Packing lunches for kindergarten - why is there not an app for this??

Miya on her first day of school

And so it begins. My little girl is now in kindergarten. A big, new school. New teachers. New kids. A lot to process for a 4-year-old.

For her mother, there's a different sort of process going on - planning and packing daily lunches and snacks. With a ridiculously early school start time of 8:00 a.m., we have to run our mornings with the precision of a military operation in order to get baby, child and mother out the door within 45 minutes. Advance planning is key.

Surely, I thought, when everyone has a smartphone attached to their body at all times, there must be an app to help me. I imagined a drag-and-drop set up where I could list the things Miya likes in her lunch in one column, the things she likes for snack in another, than drag and drop them into a weekly or monthly calendar.

Sadly, such a thing does not seem to exist. If anyone knows of one - or has the smarts to design it - please let me know!

In the meantime, I'm going old-school. I found a pdf file to print. I've created three different weekly menus and plan to rotate through them - not because I'm brimming with lunch ideas, but so it doesn't get too monotonous for my little kindergartener.

Here is an example of one of Miya's weekly menus:

Monday

Snacks: apple slices, crackers, berries
Lunch: pasta, sausage, red pepper slices

Tuesday
Snacks: nectarine, muffin, rasins
Lunch: bagel and cream cheese, cucumber strips

Wednesday
Snacks: waffle, apple slices
Lunch: tortilla and hummus roll, red peppers, yogurt

Thursday
Snacks: crackers, cheese slices, dried fruit
Lunch: chicken fingers, sweet potatoes

Friday
Snacks: raisin bread, dried apricots
Lunch: jam sandwich, grape tomatoes, yogurt

If anyone has any suggestions for quick, easy things to add to the menu, please post them in the comment section below. Bonus points for things that can be made and packed up the night before.