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Back to school time means packing lunches, after school lunches, eating on the go, and getting back into the routine. This collection of recipes is perfect for back to school!

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20 Back to School Recipes

At the end of the post check out my recommendation for the BEST lunchbox! 

Applesauce Muffins Recipe

This recipe for applesauce muffins is is a great way to use a healthy ½ cup of your homemade applesauce (or store-bought if you haven’t learned how to make it from me yet!) into a portable snack.

Applesauce Canning Recipe

Homemade applesauce is something that is easy to make, fast (only 10 minutes in the canning process and there’s an easy trick to skipping peeling and coring I’ll explain in a moment) and you can skip the sugar entirely especially if you have sweet apples on hand.

Strawberry Jam 

Strawberry Jam is THE preserve to try if you’ve never canned because strawberries are so high in acid that the worst thing that could happen is that you’ll have thin jam, which is essentially strawberry syrup. It’s also a great gift jam, holding it’s color nicely in jars. Hello, peanut butter and jam sandwiches!

Strawberry Champagne Jam Recipe 

Strawberry Champagne Jam is THE jam to make to celebrate, to give as a gift, and to savor the flavor of spring. It is much easier than you think and there are a few simple pro tips for keeping that champagne flavor in the jar! You can head to the blog post, or download the printable PDF right here! I love this jam for MY jam & almond butter sandwiches for when I’m driving kids around; filling AND delicious!

Strawberry Kiwi Lemonade Concentrate

This recipe is for Strawberry Kiwi Lemonade concentrate and that is the best part. You can pour a spoonful or two into a glass and fill it with water (or sparkling water if you want to trick them even further!) and stir it up and it is suddenly a natural soda that you made yourself. If I want to add a shot of grown-up libation to it, I can, and if my youngest wants to have some I can make his weaker still. I can put a little in a cup, add water, and send it to school instead of super sugary, store-bought drink. Winning!

If you want to dive into these canning recipes, but need some help, I have an affordable visual guide to SHOW you STEP BY STEP what to do, when! The Canning Jump Start Guide has no-frills equipment checklists for traditional water-bath canning and steam canning, a stovetop guide, an altitude adjustment guide, canning season planner, the pantry checklist, and MORE! Get it here! Buy Now!

Strawberry Syrup

I don’t strain this back to school recipe with cheesecloth because I personally don’t care about things like tiny strawberry seeds and I am not interested in perfectly clear syrup. Feel free to strain of course as you wish. This post will share a recipe that is a very simple recipe for strawberry syrup and I hope to remind you also that syrup is not just for pancakes. I think pancakes are a great way to ring in the weekend, don’t you think?

Best Old-Fashioned Banana Muffin Recipe

This recipe is based on one from the 1942 version of the Good Housekeeping Cook Book. It is originally titled, “Banana Tea Bread” but when I read the recipe, given to me by my Gram, I swapped out a few ingredients and decided muffins would serve my lunchbox-toting kindergartener better than bread that I would have to slice, wrap, etc. in the busy mornings before school. This recipe is easy, and filling! If you like to print recipes, you can download it for free right here:

Carrot Pickles

Carrot pickles are one of my favorite pickles because they aren’t cucumbers ? I actually don’t care for cucumbers much, to be honest, which I know is really silly but they just don’t light my fire. Canning this recipe is EASY and they pack so well in a lunch box!

Pickled Bread and Butter Jalapeños

This recipe is a great way to take a veggie that is in season around back to school time and preserve it in an easy, sandwich-friendly ingredient or bento-box-style lunch component. Be sure to read to the bottom for my lunch box suggestion!

Raspberry Jam Recipe 

Raspberry jam is a delight to give as gifts, raspberries are easy to pick at U-pick farms, and deliciously gift-able preserved in these tiny mason jars. I also love this jam stirred into a container of plain yogurt or on top of oatmeal in the morning.

Tomato Jam Recipe 

This recipe calls for Roma tomatoes, which are typically denser and thus cook into a thicker sauce a bit faster. You can use whatever tomato you have on hand, however, and this is a great recipe to use a variety if that is what you have. There’s a free download of the jam recipe in the post too! This recipe is great for kids and teens with a slightly more sophisticated palate, or just for parents eating on the go. Try it on an everything bagel with cream cheese and you won’t share with the kids at all.

Cranberry Lemon Jam 

This cranberry lemon jam is super smooth, perfect for Thanksgiving, even better on a sandwich the day after Thanksgiving with turkey slices, great on bagels with cream cheese, and the lemon makes it seem bright and summery too. It’s a perfect jam. You definitely can make this cranberry lemon jam and preserve it in a water bath process- you do not have to use a steam canner. Or you can make it and eat it fresh. Store it in the refrigerator if you do. Can this jam this fall, and when the lunch box fillings are getting tired and boring around February, open this jam to revive everyone’s senses.

Smooth Blackberry Jam 

Blackberries are a funny thing. They are probably my favorite berry, definitely, if we are talking about eating out of hand, and of course, they have the worst thorns. I suppose we can complain that a blackberry bush has thorns, or rejoice that a thorn bush has blackberries. Because they are so, so good, I’ll go with the later. School is a lot like that, isn’t it? We can be happy that there’s activities, friends, learning, and new experiences, or we can focus on the early wake-up, the homework, the forgotten forms, and the like. Focus on the fun, and the berries, and enjoy this on some toast on the way out the door in the morning, Wildflowers!

Best Berry Jam 

I recently shared a post about why you should head to a U-Pick berry patch this summer after I spent a lovely morning picking a mix of mostly marionberries (similar to blackberries), strawberries, and a handful of raspberries. With this mix, I adapted a recipe from the well worn Farm Journal Freezing & Canning Cookbook written in 1962. I checked my adaptation against other trusted recipes published in my lifetime and it is safe to say that it is a homerun berry jam recipe.

Roasted Plum Jam 

Plum Jam is an easy recipe that is elevated in a wonderful way by roasting the plums. Beginners can easily succeed with this canning recipe and the roasting plums make your home smell heavenly. Lining your shelves with these jams will make for easy mornings and lunch-prep all school year long!

Canning Concord Grape Jam 

Canning grape jam is a fairly simple task because the recipe is straightforward and brief, grapes are not difficult to collect (no thorns like blackberries) and are sweet enough that they don’t require a lot of extra sugar. While we most often see the clear jelly in stores, grape jam is delicious and seems to be a bit more virtuous in my mind because more of the actual grape remains in the pot.

Canning Tomato Sauce

Canning tomato sauce is one of the most satisfying tasks a home canner could ask for because of the versatility of tomato sauce. When people start preserving, they often make jam because it is fairly simple and of course delicious but I find the savory preserves, like this tomato sauce, are the most useful. Open a jar of this after a busy school day and have instant pasta sauce, stromboli filling, the base for stew, blank – slate enchilada sauce, and so much more. If I had to can ONE recipe for the rest of my life, it would be this recipe because we eat so much wholesome, no sugar tomato sauce.

Chocolate Cranberry Mole

Chocolate Cranberry Mole: A Fermented Paste from The Fermentista’s Kitchen is a fermented food that you definitely have to try if you are fermenting-curious. I have a real sweet tooth and this sounded weird and delicious and because it pairs with ice cream I had to try it. Here is her recipe and I will note where I changed a few things; namely I used frozen cranberries instead of fresh. Fermented foods are a wise addition to the diet in terms of gut health and they are EASY.

Mailanderli: Swiss Shortbread Cookie

This classic Swiss cookie recipe is a rich shortbread type of cookie that is easy to prepare and my favorite with hot coffee or cocoa. Mailanderli has a variety of spellings on the internet and on recipe cards, you might come across but they all refer to the Swiss version of the sugar cookie. Try this simple recipe that belonged to my Great Grandma Frieda. It is best made with real butter, and extra good if made in the company of loved ones. This is a great lunch box cookie. My daughter always has a raised eyebrow at the end of the day if there was nothing “sweet” in her lunch box (no fruit or treat for her- she hates it if there are only carrot sticks and celery to conclude her meal!) and this is a great recipe for an easy treat.

Swiss Muesli

Muesli is a widely used descriptor referring to breakfasts made with grains, dairy, and fresh fruit. The recipe that follows in this post is adapted from the excellent “The Swiss Cookbook” by Betty Bossi gifted to me by my kind Swiss cousins. If you are hungry for a wholesome breakfast that is fast and delicious, read on. Top with any of the jams listed above!

Back to School Recommendation: My Favorite Lunchbox

I got this lunchbox for my daughter last year. I should back up a bit and tell you all I taught junior high and high school English for 9 years. I’ve seen a lot of lunch boxes. I have seen most of them end up in the garbage (ahem, landfill) before Christmas break, and I really didn’t want to have the hassle of finding a suitable lunchbox again, plus having to figure out if it was recyclable (likely not), plus having to pay for a second (and third, and fourth) lunchbox. I did a ton of research and chose the Planetbox lunch boxes. We used it, the accompanying bag, ice pack, silo and cups for a year and it looks almost brand-new. I justified the cost (it’s more than a crappy plastic lunchbox) thinking that if my daughter hated it, then I would carry it to college where I teach till I die. Well, no such luck because my daughter loves it.

They are super well made lightweight but not flimsy stainless steel lunch boxes. The genius part is you can choose from a really wide selection of magnets to stick on the front (above is the “Animal” option my son chose for this year!) that slide off when you want to put the whole lunch box in the dishwasher or submerge in the sink, which isn’t necessary all the time, but just when you want to. The hinge wasn’t too difficult for my 5-year-old to manage and it was easy to slide it in and out of the insulated bag.

Because it was stainless, I didn’t wrap up her sandwiches or snacks nowhere nearly as often as I would have if it were a more traditionally sized and shaped plastic lunchbox because you can nestle the food neatly into the cubbies and there’s no worry about the food staining – it’s stainless 😉 – and the lid fits perfectly down on the bottom.

This isn’t a sponsored post, and I didn’t get them for free- I just love them and I think you would too!

Happy Back to School, Wildflowers!

What produce is in season now? This post will explain what produce is in season now so you never throw wasted produce out again. Read on to find out which produce is ripe, ready, and in season!

We’ve all done it: We’ve opened the fruits and vegetables drawer in our fridge only to find out that something has gone rotten, and far sooner than we expected it to. It’s disappointing, and it’s a hard pinch on our wallets, too. No one wants to throw those strawberries that cost a pretty penny—you want to eat them.

There might be a reason for that waste that you haven’t considered, and a way to save yourself the agony of throwing things away (and save some cash, too): think about produce seasonally.

Most people don’t do this. Within reason, they buy what they want to buy at the grocery store, and then they take it home. But a lot of that produce had to trek hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to get to you, meaning it has a greater risk of spoiling when you get it home. So how do you look at things more seasonally? This graphic explains it.

What Produce is in Season Now?

Thanks to to https://zerocater.com for this graphic!

What to do with your seasonal produce:

So, what do you do with this information? Well, I think the advantage of buying produce when it is in season most immediately is that it is less expensive. Cheap produce is often the most plentiful, but buying pound after pound of produce can be overwhelming. Canning your produce when it is ripe and inexpensive is the best option for enjoying produce picked at it’s peak all year round and I have a completely free Canning Basics Course you can sign up for to learn how to preserve food in glass jars!

What’s your favorite seasonal fruit or veggie, Wildflowers? Let me know in the comments!

Growing microgreen sprouts in a mason jar is easy and inexpensive – even for someone with no green thumb! This tutorial has a few pro tips to ensure you grow tasty, nutritious sprouts in a simple canning jar. Read on to learn how to grow sprouts in a jar! 

This post contains affiliate links.

When I was growing up in my very rural community, fresh greens out of season were hardly available, and if they were, my frugal mama wasn’t about to purchase them. Mom grew sprouts in a jar often and they were an incredibly cheap way to add crisp flavor and texture to salads, sandwiches, and more.

I’ll admit right here that despite being a canning blogger, I’m no gardener. I have a hard time keeping any plant alive but I can grow these little babies easily. Growing sprouts in a jar are easy with the tips that follow below!

My mom used to get her seeds from the little local grocery or feed store, and you could as well, but the sprouts I used and am so happy with are from Sustainable Sprout. I LOVE their range of options- you could choose a mild mix (if you are living the picky child life like me) a spicy mix for more flavor, radish or broccoli (I did broccoli for my first batch and my kids even liked it…but I did NOT reveal that it was broccoli. They are just sprouts, ‘k?)

How to Grow Sprouts in a Jar

You’ll need a packet (or 2 or 10- might as well stock up because you’ll be making this weekly probably) of seeds

A wide mouth quart jar

A 6 inch square of nylon – as in, from a pair you used to wear but got a run in. My mom always used nylon and it drys faster than cheesecloth (a perfectly acceptable substitute) and drains the jar easily. Drying quickly is desirable because it limits bacteria growth and nylons (or thin tights!) are perfect for that.

Place 1 tablespoon of seeds (about half a packet!) in the bottom of a perfectly clean quart (4 cups) mason jar. I like using the wide mouth jars for when the sprouts are ready to pull out- it’s easier to reach in to remove them than in a regular mouth jar. Place the nylon or double layer of cheesecloth over the top of the jar and screw on the ring. Fill with water, swish, and drain.

Pro Tip: If at all possible, prop the jar in a small casserole dish, or in a saucer with the back end of the jar on a spare canning jar ring so that the bit of water that remains after the twice-daily rinsing drains properly. Having this little saucer set up on the counter will save you time and prevent your seeds from having too much water.

After you’ve rinsed your seeds the first time, let them rest inverted in the above-described set-up until evening. Rinse again before bed/after you wash evening dishes/some time at the end of the day.

Rinse seeds (which is essentially watering them) twice daily. They should be left to rest in a warm spot if possible- 70 degrees is ideal. I’ve made these once in the winter and I think they didn’t sprout because the spot I had them sitting was too dark and cold. Remember: seeds sprout in the springtime, so you are recreating that in your jar, to some extent. Warm, sunny, and twice daily rinsing will yield germinated (aka sprouted) seeds in a few days, and you’ll be able to watch the seeds grow before your eyes over the course of 5-8 days. If the nylon or cheesecloth smells funky, swap it out and wash in hot water in the washing machine. When the sprouts have filled the jar in volume and/or the sprouts look like something you want to eat in color and size, pull them out.

I let my sprouts sit in a colander for a few minutes to get any remaining water out of them and store in the refrigerator in a covered container.

I added mine to a chicken salad and they are amazing on a BLT…hold the L 😉

Have you made sprouts like this? Let me know in the comments, Wildflowers! If you’re looking for more fresh recipes, check out my NO-COOK Strawberry Pineapple Shrub!