School life | Packing the #$%@ lunch box
1. I hate the morning rush
The morning rush is painful enough without adding sandwich construction into the mix. So, I’ve always packed my children’s lunches the day before. As a matter of fact, I tend to pack the next day’s lunch as soon as I get back from the morning school run. That way it’s done and I don’t have to think about it again.
Does it affect the quality of the lunch? I honestly wouldn’t know – they eat it whether I pack it the day before or the morning of.
2. I hate the monotony of it all
It’s true that making sandwiches and packing fruit isn’t the most stimulating job in the world, but it’s a job that needs doing and do it we must. To break up the monotony, I like to put a little note or joke in the kids’ lunch box. I know this lunch box gesture is supposed to be for the kids, but it’s really all about me. Coming up with something fun and cute definitely breaks up the ho-hum lunch box regime.
Another way to break up the monotony is to use batch cooking and freezing – make the lunches once a week, freeze them in containers and drill the kids in how to pack their own lunch boxes each morning, straight from the freezer and fruit bowl.
3. I spend ages making a lunch that doesn’t get eaten
There’s nothing more demoralising than slaving away creating a decent, healthy meal only to have it boomerang back home uneaten. It kinda takes the joy out of lunch box preparation, doesn’t it? Well, here’s the thing: you don’t actually have to reinvent the sandwich every single lunch box.
Most kids, pretty much all kids, in fact, are happy having the same old thing most days. I recall eating a Vegemite on brown bread sandwich every single day for lunch in Year 3 and most of Year 4, because that’s what I liked to eat and my mum wasn’t fussed. She changed the fruit option, she changed the snack and she changed the dairy component and I happily ate my daily Vegemite sandwich. There are plenty of ways to get variety into your child’s diet without worrying about the lunch box.
4. I’m suffering from Lunch Box Comparison Fatigue (LBCF)
If LBCF doesn’t exist, it ought to. It’s bad enough that the kids come home informing us of their friends’ far superior lunch box, but we are also subjected to mums like Li Ming who treat the lunch box as a work of art. Once I start looking at school lunch bento boxes, I feel any residual joy found in lunch box preparation being sucked away along with the mini-forks, stamps and teeny-tiny sandwiches. The only solution is to remember my life mantra (which is especially apt in this case), a quote from Louis CK: The only time you look in your neighbour’s lunch box is to make sure that they have enough. I may have paraphrased a little there.
5. I’ve run out of ideas of what to pack
Still, if your child enjoys some variety, it helps to have lots of ideas up your sleeve. Kidspot has reams of lunch box recipes and you can try out anything new over the weekend and pack it in the school lunch box if your child is a fan.
The trick is to get a good formula going and stick with it. At my place, that’s a wholegrain sandwich with some kind of protein (try our Lemony egg salad sandwich, recipe below), two kinds of fruit, something dairy (yoghurt, cheese or milk) and a healthy treat (try our Carrot dip with Healtheries Potato Stix, recipe below). On Fridays I make the treat a little less healthy, throwing in a Weet-Bix slice, Apple cake or Rice pudding.
So, there are five no-good reasons for hating the lunch box smashed to oblivion. To help kick any residual lunch box loathing to the curb, I’m going to give you tomorrow’s lunch box menu straight up, no quibbles.
Tomorrow’s lunch box
On the menu:
- Lemony egg salad sandwich on grainy brown (swap the bread if your kids won’t eat the grainy stuff) – recipe below.
- Carrot dip with dippers (the carrot dip nicely includes dairy) – recipe below.
- Kiwifruit (I’ve cut it for the photo, but serve it whole in the lunch box with a special kiwifruit spoon. You can also peel and cut the kiwi and put into an airtight container).
- Apple (our school slinkies apples for free, which the kids love).
- Water
Lemony egg salad sandwich
Makes 1
Ingredients
For the egg mix
1 boiled egg
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp finely chopped shallots
1 tsp finely chopped celery
1 tbsp low-fat cream cheese
pepper to taste
For the sandwich
1 portion of egg mix
2 slices of bread
scrape of butter
2 lettuce leaves
Method
Roughly chop the boiled egg, add the lemon zest, shallots and celery and then mix well with the cream cheese.
Spread a thin layer of butter on each slice of bread. Top with a lettuce leaf and then spread the egg mix over the top of one of the lettuce leaves. Top with the other slice of bread. Wrap in greaseproof paper or put into an airtight container and add to the lunch box. Be sure to add a cold pack to the lunch box to keep the egg mix cool.
Carrot dip with dippers
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 large carrot, washed and roughly chopped (no need to peel)
1/2 cup low-fat cream cheese
1 tsp finely chopped shallots
Some kind of dippers (Healtheries Potato sticks, bread sticks, celery dippers, corn chips, cracker or bread toasties)
Method
Steam the carrot until very soft, allow to cool. Puree the carrot with a handheld blender, food processor, or mash well with a fork. Mix well with the shallots and cream cheese. Serve with the dippers.
The dip is also yummy with capsicum, cucumber or celery sticks.
