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And for some crazy reason, I got to teach a class on packing nutritious lunches. I am by no means very qualified, but I had a lot of fun putting my lesson together. When it came down to it, though, I had about five minutes to present my twenty minute lesson, so they got the extremely condensed version.
However, though it may not be very interesting, I am going to post my complete lesson here. The full twenty minute version. Enjoy!
When I was a kid,
we had home lunch most of the time. I remember I hated it. My home
lunch generally consisted of a peanut butter and honey sandwich,
which was packed on the bottom of the brown bag, thus ensuring it
would be utterly and completely smooshed before I had a chance to eat
it. On top of that was some sort of fruit and or vegetable. An
apple was pretty standard, as was a tomato or a green pepper.
Carrots and celery, and raisins also frequented my lunches. If I was
really lucky, my dad would remember to include a quarter for milk.
Otherwise, I would get a drink from the drinking fountain when I was
finished eating, on my way out to play. Which was just as well, as
when he did include the quarter, I spent it on a pencil instead of
the milk anyway. Pencils were very fashionable when I was in
elementary. Not the typical yellow pencil, but the fancy decorative
ones. There was a pencil dispenser near the office where I could
join the silly fashion world of pencils. If I was extremely lucky, I
would get some sort of treat, but that was only when there was a blue
moon, or the planets were lined up just right, or my mom or dad were
not in a big rush in the mornings. Having seven kids to get ready
and out the door, though, meant that they were nearly always rushed,
so the treats were extremely rare.
Needless to say,
home lunch was not my favorite. I longed for the variety of school
lunch. And a hot lunch! That just seemed luxurious. I would try to
trade my apple for the peanut butter bar, or the cookie that the
school lunch would provide, but few were foolish enough to trade with
me. I remember in second grade I found a girl who would always trade
me her dessert for my fruit or vegetable, and I thought she was the
weirdest girl in the world, but made sure to always sit by her when
it was lunchtime.
I was happy to be
able to distinguish myself with some of the foods that were packed
for me that I would eat. In third grade we read a story as a class
about a vampire bunny who sucked all the juice out of the fruits and
vegetables. That year I loved when I would discover a tomato in my
lunch, as I would pretend I was the vampire bunny by biting a small
hole in the tomato and sucking out all the juice before eating the
rest of the fruit. I also loved to hear the shock and surprise from
my friends when I would pull out a half a green pepper and eat the
whole thing. Most of them didn't know what it was, and were amazed I
would eat it voluntarily. Truth be told, I probably only ate it
because of their shock. Peer pressure in its finest form, right?
With these
memories of school lunch, I was determined to make lunches that my
kids would like. When Keith was in preschool, starting from the age
three, he was given school lunch. It was Head Start, which is in
partnership with the school district, and so they get the same
lunches as the schools. I had to fight, and jump through hoops and
do all sorts of acrobatics and pleading and letter writing for them
to allow me to provide Keith with a home lunch instead of the one
provided by the school. I had tasted what they were giving the kids
and hated it, and hated that my son would have to eat it. Plus, I
had just watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and was very much on
a health food/anti school lunch kick. Once I had finally convinced
them that I wouldn't be bringing Burger King for his lunch every day,
and that I would indeed be providing him with a decent lunch, I was
permitted, and then the fun began.
I learned a lot
through trial and error, and I have a lot more to learn, I am sure,
about packing school lunches. I am in no way an expert, but it is
something I enjoy doing. I am up to the challenge. I had many
fails, and a few wins, but really, it is a learning process, and I
would be happy to share with you some of the things I have learned.
Through trial and
error, I have learned that there are a few things that help you pack
a successful home lunch. The number one indicator of success is that
the child eats it. You can make an elaborate, creative, amazing
lunch, but if your child doesn't eat it, where does that get you?
So, to help them want to eat the lunch, there are a few key elements
I like to follow.
Presentation,
Familiarity, and Thinking Outside The Box.
Presentation:
Everything
is always better if it is dressed up a little. A present in a pretty
box is so much nicer to receive than a present wrapped up in the bag
from the store it came in. We naturally like appealing things. I
once made a gag birthday cake for a friend which looked like kitty
litter. It was delicious, but it looked exactly like kitty litter,
and so only one person at the whole party ate any of it. I told them
all exactly how I had made it, but no one would try any, as it was
not appealing, and looked like something people tend to avoid.
Really gross. But it was just cake and pudding and Oreo cookies and
tootsie rolls. Things that alone people flock to, but when put
together in the manner that I had them, they looked disgusting.
Presentation is a big thing. Wrap the sandwich up in festive
cello-paper, tie a bow around it, cut it out with cookie cutters.
Add sprinkles. But not to applesauce. I did that and it was a major
fail. I was so proud of it when I sent it off to school with him,
but when he came home, I was not surprised at all that he hadn't
eaten any of it as the colors from the sprinkles had melded together
and made it look very moldy and gross.
Familiarity:
Give
them foods that they are familiar with. Lunch is not the time to be
trying out new recipes. You want your kids to eat the lunch you pack
for them. Studies have shown that students who eat a healthy lunch
have fewer sick days and also do better on the standardized testing.
They have also shown that kids who have a healthier diet in their
early years, tend to have a slightly higher IQ than those who don't.
Pack foods you know your kids will like. That isn't to say you can
never experiment or give them new things, but for the most part, have
it be something they are already familiar with.
Think
Outside The Box:
This is the fun one. It can also be tied into presentation. I got
really tired of making Keith peanut butter and honey sandwiches. It is what he
requested every day. It got boring. So I fell into the familiarity
trap. I would try to spruce it up for him, and he would come home
with his lunch box full. It was very disheartening for me. Which is
where thinking outside the box comes in handy. One morning we were
in a hurry (who am I kidding, that was nearly every morning), and I
decided to just throw a simple lunch together. I gave him a chunk of
bread, some bay-bell cheese, some grapes, carrots, and some apple
juice. I wrapped it up in my bandanna and told him it was a fairy
tale lunch. As I drove him to school, we talked about fairy tales
and what they usually had in their lunches. He was so excited to eat
that lunch, and I felt like such a genius because it was so simple,
but so exciting.
Another idea is to give your child a peanut butter hot dog. Put
peanut butter on a hot dog bun, peel a banana and put it on the bun as
if it were the hot dog, and the add a squirt of jelly across the top
of the banana for the ketchup. He got the peanut butter sandwich, I
got to be creative and didn't feel bad for giving him another repeat
lunch.
One time I was stumped. I thought of all the ways to eat peanut
butter. and remembered Ants on a Log. The classic celery and peanut butter and
raisins. So I gave him a peanut butter and raisin sandwich.
Frightening, I know. But he ate it and said it was okay. Win!
Make lunch fun for them. Jamie Oliver (who is my foodie hero, by
the way) suggested sending a salad in a bag to school, with a little
Tupperware of salad dressing. They can toss it all together in the
bag before eating it. How fun would that be for them?!
Other ideas of thinking outside the box:
- Kebabs
- smoothies
- food markers
- quesadilla
- cheese and crackers (homemade lunchable)
- wraps
- chickpea spread
- British pasty (hot pocket)
- pancake sandwich
- fruit and cheese kabobs
- peanut butter sushi (Chinese theme. Snow peas, fortune cookie, etc)
- veggie chips
- fruit chips
- tacos
- frozen foods (grapes, yogurt, etc)
- cookie cutters.
Let
your kids help you plan the lunch. If they have a part in it, they
will be more likely to eat it. A good tip to follow is Taste the
Rainbow. Because skittles had it right, just in the wrong way. We
should be trying to eat a rainbow variety of foods to get all the
vitamins and nutrients our bodies need. Make a game
out of it.
And who doesn't
like little notes? When I was sending Keith to school with home
lunch, I tried to always write a note for him on his napkin, or leave
a sticker or some sort of surprise for him in his lunch box. I
wasn't always consistent, but I tried. One day, the teacher took me
aside and asked me to stop. All the other kids in the class were
jealous that their napkins didn't have anything written on it from
their moms. It was causing quite a bit of trouble in his class,
evidently. It made me laugh to know that it was so appreciated.
Even when Keith told me it was embarrassing. When I didn't leave a
note for him, he would always ask me why I didn't. I once told him
it was because he had said it was embarrassing, and he said I should
do it anyway. Gotta love the inconsistency of kids.
Whatever you
decide to do, there are so many fun ways to spruce up that lunch box
and to deliver a delicious and nutritious home lunch.
Basically, make your kids lunches like a present. Wrap it up nicely, include something interesting,
