Monday, August 9, 2010

Lunch time!




Angie asked what I send the kids for lunch. I have already made known my STRONG opinions about school lunches. Those opinions were only validated when I went in on Friday and ate lunch with my girls in the school cafeteria. I couldn't believe what some of those kids were eating--microwave bean burritos, chips, chocolate milk. I think the actual meal offered was sloppy joes (and you know they probably aren't using lean ground beef or whole wheat buns) but at our schools the kids can pick a lot of different options. None of which appeared remotely healthy.

UGH! We live in a country where 60% of children are obese and childhood obesity has been declared by the surgeon general as a national epidemic and yet our school lunch programs feed our kids things like microwave bean burritos. Really?!

Okay, I will step off my soap box now. Those are my feelings and that is why my kids bring their lunches from home.

I always pack a "main course", a fruit, a snack, a drink and a dessert. The main course is usually a sandwich--ham and cheese, pb & j, tuna (using reduced fat cheese, light mayo, natural peanut butter, sugar free jam--you get the picture.) I use this Sara Lee Whole Wheat Soft and Smooth bread--it is 100% whole wheat, but it has the texture of white bread. This seems like a good compromise to me--my kids don't love the texture of 12 grain bread, but I don't like the non-existent nutritional value of white bread. Sometimes I will make "lunchables." Of course I would never buy those ridiculously over-priced things--I just give them crackers, cheese squares and squares of lunch meat.

I like to do fresh fruit when I can, but there are so many other options as well. Fruit cups, applesauce cups, dried fruit pouches, "Simply Fruit" fruit roll-ups, fruit leather, dried fruit, dehydrated fruit, etc. etc.

Snacks--I use things like granola bars, crackers (whole grain), fruit bars, breakfast bars, Z bars, baked chips or Sun chips.

Juice. I used to do Capri Sun Roaring Waters, but now I have switched to juices that are 100% juice. I think those Roaring Waters were only 10% juice. I've also used the Fruitables (which have vegetable juiced added) but those were NOT a big hit.

Dessert--my mom always packed a little dessert in my lunch growing up, so I have followed suit. I guess it is okay to have a little fat in your diet once in a while. :) I try to stick with things that are homemade (with added puree and reduced sugar) or just relatively low in fat--a lot of things are in those 100 calorie servings these days. Right now the dessert of choice at our house are Grammie's chocolate chip cookies!

2 comments:

Stohl Family said...

Hi Lindsay,
I am usually a blog stalker and not a blog commenter (and I really do read your blogs), but I thought you would be the perfect person to ask a few questions. First, what is your opinion about High Fructose Corn Syrup. It is a struggle for me to find foods without it. Most whole wheat breads and even low fat yogurts contain it. I have found brands of both that are HFCS free, but it is not always easy and they are typically more expensive. I have strong opinions about HFCS, but was wondering what your thoughts were. Also, how do you make sure that your children are gaining the appropriate amount of weight while still feeding them healthy and mainly low fat foods? I got in "trouble" recently because Jacob has not gained any weight this past year. And while I believe other things may have contributed to this, I definitely don't want to stunt his growth!
Thanks for your help!
Angie

The Bowler Five said...

Thanks - I was glad to see that your lunches look very close to what we do... Thanks! It's been fun to see what you do!