Kids Dish

I’m still obsessed with other people’s bento boxes. Yesterday I spent close to an hour admiring pictures of other people’s lunches and comparing them to the sad little lunches I pack Bob every day. I wonder if, when the time comes, I’ll step up or if little preschooler Sam will have variations on the same lunch every day: a sandwich on either some sort of whole grain bread, rye or pumpernickel, a baggie of reduced fat or reduced sodium potato chips, two pieces of fruit, and some dessert when available all made the night before.

Part of the challenge for me is that I’m not a morning person. I hate having to do anything in the morning to the extent that pouring a bowl of cereal and milk is often more effort than I’d like to exert. The idea of cooking something in the morning, even warming something overwhelms me. It’s a wonder I ever taught first period classes. Most of my teaching days I couldn’t even bring myself to eat breakfast or drink coffee before my first prep period.

But the bento lunches are just so appealing. Even when made with boxed macaroni and cheese and little sausage “octodogs” they’re still creative and interesting and usually have enough extras on the side for some nutritional content. Based on my reading of bento lunch blogs it seems like all I’d really need is an extra 10-20 minutes in the morning to reheat, shape and properly pack any foods that can’t stay cold or room temperature during the day. Maybe I’ll pick up a bento set for my birthday to start practicing now.

I posted a bit about bento meals months ago, when I wrote about Vegan Lunchbox. I love everything that the mom at Vegan Lunchbox does, only I’m not vegan. I love eating vegetarian meals and I definitely don’t eat meat every day, but I have no interest whatsoever in cutting all animal products from my and Sam’s diet. Then I found something in between.

I seriously just spent more than an hour staring in awe at the Kid Eats group pool on Flickr. Holy Popsicle sticks, Batman, most of those lunches are unreal. What I like about the meals pictured in the Flickr pool is that there’s a total variety. Some moms are vegan and others are vegetarian, but there are just as many moms who pack their kids bologna sandwiches. You’ll see meals where everything’s homemade and healthy and meals that are almost entirely prepackaged. Some of the moms who seem to pack mostly prepackaged stuff use mostly organic, sugar-free, low-sodium snacks. Others pack all cheese-its and m&ms.

What the meals in the pool have in common is that all of the mothers have put some effort into making their kids lunches into something special that their kids will actually eat.

Here are a couple of Halloween-themed meals.

The first is a creepy Halloween lunch with ramen noodle guts, hot dog worms, ketchup blood, sweet potato and maple jack-o-lanterns with some candy on the side. The original photo page can be found here. This mom’s other lunches are awesome.

This preschoolers lunch looks like a great time to eat. It has mini carrots, apples with almond sliver teeth, Shrek cheese-its, jello jigglers with Halloween sprinkles, Halloween candy, fruity cheerios, witches brooms made from pretzel sticks and fringed fruit roll-ups, and peanut butter and fluff sandwiches on wheat cut into pumpkins. The original photo page is here. Again, the mom makes awesome lunches.

I’m sure I won’t say this in a couple of years when I have to, but right now I’m really looking forward to making Sam’s lunches. Since I already make Bob’s lunch every day I may have to invest in a couple of bento boxes now.

Just kidding. I’m not going to actually write about xantham gum though I will tell you it’s not one of those especially scary and creepy food additives so don’t worry too much if you see it in your ice cream ingredients.

Sadly X is one of those letters that’s not going to get me much food ingredient mileage. The only other ingredient I could find that starts with the letter X is X-cat-ik, a type of chile pepper I’ve never heard of. So instead of the letter X I’m moving on to the letter C- for cupcakes!

Gothamist reports that Assemblyman Michael Benjamin of New York is pushing to make cupcakes the official state snack as a way to foil school cupcake bans. Many schools, in response to the obesity epidemic have restricted cupcakes from classrooms, even for birthday celebrations.

Benjamin said, “Making the cupcake the official state children’s snack is my way of saying, ‘Let’s put some brakes on what’s happening to the cupcake.’ The way the American eagle is the official national bird and it’s illegal to harm one — my thought is, you make the cupcake something similar, and leave the cupcake alone.”

Oddly, I kind of agree with him. As much as I think school cafeterias need to clean up their acts and start serving tasty, healthy foods on a daily basis, I think that banning cupcakes is ridiculous the same way I think that banning all food at classroom parties is ridiculous. Let parents decide what their children can and cannot eat and teach them how to monitor their choices. Why make all the kids suffer? I LOVED when kids brought cupcakes in for their birthdays when I was in school and hated that my birthday almost always fell during spring break so I almost never got to bring them in for my classmates. What was better than homemade Halloween cupcakes with candy corn on top or Valentine’s Day cupcakes decorated with red hots? Even we Jewish kids appreciated the cupcakes decorated with green and red sugar for Christmas.

Michael Benjamin, I applaud you for taking a stand, no matter how insignificant it may be. Teach parents to cook for their kids instead of buying them Happy Meals every night and let them bake some cupcakes for a school party a few times a year. Kids (and teachers) need to celebrate once in a while.

photo by Orange County Girl on Flickr

Aside from the hoagie bar and the snack bar I don’t remember what kinds of food my school cafeterias served. To be honest, my eating habits weren’t the best. My middle school lunch came from the vending machines; I ate a Tastykake brownie and a Hawaiian Punch every day. The thought of it makes me ill now. By late high school I started bringing my own lunch which was usually a bagel and some fruit. Not stellar, but better than the brownie.

By the time I started teaching in North Philadelphia something entirely unlikely had happened- I had become a healthy eater. Working in schools I was completely appalled by the daily menus that counted french fries and ketchup as vegetables and served pizza with a side of macaroni and cheese. Working in suburban schools wasn’t much better. Sure they served salads, but the salads were iceberg lettuce drenched in full fat ranch dressing. The students that I kept in for lunch often came to my room with pizza, french fries and a blue drink with a cookie for dessert.

Clearly, most school lunches need an overhaul.

If your child attends Charlotte-Mecklenburg elementary schools your child is luckier than most. In addition to the usual fatty, sodium laden cafeteria fare like chicken nuggets and beefaroni, Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools serve a variety of fruits, vegetables and offer both vegetarian and vegan entrees. The school’s menu is clearly marked with allergy information for each individual item as well as the carbohydrate counts for all meals and sides. For parents of children with allergies this menu must be like a gift.

The menu is the most thorough school menu I’ve ever seen and I’ve attended and worked in more than 10 schools in my lifetime. Take a look here.

link via allergymoms.com

What do the lunches in your kids’ cafeterias look like? Do you pack a lunch for your child or give them money to buy one?

school lunches, cafeteria food, food allergies, school menus

It’s that time of year again, when the kids are either getting ready to go back to school, or have already started. When I was in grade school I loved getting new lunchboxes to start the school year. My absolute favorite was my Superman lunchbox with my pink Smurfette lunchbox as a close second.

Sam’s not going to school yet, but if he was, these Munchlers lunchboxes from Built NY (at babygeared) are adorable. They insulate food and drink and unzip to a placemat. They have small handles for small hands and are a bargain at just under $10.

I’ll confess: this is one of those mornings where I realize that I don’t have anything for Katie’s lunchbox.

It has been one of those weeks. If you’re a parent, you totally know what I’m talking about.

My youngest daughter went in for minor surgery on yesterday. It has been all that I have been thinking about for a week now, so I didn’t notice when the peanut butter jar went empty or when we used the rest of the turkey. Now that things are back to normal (?), I’ve realized that the pantry is woefully lacking. I don’t even have good leftovers to send.

I did a quick search this morning and found a great series of sandwich ideas on BHG. Of course, they didn’t help for today (as there were no recipes combining lettuce and jelly, which is about all I have to work with) but there were some good ideas for the rest of the week. Check it out.

Ham and cheese sandwiches are a staple in my house. All of my children love them - in all variations. Today, I wanted to share a couple of different twists on the ham and cheese sandwich theme, and incorporate some yummy veggies at the same time!

Ham and Cheese Wraps

Sliced ham
Sliced cheese
Broccoli crowns, chopped (cooked or not, your preference)
Flour tortilla

If your kids are into mustard (mine aren’t, except on pretzels), spread mustard over the flour tortilla. Layer the ham and cheese and lightly pile chopped broccoli in the middle. Roll tightly and microwave until the cheese melts, about 30 seconds. Presto, a yummy wrap!

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Ham and Cheese Panini

2 slices bread (I like multigrain)
Cheese (try provolone or fontina)
Sliced ham (or give prosciutto a whirl)
Baby spinach
Olive oil or butter

Panini is Italian, more or less, for sandwich. You can make these sandwiches on a panini grill if you have it (that’s how you get the nifty grill marks) or just use a regular grill or skillet.

Assemble your sandwich with ham, cheese and baby spinach leaves. Brush the sandwich with olive oil or rub with butter. Grill your sandwich until the outsides are toasted and the cheese has melted. Buon appetito!

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Mediterranean Ham and Cheese

4 slices bread (the heartier, the better - this is a substantial sandwich!)
Sliced ham
Sliced cheese (mild is best, like mozzarella or provolone)
Roasted Red Peppers
Black Olives, chopped
Artichoke hearts, quartered
Baby spinach
Few mushrooms, sliced
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Saute mushrooms until tender, put aside.

Assemble sandwich by layering ham and cheese on a slice of bread. Top with red peppers, olives, artichoke hearts, spinach and sauteed mushrooms. Press bread slice on top. Brush tops of bread with olive oil and wrap tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 10 minutes or until bread is toasted and cheese has melted.

One of my friends confessed that she sneaks a peek into the lunchboxes of her daughter’s school chums to see what’s for lunch.

Egads. Katie’s lunches are a mishmosh of her moods and what we happen to have in the house. Fortunately for me, she loves fruit and vegetables. Fortunately for her, I know where to get it year round.

At home, we use a service called Door to Door Organics. I can’t say enough good stuff about them. First of all, they deliver fresh, organic produce straight to my doorstep - no food shopping at the store! Every other week, we get a medium box on the porch. The girls are psyched. It’s like getting a present every other week. And while you can tinker with the contents of the box online (the Friday before each delivery, you receive an email with the contents of this week’s box), I generally let Door to Door surprise me. It’s fun to unpack the box with the girls to see what is delivered - and the surprise gets them excited about eating it up.

A normal box will have an assortment of fruits (this week, we had apples, pears and bananas), greens (again, this week, arugula, lettuce), vegetables (this week, beets, artichokes, carrots, and tomatoes - call it a fruit if you want, I’m putting it in the vegetable category) and herbs (this week, flat parsley). You can see from the list that occasionally you get something a little different that you might not pick up in the market: dandelion greens, avocado, radishes, a variety of squash - that also keeps meals interesting.

The cost of the fruits and vegetables is really affordable. In fact, we find it to be comparable with our local grocery store and the quality is loads better.

The service isn’t available in all areas. They do serve:

If you’re in an area not served by Door to Door, you might try to find a similar service. I promise it’s worth it!

Door to Door Organics, fruit, vegetables, produce, organic

I promised that the site would be a little different…

Because today’s post is about snacks. And not carrots and celery (though I’m certainly not dissing vegetables!). But I’m talking about chips, pretzels and puffed cheese doodles - you know, yummy store bought snacks.

That’s right. Read that last part again. I said “store bought snacks” - there is nothing in the Mom’s Code of Ethics that says that you have to make all of your kids’ snacks yourself. I am soooo over this super mom myth that if you don’t carve out fruit bowls by hand and grind your own meat, that you somehow don’t love your kids. I do love my kids. I also only have 24 hours in a day. So yes, I buy snacks.

I buy lots of snacks, actually. My husband is of Pennsylvania Dutch descent so that means pretzels, pretzels and more pretzels. He is, of late, enamored with Martin’s Pretzels. He’s passed this love of pretzels along to my daughters. Amy, in particular, will always choose a pretzel over almost any other snack.

Running a close second - and the only snack that my kids will ask for by name - is Pirate Booty. Have you seen this stuff? Cheese puffs. Pirate Booty is cheese puffs. The cool thing is that all of the ingredients are natural - nothing chemical-y and scary. So I don’t feel guilty letting the girls eat it… and boy, do they. We usually have a bag in the cupboard. It’s a good complement to sandwiches at lunch time, or with a glass of milk for a midday snack.

And I have to admit that the name makes me giggle. I’ll never forget shopping in the Acme and hearing my then three year old shout, “Mom, I LOOOOVE BOOTY!” Heads turned. Katie, of course, was completely unaware and continued to ask, “Can I get some booty? Please!!!”

You can find Pirate Booty at Trader Joes and most grocery stores. Definitely check it out. The company that makes it, Robert’s American Gourmet, makes a number of all natural snacks. My favorite? It shouldn’t surprise you to know that it’s called Chaos.

snacks, Pirate Booty, Robert’s American Gourmet, pretzels