Let's Do Lunch

Ahhh, it comes as regularly as Christmas… this back-to-school time of year. I start seeing the little signs everywhere I turn. Suddenly, there are socks in the laundry again. There are pencils all over the house, on every table and counter. The sharpies all go missing, and I have to set my alarm. The shopping list changes, too. Instead of buying popsicles and ice cream, suddenly I realize that we need peanut butter and jelly, apple sauce, baby carrots and cheese sticks.

I googled “Back to School Lunches” and I got 86 million hits. Woah. Back in my day (sending my kids to school for the 13^th year in a row makes me feel old enough to say “back in my day,”) my mom gave me a half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and apple, two homemade cookies and a granola bar. Every. day. That would amount to one little, single, solitary entry on the first page that google found for me, “50 Back to School Lunch Box Ideas and Recipes.” I know my mom didn’t have google, but if she had, I doubt she would have read up on lunch box ideas and she certainly wouldn’t have tried 50 different lunches.

If you want, you can google it too. You can read all 86 million pages, and look at the 50 ideas they each present you. I’m sure there are lots of fun ideas and cute ways to make lunches that look beautiful, consist of healthy foods, keep your child from getting tired of repetition, and impress your neighbors. They probably make you feel great about the balanced meals, fun presentations, and love that go into putting each one together.

Warning: If you are anything like me, you won’t be able to sustain this for very long. (and by very long I mean longer than a week). I have tried. I have made sandwiches into cute shapes. I have purchased several different types of bento boxes and lunch boxes and fitted Tupperware and ice packs. I have made pasta salads and green salads and fruit salads. I have looked up ideas and cut sandwiches into various shapes and packed different dips and wrapped tortillas, lettuce leaves, and cabbage leaves around everything you can imagine. The first year I joined Pinterest, I even printed out holiday-themed notes to tuck into my kids’ lunches for the entire year, before school even started in the fall. (I’m sure those notes are lurking in my kitchen somewhere, if you want them. I certainly didn’t ever put anything after “welcome back to school” into their lunch boxes.)

The school year is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t wear yourself out finding different ways to make your child’s lunch look like a panda bear under a rainbow. At best, your child will love it for the two seconds in between opening the box and devouring it. If your kid is like my kid, though, he will look around the table and really wish he that Twinkie that the other kid got. And if you’re in elementary school, chances are your beautiful rice and vegetable ball will get traded for that Twinkie. (Yes, I know the rules in elementary school are “no trading.” In the preschool, we make sure the kids don’t sample each others’ food. However, from all accounts, my daughter traded her fresh blueberries for fruit snacks every single day of first grade. I can’t control what happens on the playground at my kids’ school, and you won’t be able to, either. And that’s a good thing.)

So, let’s run this marathon of a school year. Like a real marathon, you need to be sure the fuel you’re running on is proper nutrition, but also like a real marathon, it isn’t going to make or break the race if you choose water or Gatorade at mile ten.

Think positively, plan meals that are balanced and yummy, and throw in a simple pleasure now and then.

I always start with thinking about a couple fruits, a veggie, and a protein. I figure that:

1.     My kids are captive audiences while at school. They have no choices, so they will eat the healthy foods I pack. This is a great chance to get some of the servings of produce into my kids. (Unless they find someone who will trade their cucumber slices for cookies, which truly isn’t very likely. Kids are savvy enough to make lateral trades).

2.     They need some protein to sustain them through the afternoon. They are going to crash if their whole lunch is bread products, and they will be hungry if the bulk of their lunch is vegetables and fruits.

I give them the fruits that are in season, which helps me to make sure they are getting some variety. For veggies, there are only a few choices my kids will eat, so they get those over and over again. Then I make sure there is either peanut butter or meat in a sandwich, some cheese, or another protein-filled choice.

After that, it doesn’t make a lot of difference what else goes into the lunch. I fill the rest of it with a granola bar, some goldfish crackers, a muffin, or some other little snack item. Sometimes, I give them a fun treat, like a brownie, cookies, or a small candy. Sometimes I give myself the treat of really easy things to pack, like an apple sauce cup for the fruit, an individual bag of pretzels, or a pre-wrapped string cheese.

There are so many easy choices of foods to put in lunch boxes. Don’t kill yourself making every item individually, and wrapping it beautifully. Pick one or two things to make, and find the rest in the grocery store. You don’t need to do anything to an apple, an orange, or some baby carrots for them to be lunchbox-ready. Bake some muffins, make your own granola bars, roll some peanut butter balls, and have them ready to pack. Let the rest of the items be easy things to pull out of the fridge and into the lunchbox. Just don’t try to do it all and make it look like those pictures you see online. You’ll burn out.

Finally, one thing to consider, is that your child will be eating at a table with lots of other kids, and not lots of adults. Your child will be much more independent and successful if he or she has things that he can open himself. If your child can’t peel oranges yet, peel it for him (or at least get it started). If those little bags of pretzels or chips are too hard to tear open, consider repackaging them into a Ziploc bag, or even better, a reusable small Tupperware container. For very young preschoolers, even a Ziploc bag might be too much to open. Even the littlest hands can unfold tinfoil. I truly do love bento boxes, because they seem to have just the right size compartments for kids’ food, and they force me to pack a variety of options. They are easy to clean, and cut down on so much waste.  They are easy for little hands to eat from, and the sides of the compartments are great for kids just learning to use utensils. Plus, the rigid box ensures that nothing gets smashed in transit.

Take a deep breath, go to the grocery store and wander the aisles, and find some great, easy foods that will sustain and please your child. This is only the beginning of the school year, so keep your eyes on the horizon. Your kids need healthy foods, and reasonable lunches. They don’t need artistry now, and a lunchbox filled with 8 packs of fruit snacks and two granola bars when you (and your pantry) are running on empty in June.