School’s in session
No, not for kids, but for parents who need a refresher course when it comes to making school lunches.
Call this Lunch Packing 101: Beyond Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches.
If you’re like most parents, you get frustrated when your kids walk through the door after a day at school and reach for soda and salty/sweet snacks. They claim they’re starving while their tossed-aside lunchbox is full of food that’s more picked at than eaten.
It’s annoying, but if you think about it, wouldn’t you get a little bored with the same old, same old day in and day out that constitute most packed lunches?
When my girls were young, I was juggling lunch packing and homework helping with a full-time job, so I’m sure I resorted to the occasional ham and cheese, and peanut butter, sandwich.
But they don’t remember those, so they were either rare or forgettable. Jennifer remembers taking summer sausage on crackers; leftover, thinly sliced flank steak in sandwiches; tuna salad; “and all kinds of stuff in a Thermos.”
The PB and Js she remembers were on cracker squares, not bread.
Emily recalled that the other kids thought she “brought interesting stuff,” then mentioned a specific lunch that always made her happy — egg salad with alfalfa sprouts in whole-wheat pita bread. It remains one of her favorite sandwiches to this day.
But it was my granddaughter Ellie who brought home to me the importance of being creative when feeding kids.
One night when she was visiting, I rolled low-fat ham and low-fat cheese together and cut them into little pinwheels. She ate every one and asks for them anytime she sees me heading to the kitchen.
It may sound basic, but making foods with kid-appeal really does ensure it gets eaten.
If your kids have been dining out since they were toddlers and wouldn’t consider eating tuna salad, substitute a California roll with soy sauce. If peanut butter and jelly is too pedestrian, spread some hummus and red pepper spread on lavash, a Middle-Eastern flatbread.
You get the idea. Here are 10 more of my favorite tips:
1. Steal ideas from the experts, but make them more healthful.
There’s nothing wrong with looking at Lunchables and similar meals with kid appeal, but instead of buying theirs, assemble your own, substituting low-fat meats and cheese, 100-percent juices and low-fat milk or water. Make mini pizzas on English muffin cut-outs, assemble turkey and crackers yourself. While you’re looking at kid-friendly meals, take note that big sandwiches, big containers of chips and the like aren’t what’s selling. The portions are smaller and have some variety, which is one reason kids like them.
2. Invest in some small containers and use them to hold salsa, mustard, hummus, bean dip, low-fat ranch, yogurt, etc. Or save the little condiment packets of salsa, mustard and the like you sometimes get, and include those in lunches. Most kids love to dip so include some healthful dippers — baked corn/potato chips, pretzel sticks, carrots, celery sticks, grapes, apple wedges, etc.
3. Kids like variety. Include small offerings of several things, so they get more interesting flavors than just meat and cheese. I have a metal box filled with small containers designed to hold spices, but that tin, or a similar container, would work perfectly for holding mini portions of food such as
Cheerios, raisins, cheese or turkey squares, pretzel sticks, cracker bits, air-popped popcorn, dried apples, celery sticks, yogurt, etc.
4. Be creative. Roll food in a tortilla rather than putting it on bread. Cut sandwiches in fun shapes with cookie cutters. Roll turkey and low-fat cheese together to make pinwheels. If you must make a plain sandwich, cut it into quarters or thin slices, so it looks like fancy finger sandwiches.
5. Kids love nut and cereal mixes, but skip the fatty trail mixes. Make your own healthful versions, then put them in small baggies and freeze them. When you’re packing lunch, grab one from the freezer and throw it in. The same idea works with cookies.
Select a healthful recipe, make them small and wrap and freeze them for grabbing and going. When you’re making a salad for dinner, before you add dressing, pull some out and put it in a zip-lock bag. Include it in your child’s lunch with a little packet of low-fat dressing.
6. Don’t let kids make their own nutritional decisions but give them options of your choice. Ask if they’d rather have grapes or strawberries, baked chips or pretzels, chicken or turkey.
7. Don’t do all the work yourself. Chefs get paid a lot to make “deconstructed” food. Do the same thing by offering cheese, meat, crackers, etc., so your kids can assemble their own “sandwiches” at school. And enlist their help with packing lunches. When kids are involved in meal preparation, they’re more likely to eat the results.
8. Move beyond white bread. If it must be white, use white wheat bread. If your kids like darker wheat bread, make sure it’s whole-wheat. And don’t forget lavash, crackers, English muffins, small bagels, pita bread and more. Make sure you’re getting the healthful versions that are high in fiber.
9. Prepare a balanced lunch. Aim for 2-3 ounces of meat, a minimum of two different vegetables or fruits (more is even better, or offer additional
fruits/veggies for a snack when your child gets home), 1 cup of milk or 4 ounces of yogurt (cheese counts, too) and one to two servings of bread (whole-grain, remember!). Registered dietitian and Express-News columnist Siobhan Walsh considers these general guidelines — “The variables are the portion sizes with some of the different age groups. But this is a good formula,” she says. Also, think low-fat — mustard instead of mayonnaise, low-fat instead of full-fat yogurt, fresh fruit rather than canned. It’s fun to include a little surprise occasionally as well, be it a note, cartoon, picture or gummy bear. It may seem corny, but all of us love to know someone took the time to let us know we’re special.
10. Keep your kids’ lunchboxes as fresh as possible. When they come home, you children can throw away food wrappers and get individual containers soaking so their lunch containers aren’t a pungent mess later. A child who is old enough to carry a lunch box is old enough to learn to take care of it. A bonus is you’re teaching them to look after themselves.
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(Karen Haram is the San Antonio Express-News Food Editor.
E-mail: kharam(at)express-news.net)
NYT-08-21-08 1301EDT
