Let me start by saying something that I have said before. Lunch is a stressful time of day for me. I’m hungry. Three kids are hungry. I don’t have a plan, but I know that I want my kids to eat decent foods. I know I want them to have a somewhat balanced meal. But above all, I know I want their tummies to be satisfied when their plate is empty.

Sometimes I have the foresight to put together lunches for the week (I stay at home with my children, but preparing lunch every day gets old. I’d rather just do it once or twice a week. Oftentimes, prepared lunches means applesauce, peanut butter or tuna, crackers, a tiny orange or baby carrots and hummus.)

Well, recently lunch-planning has fallen to the wayside and I’ve been making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on leftover whole wheat hot dog buns, grabbing a handful of snapea crisps and calling it a day. You know, we don’t always have the time to cut strawberries into heart shapes and squeeze tiny yogurt snowflakes around a child’s plate.

I do enjoy getting creative with lunch though, and the other day I had an idea: Cucumber & Cream Cheese sandwiches.

Here’s the whole lunch:

On this day, I actually made myself a lunch too. The original recipe is called “Quinoa, Goat Cheese & Arugula Mason Jar Salad” and is from Organize Yourself Skinny. You can find that recipe here. I’ll probably make the actual thing sometime in the near future, but this week I didn’t have enough mason jars, so I just dumped it all into a bowl at lunchtime. I also subbed feta for goat cheese and balsamic vinegar + avocado oil for the Italian dressing… I’m sure goat cheese and Italian dressing are great in this salad, but that’s just what I had.

Mason jar salads really are a fabulous idea for stay at home moms. Or working moms. Or dads. Really for anyone. How is your lunch prep? Are you an on-the-fly kind of foodie or a preparation gal?