What I failed to take into account was this:
1) Teachers are no longer in the room at lunchtime, which means that I should have spent more time peeling tangerines than making wee sushi rolls.
and
2) Kids are very conservative and my Creative Interesting Lunches were getting my kid the reputation as That Kid Who Has Weird Lunches.
So now I don't knock myself out. Observe:
From left to right: a bin of cherry tomatoes, red pepper strips and cauliflower with a smaller bin of poppyseed dressing, an egg salad sandwich cut with a heart-sandwich cutter, a box of raisins (our one concession to normalcy - the poor child would love to fill her lunchbox with Lunchables and Dunkaroos and Wagon Wheels and I just cannot bring myself to do it, but look! Raisins IN A LITTLE BOX! I am nothing but fun.), a honey tangerine UNPEELED, and SIX SNICKERDOODLES. She's bringing one for each of her friends. And this lunch is remarkable for two reasons:1) It's remarkably boring aside from the tremendous amount of cookies.
and
2) My kid made most of it herself!
You'd think I was able to sit around like a lady of leisure this morning, seeing that I didn't even need to get myself dressed but nope - I still had to run around like a headless chicken. BUT SHE MADE HER OWN SANDWICH.
Neither of my kids would eat any of that, but I like to come here and find out what normal children are like. ;) KayTar is on a self-imposed "98% tube feeding, 2% fatty meat" diet...BubTar is on the "I only get fruits and veggies from my V-Fusion and the occasional helping of corn/clementine cutie" diet.
ReplyDeleteOwen got a roll. That's right, a plain keizer roll the size of his head. He refused a sandwich of any sort and didn't want soup. With his plain roll he got a baggy of pretzels, fish crackers and apple sauce. (come to think of it, I may have forgotten his spoon)
ReplyDeleteI was the kid with the weird, healthy lunches growing up. Many times I traded my entire lunch (sight unseen) for someone's delicious confection wrapped in tinfoil wrappers. This was a delicate trick though, and could never find a sucker who was willing to do it twice. For some reason, a peanut butter and honey sandwich on wheat, carob chips, a thermos with milk, and an apple never felt like a fair trade for a ding dong or a ho ho or a zinger or a twinkie to the poor recipient of my weird lunch. I remembered hearing things like "NOT EVEN CHIPS?!?!" and " OH, EW, THESE AREN'T CHOCOLATE!"
ReplyDeleteSuper cute heart shaped sandwich! When I was a kid my lunches were: peanut butter or bologna sandwich, apple, cookie, juice box. That was the opposite of creative and interesting.
ReplyDeleteMy kids' lunches today (they do the balanced day thing):
ReplyDeletewrap (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, turkey, cheese, mustard & mayo on a sundried tomato wrap), drink, Rice Krispie square, grapes, carrots & dip. My 9yo packed everything except the wrap, which was an enormous help.
Oh! I forgot to mention that The Girl's school does the Balanced Day thing, too - I'm going to write about it the next time I post.
ReplyDeleteOur school does the nutrition breaks, too, so I tend to pack a lot of snacky things that can be easily consumed.
ReplyDeleteYour lunch is remarkably similar to the one I packed for my two big kids today. Except for all those cookies. :)
Our fridge is soo full of Labor Day picnic food that there was no room for lunch supplies, thus mine took PB&J and a homemade chocolate chip cookie. Snack was mandarin orange slices.
ReplyDeleteI just signed on in Google Reader, I need all the help I can get!
ReplyDeleteI was the kid with the home-made cookies trading them for Hostess Ding-Dongs too. What an idiot I was! Now my kids get their turn. I was too busy to make them cookies for their first day, but they did get chips leftover from a BBQ yesterday. YUM! That will be very rare.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Ever since my husband became the stay-at-home parent, I'm off lunch duty, though I did pack her some grapes this morning...
ReplyDeleteI did, however, pack my own lunch - coleslaw and bread and cheese.
Not that you care what I ate, but...
ReplyDeletei'm very excited about this new blog, ladies! we pack lunches 95% of the time and i am always looking for new, healthy, and cheap ideas. i also have a few to share, too. :-)
ReplyDeleteI wish I could send my kids with a normal lunch like PB&J or tuna! Blast those allergies. Blast I say!
ReplyDeleteMy school won't allow peanuts or nuts. Which makes sense because there are children with allergies... but it does limit the lunch choices. We rely on hummus quite a bit. Cut up vegetables. They always get a fresh fruit of some kind and, usually, a peanut-free granola bar. Oh! and a big water bottle. They pretty much get just about the same thing everyday. Mostly because that's what they want - sandwich, apple, veggies, granola bar. the end.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why it seems so hard to pack lunches everyday, but it is! And boring. I could definitely use some inspiration. Does anyone know if kids would eat wraps or are they considered weird?
ReplyDeleteI wish I could get my kids to eat such exotic things!
ReplyDeleteOh it is such a struggle for me to pack 2 lunches this year!! The biggest pain though is that my Kindergartener has been bringing her garbage home with her, because she is afraid to ask someone where the garbage can is. Her lunch box....it is....sticky.
ReplyDelete