7.424635 minutes to eat
Our local school has the unwieldy task of coursing 700 kids through a small cafeteria each day. The environment is intense; the students are hushed continuously. I've been hushed when I dare 'eat' with one of my kids. (I usually spend my 7.424635 minutes opening yogurts and Lunchables containers for little fingers, racing against the clock.)
But when you have a few short minutes to eat, every second counts.
(Side rant: Especially when they hound my lactose intolerant son to take a milk. Or provide a doctor's excuse so he can refuse said milk. Or they tell him to take one and throw it away, which even he gets is wrong and wasteful. So Zack gets roughly 3.537295 minutes to eat. Someday he will come to his senses and stop begging for hot lunch - because it's cool? - but until then I am seething at this new policy./rant)
So, I struggle to put together pleasing and nutritious lunches that my kids can eat in a hurry. Or won't be tossed or traded for toxic crap I won't buy.
I'm thinking bite size. Thermos recipes. Ensure?
I'm begging for clever ideas, clever readers.
Please, help a mama out.
*****
600 posts. Yes, 600 posts. I've been blogging for about two years now. When I hit a hard spot in my would be novel - and I've hit many this week - I'll remember it wasn't that long ago when keeping a blog seemed daunting. Thanks for being along for the ride.
Your presence means the world to me.
But when you have a few short minutes to eat, every second counts.
(Side rant: Especially when they hound my lactose intolerant son to take a milk. Or provide a doctor's excuse so he can refuse said milk. Or they tell him to take one and throw it away, which even he gets is wrong and wasteful. So Zack gets roughly 3.537295 minutes to eat. Someday he will come to his senses and stop begging for hot lunch - because it's cool? - but until then I am seething at this new policy./rant)
So, I struggle to put together pleasing and nutritious lunches that my kids can eat in a hurry. Or won't be tossed or traded for toxic crap I won't buy.
I'm thinking bite size. Thermos recipes. Ensure?
I'm begging for clever ideas, clever readers.
Please, help a mama out.
*****
600 posts. Yes, 600 posts. I've been blogging for about two years now. When I hit a hard spot in my would be novel - and I've hit many this week - I'll remember it wasn't that long ago when keeping a blog seemed daunting. Thanks for being along for the ride.
Your presence means the world to me.
Comments
They are also required to bring home whatever they don't eat so I can monitor what and how much they're eating. Am I mean?
Cafeteria food is gross. Not to mention the occassional stomach ache late afternoon.
Hope it helps!
T
S: I try to limit Zack to one interrogation, I mean, hot lunch, a week. He's partial to pizza day.
I don't know why he thinks it is COOL to eat that nasty stuff...
I make a sandwich, a fruit, bottled water and whole grain chips.
I think the cafeteria food is awful!
Lunch. Boxes of raisins. Shelled sunflower seeds. Cheese and crackers, in a nice plastic container with divisions between the two. Make sure they have water and a napkin, fork, etc. Pineapple chunks. Scarlett is found of 'carrot salad' which is grated carrot with salad dressing on the side, which she pours on. Peeled hard-boiled egg with a teeny tiny container of salt. Pretzels and cheese as a main course. Chips and salsa. Granola and Cliff bars. . . . it's a struggle. But better your food than high fructose corn syrup.
totally looks like fun
http://recipes.kaboose.com/california-veggie-wrap.html
healthy and like a burrito
my mom used to make these all the time and I LOVED them
http://recipes.kaboose.com/ants-on-a-log.html
What on earth is up with the milk thing? Wow, that's some intelligent help they have in the lunch room. I can understand how frustrating that must be.
600! Wow!! You rock!!
Prego makes a new spaghetti sauce with mini-meatballs mixed in - I got it to try, thinking it could be something I could make up containers of (like penne pasta plus this new prego w. meatball sauce) to put into little containers to freeze for quick microwaveable meals for at home; no reason you couldnt just warm it in the morning and put it into a wide-mouth thermos.
That aside: Allergies are on the forefront these days. How can someone give a kid a hard time about NOT DRINKING SOMETHING THAT WILL MAKE THEM SICK. Sheesh.
Another side note: My daughter and I both have type I diabetes, and though we both eat REALLY healthy, people try to push things on us that we don't eat as well as try to tell us what we shouldn't eat.
Sorry to go on a tangent and sort of blog in your comments, but this is such a shame. What happened to the "lunch hour"? Where you ate your lunch and, depending upon how quickly you finished, generally had a good half hour for each.
*We* talk about eating when we are hungry, enjoying our meals, and then we make lunch at school miserable.
I have an egg allergy myself and am always teased to just try a bite of cake etc.
People just don't get it.
I will be writing some letters to the lunch provider...
(I find it interesting too because we live in the Pacific NW, home of the vegan.)
also, you could just get stuff you want them to eat, puree it, and stick it in a ketchup-like packet so they can just squeeze it in. I COPYRIGHT THAT IDEA FOLKS. yes. me = millionaire by the weekend.
Half a wrap. Some baby carrots and a little containor of hummus. A yogurt tube. Pre-sliced fruit (because who has time to peel an orange? Not my kids.) Fruit smoothies made with tofu in their thermoses.