MomCooks

There’s no reason why a packed lunch can’t be fun AND provide good nutrition too. Here are some of the basics to a good brown bag lunch. Including a choice from each food group will get the most nutrition into your child to fuel them for their busy day. Here are some of my suggestions for keeping lunch interesting and healthy too:

SANDWICHES: Don’t get stuck on just making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or sandwiches with just one favorite meat. Switch the ingredients around. Add special toppings. Just think about all the toppings you see at sandwich shops. If your child asks for cucumbers or green peppers on their sandwich at Subway, surprise them with a similar sandwich in their lunch! Look for sandwich rolls at the grocery store, cut them part way through and then wrap with plastic wrap to hold everything in.

NOT FANS OF SANDWICHES?: My daughter likes the components of sandwiches but not sandwiches themselves. She prefers to have a roll, a few slices of turkey or ham, and a slice or two of cheese, all eaten separately. Do whatever works for you!

HEALTHY TREATS: A fun alternative to potato chips is Pirate’s Booty made by Robert’s American Gourmet. It’s a tasty snack made with puffed rice and corn that comes in flavors like Aged White Cheddar, Barbecue, Sea Salt & Vinegar, and Veggie. New products from Pirate’s Booty include Smart Puffs which are flavored with cheddar cheese, Tings which are a crunchy corn snack sort of like an unflavored Cheeto, Cannon Balls, and Pirate’s Booty with Golden Caramel. A baggie or container of these is sure to be a hit!

VEGGIES: Make it as easy and tasty as possible for kids to get a veggie serving in at lunch. If they don’t like veggies on their sandwich, send along sliced cucumber, baby carrots or whole carrots peeled and cut into small sticks, tiny grape tomatoes, small sticks of celery, whatever they like. Include a small round container with dip if that’s what they like. Dip suggestions include lowfat Ranch or other salad dressing, hummus, and a tablespoon or two of peanut butter.

FRUIT: It’s easier for younger kids to eat fruit if it’s already peeled or sliced and ready to eat. We like to do sliced Gala apples (they don’t seem to turn brown by lunchtime), grapes, or canned peaches or pears packed in extra light syrup or juice. For canned fruit, drain it and pack it in a small round storage container with a fork or spoon on the side. Those fruit cups are convenient but expensive, and they can be messy and hard for younger kids to open.

LEFTOVERS: What did you have for dinner last night? Leftovers can make a great lunch. My kids love a slice of cold pizza (I wrap it in foil) or a piece of leftover chicken in a storage container. I suggest packing napkins or wet wipes for greasy fingers!

What are your child’s favorite lunch foods? Share them in a comment!

I consider myself lucky that our school district made a commitment two years ago to improve the quality of the hot lunch program. They contract with a food service provider that delivers fresh food that each school prepares on site. So, for example, if the lunch is pizza, instead of delivering already cooked pizzas that are kept warm (and always end up soggy),  the school gets an assembled pizza that they bake in their kitchen and serve fresh and hot. Also, every day the students get raw or cooked veggies and fresh fruit. My 12 year old son eats baby carrots, celery, and a fresh orange or apple every day.  It’s $1.75 for my 5th grader and $1.90 for my 7th grader, we did the math and it’s cheaper for them to buy school lunch than for us to pack it!

Gather.com, the leading social network to make new friends and form new social circles, recently conducted a survey of Gather Moms to determine the most popular back to school lunches.

Some highlights from the survey:

• There is a nearly even split between those that pack lunches (52%) or buy school lunch (48%)

• The PB&J is the most popular (37%), but a surprising 24% of parents don’t pack a sandwich for their kid’s lunches.

• Which fruit is most favored? In a close race, the banana came out on top with 33% of the vote, followed by apple with 31% and grapes with 26%.

• More parents pack fruit juice (38%) than milk (35%) for their child’s lunch

• When it comes to getting it there, the overwhelming majority (68%) of parents use insulated lunch bags, compared to 19% who “brown bag it” and 13% who use the classic plastic lunchbox.

To take the survey and see how others voted, go to  http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977805714

MomCooks readers, tell me about your child’s school lunch. Do they brown bag it or buy hot lunch? Do they eat the same thing every day or do they like variety?

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Make these muffins the night before and serve them for breakfast or pack them in a lunchbox. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but without the crust!  WARNING: Check to make sure your school allows peanut products before sending these muffins in for lunch. Enjoy!

PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY MUFFINS

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup thawed apple juice concentrate
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat chunky peanut butter
• 1/4 cup fat-free milk
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/3 cup 100% strawberry spreadable fruit (or your favorite flavor)

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine the eggs, apple juice concentrate, peanut butter, milk and butter; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray. Spoon half of the batter into cups. Spoon about 1-1/4 teaspoons spreadable fruit into the center of each; top with remaining batter.

Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Yield: 1 dozen.

Nutritional Info:
Serving Size- One Muffin
225 Calories, 8 grams of fat, 1 gram of fiber, 6 grams of protein
Exchanges: 2 starch, 1 1/2 fat

Don’t look now, but school’s here! Are you ready for one of the biggest challenges for Moms of school-age kids – preparing school lunches day after day?  There’s hope and help for you yet. Here are 7 back-to-school lunch tips. Hey, I can’t come over and make your kids’ lunches for you, but these tips will surely make it much easier:

1. Make dinner do double-duty

You’re already in the kitchen preparing your family’s dinner, why not use that time to get a head-start on the next day’s brown bag lunches?Make a double batch of meals that taste just as good “the morning after”.  My kids like leftover fried chicken and pizza slices. Even if you grabbed takeout, get enough for lunches.  Pack the leftovers right into sandwich bags or food storage containers while cleaning up dinner, and shave a few minutes off lunch-making time in the morning.

To make meal planning easier, take a look at Dine Without Whine. It’s a monthly service for planning your family’s meals and grocery shopping.

2. Include lunches when meal planning

To do tip #1, you need to be more organized. This means including your kids’ lunches when planning your family dinners.

3. Let the kids participate

Lighten your load and teach your children some important life skills at the same time. Even small children can help prepare their lunches. If morning is too stressful, then make this an after-dinner activity – which brings us to…

 4. Make advance preparations

Do whatever you can do ahead of time. For example, cook in batches on the weekend, or buy big bags of chips, cookies, dried fruit, whatever you buy in bulk, and spend an hour dividing it into individual portions for the week ahead.

5. DIY fast food

Commercial packed lunches are attractive but unhealthy. But who says you can’t make your own? Buy your own colorful and attractive lunch boxes, such as a bento-style lunchbox. Fill it up with a variety of healthy food. Think of mixing up foods with different textures and colors, and cut them up into small pieces so they’re easy and fast to eat.  I just bought a Laptop Lunch system on eBay for $27.99 and it comes with a book of bento lunch ideas. I’m actually looking forward to packing it with food for my son!

6. Soup it Up

Soup makes a quick and healthy lunch. You can cook a large pot in the weekend and pack it in a thermos for a warm and satisfying lunch. Serve with whole wheat bread and some fresh fruit and you’ve got a complete meal.  Other thermos ideas include leftover spaghetti, chili, macaroni and cheese, stew, or any kind of casserole. Just pour boiling water into the thermos and let it heat up before adding the food. Don’t forget to pack a plastic fork or spoon!

7. Sprinkle in some fun

Sneak a little surprise into your child’s lunchbox once in a while. It could be a little chocolate treat, stickers, or a sweet note from you. Getting something unexpected makes lunch fun. With planning and creativity, your children can have healthy, delicious lunches without too much work for you.

For meal planning help, go to Dine Without Whine. It makes meal planning a breeze, while helping you save time and money.

Then you’ll have time and energy for those school lunches.

With the increasing popularity of full-day kindergarten, many parents are now finding themselves trying to figure out just what to pack in their child’s lunch every day. When my kids were in kindergarten, they needed a lunch plus TWO snacks every day. And like most five year olds, my boys ate a lot some days and barely anything on other days, so it was very frustrating for me.

So, how much does your kindergartener need per day? It took me a few minutes of Google searching to finally find a website that would tell me exactly what the recommended daily servings are for the average kindergartener. Of course, you should take your child’s individual nutritional needs into consideration and check with your pediatrician if you have specific questions about food. I found this information in an educational worksheet used by teaching students at Ole Miss University to teach the MyPyramid food guide to kids in grades K-8.

*Kindergarten-age children require between 4 and 5 ounces of grain products per day. Send half a sandwich (whole grain bread is best) for lunch and an ounce of whole wheat crackers (like wheat thins) or a whole grain cookie for snack time.

*The recommended intake of Vegetables for kindergarteners is 1½ to 2 cups per day. Measure half a cup of baby carrots, cucumber slices, grape tomatoes, even cooked corn kernels or green peas into a small plastic (reusable) container or baggie. Serve another half cup after school for snack and half to one cup at dinner time and veggies are covered for the day!

*For kindergarteners, between 1 and 1½ cups of Fruit are recommended daily. If you buy fruit cups, buy the kind where the fruit is packed in it’s own juice. Even the “extra light” syrup is too much sugar for tiny tummies. A small apple sliced into quarters with the core removed is perfect for a kindergartener, they can eat it all at lunch or have a few pieces for lunch and the rest at snack. A half cup of grapes (cut large ones in half) or a small peeled orange is good too. A cup of 100% fruit juice is equivalent to a cup of actual fruit.

*It’s recommended that kindergarteners get 2 to 3 cups of milk products daily. This includes whole, lowfat, and nonfat milk (including flavored milk), lactose-reduced or lactose-free milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream. Two slices of cheese count as one cup of milk, but if you buy cheese singles, make sure they are the kind made with actual milk. Some are made mostly with oil-yuck. So a cheese single on that half-sandwich, and a Yoplait kids yogurt cup or a Gogurt tube is one cup of milk right there.

*The Meat & Beans is represented by purple, and includes beef, pork, chicken, eggs, fish, nuts and seeds, and dry beans and peas. Kindergarteners should get 3 to 5 ounces of meat and bean products daily. Use one or two ounces of lean deli meat or leftover cooked meat that’s finely chopped on your child’s sandwich, or to just eat plain. Ham can be rolled up around slices of cheese or a thin slice of dill pickle for a fun lunch. Measure out an ounce or two of canned tuna in water, mix with mayo and a tiny bit of chopped onion or pickle relish for an easy tuna sandwich. For snack time, send trail mix that includes an ounce of nuts and seeds IF nuts are allowed in your child’s classroom. Getting enough protein is rarely an issue for most kids today.

Most kindergarteners need 1200 to 1600 Calories a day, which really isn’t much. Don’t be angry if they don’t finish their lunch or snack, letting kids listen to the cues their body sends them and stopping when they have had enough to eat is something we ALL should be doing. Some days they will eat their whole lunch and snack and some days they won’t, but unless there is a medical issue involved, provide your child with a healthy selection and let them decide how much of it they need to eat. You can always wrap things up and send it again the next day. I hope this helps you plan what to send with your kindergartener for lunch!