The Lunch Time Blues...
I have to be honest here and tell you that packing lunches for the family is one of my least favorite things to do. My husband's lunch is easy. I simply pack up the leftovers from supper and a couple pieces of fruit into a canvas lunch bag and he is set. It’s simple because he has access to a fridge and a microwave at work to handle the cooling and cooking part of his lunch.
The kid's lunches are different. When they used to come home for lunch it was easy. I had plenty of time in the morning to put together awesome soup and sandwiches, fruit salads, yogurt treats, muffins, and when the cupboard was getting a little bare, pancakes (one of their favorites)!
But now that they bring lunch to school, it has become more difficult. Our local school offers an in-school lunch. But at $3.00 per day, 20 days per month, and 10 months in the school year – we would be looking at $600.00 per year per kid. YIKES!! I have better things to do with our money than buy tuna sandwiches, chicken noodle soup, and macaroni and cheese at $3.00 each! SHOP at home FIRST – the bagged lunch!
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To help you out on those mornings when nothing looks good to eat, we put together a "LUNCH Guide" that you can print out and hang on the fridge. Enjoy!
- PDF file (need Adobe Acrobat Reader(TM) to view)
- GIF file This isn't as clear as the PDF file, but hopefully it works for those of you who are having trouble with the PDF files. Here's a hint: look at the "print preview" to ensure everything is lined up properly before you print it out. - Cindy.
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The Hazards of Being a Bagged Lunch…
A person can understand why the bagged lunch has become so unpopular over the past number of years. Today, it is so easy to sign up for the school lunch programs, or even pop into a deli or fast food outlet for a quick lunch. CHA CHING, CHA CHING! Let's save a few dollars this year and take a closer look at the bagged lunch. A bagged lunch is a very complicated animal. Think about the hazards this poor lunch has to face during the day.
- The "Smooshing" Hazard: Unless you pack a lunch in one of those suitcases that a gorilla can safely jump up and down on, every lunch can fall victim to the "smooshing" hazard. Think about it. That fragile sandwich wrapped in plastic is destined to be flattened by the apple in the lunch box, or the math textbook in the backpack, or the winter boots in the locker, or the kid two desks over in the classroom. I can't begin to tell you how many light, fluffy, delicious sandwiches have come home looking like a steamroller drove over it TWICE.
- The "soaking hazard": Any time you mix together wet stuff and dry stuff, mushy stuff is going to result. Drinks are going to spill, lids are going to leak, and blueberry yogurt is going to escape from its container and slime the entire contents of the lunch kit! The other soaking hazard comes when you wrap the tomato, cucumber, and lettuce with the sandwich. When you allow bread and tomato slices to sit together for several hours, some strange chemistry occurs and the tomato juice bonds with the bread to form this oozy, gluey, sticky, mashy mess. Not a pretty sight, and not very appetizing.
- The "spoiled lunch": Many hours pass between the time a bagged lunch is made and a bagged lunch is eaten. And most kids don't have access to a refrigerator to store their lunch in. That means you have to keep cold food cold, and hot food hot.
- The dreaded "traded lunch": Why is it that the disgusting lunch of prepackaged ham, process cheese, and transfat white flour crackers is so much more appealing than your lovingly prepared sandwich with whole wheat bread, sprouts, fresh tomatoes, sliced fruit, and milk? Big sigh. I suspect we were all the same way when we were kids - except I used to drool over the other kid’s store bought Oreo cookies LOL.
- Last, but not least, the "dumped lunch": This is every mom's nightmare. A lunch that was so bad, it wasn't even worth trying to trade. I sent my kids in "undercover" and asked them to watch what happened to kid's lunches. The amount that ended up in the trash was incredible (and sad).
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I may not like making lunches, but the benefits of healthier foods, saving a few dollars (actually saving A LOT of dollars) is much better for our family in the long run. Fortunately, my husband and our kids often help out with the food preparation. So when we make it fun (instead of a chore), the lunches are more inspired and the job is done quickly!
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