School lunches — take three (four?)
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- September
- 4
I don’t know about you but it’s only Day 2 of the 2008-2009 school year and I’m already sick of making lunches.
Probably not a good sign.
It doesn’t help that over the summer we switched to a new daycare-slash-preschool for the two little ones that provides snacks, not lunches. (Our previous one offered lunch, not snacks.) So instead stuffing a few baggies with Goldfish and running out the door, I’m now on the hook for three full lunches — and naturally three different personalities and tastes.
I should listen more to my mother, who is firmly in the “night before” camp. (How else could she have gotten varying combinations of nine kids off to school each morning?) At the very least, it avoids all those last-minute arguments about what goes in the lunch box.
This morning:
Me: “We don’t have anymore of the apples you like, how about a pear?”
My 6-year-old son: “I hate pears.”
Me: “How can you hate pears? They taste just like apples.”
Son: “No they don’t.”
How exactly are you supposed to win that argument?
So with thoughts of one more lunch-making day to go before the weekend, I was happy to stumble upon this NPR piece by Betsy Block, author of “The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World.” (Algonquin Books 2008)
I’m definitely making the pumpkin bread — that’s one thing I know all three will love.
What’s your secret for school lunches?
Photo by Stephen Schmitt / The Journal News
This entry was posted
on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 2:23 pm by Katie Ryan O'Connor.
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First, I have to side with your son. Pears do not taste like apples. Pears, IMHO, are nasty! It’s unexplainable to my family, too…
There is no way I can make lunches the night before. I tried and got complaints of soggy sandwiches. But my kids don’t like sandwiches much these days. My trick is to have a bunch of stuff pre-bagged like rolled lunch meats, cheese cubes, crackers, nuts. I also buy the reuse/dispose plastic tubs in the small size and pre-load those with peanut butter or fruit, or leftovers that work cold. So in the morning after I’ve played short-order cook, I can just open the lunch boxes and pop in stuff.
OK, now I’ll have to rethink my stance on pears! And thanks for the great tips!