excuse to not let them buy Touch Shop.
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  Speaker 1: We were like, oh my goodness, this is going to
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  Speaker 1: cost us an arm and a leg by the time
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  Speaker 1: they bought their stuff. But touch Shop is very, very
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  Speaker 1: useful for getting you out of the fix.
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  Speaker 2: I remember when I was in primary school. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: used to buy a bigger Ben pie right, and a
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  Speaker 2: long John donut. It was my favorite. They would stick
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  Speaker 2: the donut in next to my hot pies so it
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  Speaker 2: would be nice and warm. It was delicious. Cost my
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  Speaker 2: mum and dad a dollar forty five.
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  Speaker 1: A dollar forty five for a pie and a donut.
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  Speaker 2: No way. Yeah, now, I'm I am literally timezing that
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  Speaker 2: by ten minimum.
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  Speaker 1: That's incredible for my kids to have something. So you've
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  Speaker 1: just you've said that, and it's got me googling. It's
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  Speaker 1: got me getting all excited about things. I went to
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  Speaker 1: school two years after this began. Okay, so I started
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  Speaker 1: school in nineteen eighty. I think, yeah, it was definitely
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty. I've just done a quick Google and I
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  Speaker 1: found a school canteen priceless from nineteen seventy eight, so
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  Speaker 1: this is just two years before I got there. And
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  Speaker 1: I got to share this with you. A vegiemite sandwich
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  Speaker 1: twenty six cents, I like the six cents. A corn
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  Speaker 1: beef sandwich thirty five cents. Can you imagine get another
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  Speaker 1: come to pieces.
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  Speaker 2: Of my long time donut which I will pay like
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  Speaker 2: four five six dollars for now it cost me forty
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  Speaker 2: five cents.
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  Speaker 1: Unbelievable. This touch shop also has a jam and cream
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  Speaker 1: doughnut for twenty two cents, a finger bun for twenty
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  Speaker 1: so I mean twenty two cents. You remember when we
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  Speaker 1: used to have the little copper coins, the one and
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  Speaker 1: two cent coins. Yea, it's taking me away.
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  Speaker 2: You used to be able to go to the corner
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  Speaker 2: store and get your elliptes for a cent ellipties. What's
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  Speaker 2: ELLIPTI a little eucalyptus loly?
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  Speaker 1: Oh you call them lypties. Yeah, I've never heard of that. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Do you remember the twenty cents worth of mixed lollies? Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: we're going on a bit of a tangent.
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  Speaker 2: I know we're being a little bit glib, but our
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  Speaker 2: last few weeks of term three were so chaotic. The
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  Speaker 2: kids have never thought they've had it as good as
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  Speaker 2: they did, because touch shops definitely highlighted their days more
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  Speaker 2: times than they have ever experienced.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes that's just life, right, But there's got to be
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  Speaker 1: other ways to do it. I've found I found a
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  Speaker 1: touch shop list from nineteen eighty six, so I was
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  Speaker 1: in about what would i've been a grade? I think
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  Speaker 1: I was halfway through primary school or thereabouts. You could
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  Speaker 1: get a pie from the touch shop for seventy two cents.
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  Speaker 1: It was seventy seven cents with sauce. How amazing is that?
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  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I could stare at this. I feel
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  Speaker 1: like I'm reminiscing and going back, like you want to
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  Speaker 1: get back on the track. Okay, So number one, touch
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  Speaker 1: shop that can be useful. Number two, what did.
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  Speaker 2: You have on your list because we clearly don't have
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  Speaker 2: the same list.
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  Speaker 1: Number two I had, well I had. Number one was leftovers,
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  Speaker 1: So we're going to go with that one.
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  Speaker 2: Our kids love leftover.
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  Speaker 1: I love leftovers, and it.
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  Speaker 2: Can be really annoying when I want the leftovers.
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  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying the fridge. I'm thinking, Oh, it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be so good. We've got last night's leftovers.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to have it for lunch today. And the
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  Speaker 1: kids have taken it to school.
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  Speaker 2: And they've surprised me because obviously older kids usually will
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  Speaker 2: have access to a microwave. Younger kids won't.
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  Speaker 1: Eat anything cold.
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  Speaker 2: They will eat it cold.
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  Speaker 1: They love the leftovers.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so leftovers is brilliant. And the great thing about
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  Speaker 2: doing leftovers is if the children decide they want it,
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  Speaker 2: then you actually pack it the night before. It's in
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  Speaker 2: the fridge, contained it up, ready to go, and you
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  Speaker 2: just put it in a lunch box.
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  Speaker 1: I see what you did that. You've just flashed back
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  Speaker 1: to our Monday podcast so that you could highlight morning
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  Speaker 1: begins the night before, make the decisions early, makes life wood.
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  Speaker 1: It takes away the time punch. The third big idea
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  Speaker 1: that we.
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  Speaker 2: Have is weekend school bakes.
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  Speaker 1: Wekend school bakes.
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  Speaker 2: This is great to involve the kids, and I will
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  Speaker 2: do a big bag up with them with muffins. We'll
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  Speaker 2: do many kishes. We might do some We did some
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  Speaker 2: little rice bakes once little Risotto. I remember that rice bakes,
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  Speaker 2: which the kids were really keen to give a go.
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  Speaker 2: They didn't stay on our list, but they were willing
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  Speaker 2: to give it a go. And we might do pancakes
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  Speaker 2: or pikelets for them to add into their lunch boxes.
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  Speaker 2: But then I freeze them, so I've got a whole
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes there's enough there for, you know, a couple of weeks,
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  Speaker 2: but the kids get involved and then you've got them
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  Speaker 2: ready to go. They pull them out of the freezer,
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  Speaker 2: they go into their lunch box as frozen treats, and
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  Speaker 2: by the time they eat them, they've kept the lunch
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  Speaker 2: box cold. But now they're ready to eat they defrosted.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so we've got touch shop is our go to.
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  Speaker 1: We've got it's not really it really should have been
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  Speaker 1: at the end, but we've got little leftovers. You did leftovers,
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  Speaker 1: and we've got the weekend school bake. Now there are
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  Speaker 1: two other ideas that we want to share with you
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  Speaker 1: in rapid fire. I'm going to jump in with one
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  Speaker 1: of them, because this has been such a success in
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  Speaker 1: our home when it comes to getting the kids to
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  Speaker 1: eat their lunch and this kind of I guess it's
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  Speaker 1: kind of like doing a weekend school bake or a
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  Speaker 1: leftovers thing, but there's just a slight tweak to it.
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  Speaker 1: We've got a handful of meals that the kids just
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  Speaker 1: love and they don't care if they're eating it fresh,
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  Speaker 1: they don't care if they're eating a cold they just
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  Speaker 1: love it. And so every so often you'll just cook
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  Speaker 1: couple lazagna or a spaghetti bolonnaise and stick it in
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  Speaker 1: the fridge. It's not a meal that we're going to
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  Speaker 1: eat that night. It's literally a meal that is going
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  Speaker 1: to be good for the week, and the kids can
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  Speaker 1: take it on two or three days for lunch and
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  Speaker 1: they're quite happy to eat lazania three days in a
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  Speaker 1: row in their lunch box. Or you'll cook up some
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  Speaker 1: meat that we would put into raps, like the tortilla wraps,
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  Speaker 1: and so in the mornings we'll head into the kitchen
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  Speaker 1: and pull the meat there and make up fresh wraps
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  Speaker 1: and wrap them up for the kids and they love that.
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  Speaker 1: So I think specifically cooking a meal that you know
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  Speaker 1: that the children are going to like, and then you
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  Speaker 1: can just divvy it out, spread it out across two
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  Speaker 1: or three days. It takes care of lunches for most
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  Speaker 1: of the week, and so long as they're happy to
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  Speaker 1: keep on eating that food, it takes the pressure off
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  Speaker 1: so much.
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  Speaker 2: Lunch menus are another thing that we've used in the past,
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  Speaker 2: which have been such a good tool for kids who
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  Speaker 2: struggle to make decisions. So having it all there in
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  Speaker 2: writing literally like going to a cafe, and sometimes it
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  Speaker 2: feels a little bit overwhelming, but it's just broken up.
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  Speaker 2: What piece of fruit do you want? What carb do
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  Speaker 2: you want? Because you could have a wrap, you could
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  Speaker 2: have a sandwich, you could have a bread roll. You
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  Speaker 2: could also have a croissant, and then you get to
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  Speaker 2: pick your fillers that go on it. So our kids
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  Speaker 2: have had toasted sandwiches that they've eaten cold. I've made
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  Speaker 2: croissants and put them in the oven and melted the
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  Speaker 2: cheese and everything, and then they eat them cold. It's
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  Speaker 2: cool because gets like gold. Yeah, but they've also asked
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  Speaker 2: for you know, mayo and chicken and lettuce, sandwiches or
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  Speaker 2: egg sandwiches or any number of things. But it's all there,
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  Speaker 2: and they get to tick the boxes, feel a little
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  Speaker 2: bit fancy, and then everything can be prepared for them
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  Speaker 2: in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: We're dealing with time crunch moments. These are our top
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  Speaker 1: five ways to get through the challenges of lunchtime. Number one,
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  Speaker 1: just give them the touch shop. But if you want
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  Speaker 1: to be budget conscious and don't want to have them
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  Speaker 1: reliant on the touch shop, which we strongly recommend, can't.
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  Speaker 2: Put touch shops. Number one.
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  Speaker 1: Where you said chuck shop is number.
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  Speaker 2: One, that's really not it's the last resort.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. Number five, touch shop. Number four, let's go backwards. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: create a menu. Create a menu that has the fruit,
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  Speaker 1: the snacks, the meat or protein, the fillers for sandwiches,
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  Speaker 1: and get the kids to tick and flick the night before,
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  Speaker 1: because your morning begins the night before. Number three. Cook
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  Speaker 1: a meal and spread it out across the week. Number
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  Speaker 1: two do a weekend school bake. And number one just
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: go with weft divers, which everyone seems to be happy about.
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  Speaker 1: We really hope these ideas help to make your family
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  Speaker 1: run smoother in those time crunch moments where it comes
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: to making decisions, getting kids out the door, and making
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: life work. The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Ruland from Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is our executive producer.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: If you would like more information about how your family
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: could be happier, we recommend you check out our Facebook page.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You can find everything you need at doctor Justin Colson's
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Happy Families online at Facebook, or you can visit us
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: at happy families dot com dot a u