Lunchbox

As of yesterday, the pitter-patter of little feet has left the house, unless you count the sound of the 11-year old pug dragging his dysplastic paws across the tile floor.

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again.  The time some refer to as back-to-school, but which I lovingly call the make-a-tasty-and-creative-lunch-everyday-for two-kids,
pack-everything-in-little-tupperwares-since-the-school-has-gone-green,
don't-forget-the-ice-pack-or-imminent-death-may-result,
did-you-already-have-peanut-butter-and-jelly-this-week-and-if-so-who cares?
will-the-leftover-spaghetti-be-nasty-by-noon?
oh-crap-i-left-the-spoon-for-your-yogurt-at-home,
blech-this-water-bottle-stinks-to-high-heaven 
time of year.

We all need a little help in the creativity department, particularly those of us who eschew pre-packaged lunch conveniences.  I won't moralize because it's unbecoming, but I don't buy snack-size packs of chips or lunchables or plastic water bottles.  My boys get what I make at home, like it or not.  Sorry, kids, you'll have to complain about your lack of access to Pop Tarts and Doritos and Famous Amos to your therapist 20 years hence.

Last week my kids (now in fourth and second grades) helped me make a list from which I could draw throughout the year.  You'll notice that although they're not super-picky, their tastes tend to diverge.  Here's what we came up with:

leftover whole wheat pasta with: pesto, marinara, parmesan and olive oil, peas (kid #2 only), meatballs, or bolognese

nut butter sandwiches: PB&J, PB & banana or PB & apple (kid #1 only), sun butter, or almond butter

meat-based sandwiches: "French" ham (actually it's a Canadian ham, but it's called French ham); roast beef or corned beef (kid #1 only);  leftover chicken (kid #1 only)

Misc: hummus, chicken sausages (kid #1 only)

Bread options: whole wheat sandwich bread, ww tortillas, ww naan, crackers

Leftover soup (kid #2 only)

Hard-boiled eggs (kid #1 only)

Veggies: sliced carrots, bell peppers, and cucumbers (kid #2 only)

Fruit: bananas, stone fruit, dried fruit, grapes (kid #2 only), berries, pears (kid #1 only), apples

Crunchy things: honey-wheat pretzels,  granola bars (kid #2 only), breadsticks, nuts (kid #2 only)

dairy: cottage cheese (kid #1 only), yogurt, string cheese

baked goods: muffins, and occasionally, if I'm feeling especially mother-of-the-year, I'll throw in a homemade cookie (they get plenty after school)

I found this exercise really helpful and am BEGGING you to share your lunchbox secrets with the rest of us, especially me.  I've written about this issue before and magazines make everything sound easy, but, man, if you're in charge of making lunches every day for 10 months, it can wear

a person

down.

Let us know what your kids take to school, what you took to school when you were younger, or what, in your ideal world, you would pack for your charges if only they'd actually eat it.

This was what I gave birth to today, and I'm a very, very proud mother.  Isn't she cute?

Comments

[Charmian Christie]

Sorry, Cheryl. No lunchbox secrets since I've no kids and I went to school in the days when everyone walked home for lunch.

I applaud you for not succumbing to the siren call of cheese strings and fruit roll ups. Clap, clap, clap, clap!!

Not very helpful, am I?

[Lisa Hoffman]

Love, love this post. Wish I were so creative. Unfortunately we are in the peanut free class so my back-up of peanut butter on brown rice cakes is out the window. As the kid w/ the severe peanut allergy is our neighbor I have to put his survival over my easy lunch fix. Sigh! We're in the tuna (not too often due to mercury), steak (not too often, because I'm not sending steak every day!), cheese, and chicken sandwiches on challah rolls. When the weather gets cold I'll send soup or tortellini. Either kid will do yogurt every once in a while. I always throw in fruit. I have mountains of zucchini bread frozen due to an overabundant garden. I throw in a slice as a dessert. When clementines come out they are my favorite easy fruit to throw in. Both kids are happy to get in a lunch rut and don't request much diversity. It makes it much easier on me. I can throw the same thing together even while I'm half asleep. Can't wait to see what everyone else does. Cheryl, the lunch looks too good. Maybe you could pack one for me to eat!!

[Runaround Sous]

You are so creative. My second-grader doesn't request that much diversity, either, He could eat PB&J every day. But I like to mix it up, too. Sometimes we do "Breakfast for Lunch Day" and I send pancakes , waffles or sandwiches made on them instead of our regular whole wheat bread. I have a base recipe for granola and fruit bars, and I will switch out the flavors of the fruit and chips to "spice it up."

Thanks to you and your blog, I felt compelled to add coconut to the bars. Called 'em "Coconut Mall Bars" to satisfy my Nintendo-crazed kids. :-) They loved that! (That's marketing for ya, baby!)

Sadly, I still get complaints from my son that his lunch isn't as good as his friend's because I don't put snack cakes or cookies in it. (sigh)

See you around school. Good luck with the lunches, too!

[diana p.]

I may not have kids, but am certainly in a rut in packing my own lunch for work (it can be up to $10 to buy lunch around here, though I do occassionally spring for the pay-by-the-ounce meze bar at the nearby Turkish place, with the goal of keeping it under $5.)

My standard office lunch is yogurt, baby carrots and fruit or another vegetable. Can't quite get it together to come up with alternatives and anything with carbs makes me sleepy.

Maybe I'll pick up some good ideas from the mom crowd!

[Pat]

Your kids are so lucky to have a foodie mom! I don't have kids yet but perhaps I'll learn from my mum, if I have the time and energy :). Here's a sampling of what I remember from my lunch box growing up.
1. Indonesian fried chicken and rice
2. Egg omelet sandwich
3. Ham and cheese (Kraft singles, eew) sandwich
4. Any leftovers from dinner the night before
Most of all, I remember always wishing I could buy food from the canteen which sold everything from noodle soups to curried rice.

[bill stern]

my older brother used to receive a serialized story that my mom wrote while packing lunches. These sorts of things don't tend to last through subsequent children, so I don't know for sure if I would have appreciated them, but if you were to have time after all the food prep, little silly notes might be well received.

[Cheryl]

Charmian, I bow my head in shame: string cheese is indeed on my list. But not fruit roll-ups!

Lisa, no, I will definitely NOT be packing your lunch. Nice try.

Runaround Sous, welcome back! If your son complains, tell him to go look at Alex's crunchy-hippie lunch, and maybe he'll feel better. Or at least they can commiserate together.

Diana, I am far, far less creative and motivated when it comes to myself. I do feel your pain.

Pat, thanks for joining us! To have had a mom who made Indonesian fried chicken must have been heavenly. I can't do cold omelets, though. I guess you can't have it all.

Bill, now THAT'S creative. I love it. I could see myself starting a story and then by day 2 being like, "The end." Three cheers for your mom indeed.

[Babs]

I was very proud of the healthy, appealing lunches I packed for my two adorable (now grown) children, until I appeared unannounced at school one day and saw kid #1 trading his sandwich for chips and dumping the untouched fruit in the trash.

[Runaround Sous]

So, I'll tell Sam... "Well, I happen to know Alex gets a delicious, healthy lunch without snack cakes. And *HIS* mom has her own food blog— so there!"

And yes, my son has read your blog and others... :-)

[Cheryl]

Babs, that's depressing. Did it make you think differently about what to pack him in the future? Thanks for the reality check.

Runaround, no! I was thinking more along the lines of, "You think I'M mean!? Go check out Alex's lunch of whole wheat pasta and peas and you'll see just how easy you've got it, Mister." Like a threat. Seriously, though, Sam reads this blog? Terrifying.

[Runaround Sous]

If I do that, Sam will say, "Why don't *I* ever get peas and whole wheat pasta in my lunch?" Or maybe not... (This might work out for me in a reverse-psychology kind of way.)

Maybe you need to invent pasta and pea-flavored snack cakes?

Methinks that I need to go buy a bunch of McD's wrappers and start putting the carrot sticks in them. (studies show the kids thought they were tastier then) But that's not very "Go Green," eh?

[heather walker]

Okay, I would have weighed in earlier, but yesterday was my kids' first day of school, including 1 terribly reluctant kindergartener, so I haven't had the mental strength to type about the food I seerve for lunch.

But now, with 1 baby sleeping and no one else touching me, I'm here for you Cheryl!

Here's the thing about lunches packed at my house (and I do pack lunches - my kids have only bought 3 times - and those were special events) - we are boring, traditionalists. There's always a sandwich (PB & J, bologna & american cheese, cream cheese & jelly), a fruit or vegetable (pears, banana, apple, carrots), a crunchy snack (crackers), and something sweet (fig newtons today).

I am totally not above prepackaged (stop sucking in your breath in a disappointed way Cheryl, you know I'm lazy)and I'm thrilled that the kids are not in a peanut-free preschool anymore, so those that only eat peanut butter can have lunch. Granted it's still a peanut-free snack because our elementary school has you also pack a sepaprate snack for mornings.

I hear you Cheryl about each kid liking different things. 1 of mine only likes peanut butter, no jelly (girl #1). 1 only likes grape jelly with his peanut butter(boy #1), one likes deli meat (boy #1), one likes bologna (boy #2), one doesn't like mayo (girl #1), one only wants bagels (boy #1). Then there are all of the fruits and snack preferences -- Boy #1 doesn't like berries. Girl #1 doesn't like bananas (but sometimes does), Boy #1 doesn't like cheese crackers (but used to and might again), Girl #1 doesn't like pizza ("I decided that yesterday"). Notice that Boy #2 is still eating most anything. And girl #2 switches alliances with foods randomly.

But none of them like pasta, or chinese food or cold pizza for lunch. They think lunch should be a sandwich.

[Cheryl]

Runaround Sous, here's the study you're referring to: http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/161/8/792

I even saw a news clip last year about preschoolers who chose a ROCK with the golden arches imprinted on it over an orange. For snack.

Heather, if there's a bright light in your daily lunch-making hell I'm thinking it's this: soon enough boy #1 will be able to make lunch for his siblings; girl #1 will be able to unpack everyone's lunchboxes at the end of the day; boy #2 will put all various tupperwares in the dishwasher; and girl #2 will put all newly-cleaned accoutrements back in their proper places.

HA! HA! HA HA HA HA! Hee hee hee!

I kill myself sometimes with my lofty ideas.

[Lisa Hoffman]

I enjoy unpacking Noah's lunch at the end of the day just to see what surprise wrappers are inside. Yesterday it was an empty small bag of cheetos. I don't buy chips, granola bars or fruit roll-ups but somehow the wrappers sneak into his lunch. Last year he traded carrots for a fruit roll-up. Who trades for carrots? !!

[Cheryl]

Lisa, maybe it was Alex!

Hey everyone, the official blog of Whole Foods Market mentioned this lunchbox post! Check it out at:
http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2008/08/what-were-reading-2/?preview=true

[Runaround Sous]

Wow! Your blog was in the Whole Foods blog! That's blogtastic!!!

Your blog has inspired some haiku.I call it my Second-grader's Lunchtime Lament:

Why can't mom get it?
All I want are some Cheetos;
Got carrots instead.

[Cheryl]

Runaround Sous, here's a haiku response for your son:

Sam, eating Cheetos
May make you turn bright orange.
And we can't have that.

[heather walker]

Sam, when you are grown
You can eat Cheetos in bulk
But none for your son!

[Runaround Sous]

LOL...

This blog is the best!
You get haiku dialogue
And recipes, too.

:-)

[Cheryl]

Runaround,

Check out this website.
Two women writing haikus
Day in and day out.

http://thehaikudiaries.wordpress.com/

[Debi]

You might do a search on flickr for "bentobox"; there are groups for it and everything. I remember being amazed at the artful and healthy combos people concocted and photographed.

My girlfriend's daughter ate cream cheese and olive on those little cocktail pumpernickel bread sandwiches every day K-12. As a "mix it up" alternative, I give it thumbs-up... but EVERY DAY for 13 years? The child also had perfect attendance for 13 years... she seems pretty normal, but...

[Kim]

I obviously love your blog. These have to be the greatest lunch box containers. My kids have to bring baskets until the 3rd grade, but then can bring a lunch box type. I love these and I will have to find some - thanks! I'd love for you to pack their lunch too :)

[Cheryl]

Debi, I used to *love* cream cheese and olive sandwiches!

Kim, so glad you like the post. But honestly, if I had to make lunches for your child as well as my own two, they'd have to put me in the nuthouse. It's hard enough being creative for only two.