05 September 2008

Lunch: First steps on a road to obsolence

The girlie went off to school yesterday with grapes and cheese and a piece of bread and some homemade "cookies" (actually pie crust scraps baked with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar), and I stayed home and organized the lunch supplies into a plastic box, so all of the labor-saving snacks and plastic containers were in one place.

If I'm short on time in the morning, some of these things will help, right? Fruit leather, string cheese, juice boxes, applesauce, cereal bars, rice cakes, raisins and Fig Newtons. The problem is that there's so much trash involved with all of this stuff. But, baby steps. Eventually we'll get her eating out of one of those clever bento boxes.

And then someday, she'll be able to make her own lunch, and I'll be obsolete.


"This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as an entry for a contest sponsored by Brothers-All-Natural."

14 comments:

Mental P Mama said...

You will never be obsolete;)

Her Grace said...

Lunch is tricky. My kid loves bologna, but YUCK. I'm doing pb and j on whole wheat or egg sandwiches, with the occasional bologna sandwich slipped in for a treat. She gets raw veggies or fruit as a side, and sometimes a "surprise." I haven't get much more creative than that yet, though I thought I'd be the total bento mom too. Like you said, baby steps.

Kyla said...

Looks good. BubTar sticks to a strict regimen of PBJ and cheesy rice cakes. Makes shopping a breeze.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

I've always packed everything but the sandwhich the night before.

kathy a. said...

you're prepared! and you will not become obsolete -- my kids are young adults now, you'll have to trust me on that. :)

a few people in a thread below suggested a wide-mouth thermos, and i heartily endorse that idea. great for leftover pasta, rice and whatever, soup, etc. son always ate everything, but daughter was a picky eater and this really helped.

Mayberry said...

I'd like a lot of those for my lunch too. Please.

One thing my kid loves is hard-boiled eggs. (I peel them for her, otherwise she'd never finish during her allotted lunch period.)

Furrow said...

Okay. So I've got 4 or 5 years to figure this out. We hardly ever seem to have leftovers from dinner, so it's hard enough making sure we have decent lunches for our stay at home 10 month old. I'm not in charge of lunch, but I think she eats a lot of veggie burgers (bite-sized pieces, I mean).

And my internet access has been spotty for the last few days, so hooray! for the girlie on this new chapter in her (and your) life.

painted maypole said...

there is so much garbage associated with lunches sent to school. We've bought aluminum water bottles, and are using lots of resusable containers. I need to move to cloth napkins, like I use at home

Anonymous said...

A mother will NEVER be obsolete!

susan said...

You can pack lunch for me anytime! You always have something good in your kitchen (judging from your many food posts) so I can't imagine you're going to have a lot of trouble packing for Miss M.

Another cool-o lunch box that I have aquired, similar to a wide-mouth thermos in that it lets me pack soup or something hot for CG (or me!) is the Mr. Zojirushi bento box (see http://tinyurl.com/5lunrk for a photo on someone else's blog). I love containers.

the mama bird diaries said...

I second the... you will never be obsolete. Looks like a good lunch.

flutter said...

obsolete my ass.

have I given you a recipe for home made fruit leather?

Anonymous said...

My little sister moved into her dorm for her last year of college this past weekend. After helping her, my mom went home, opened her freezer, and discovered that the entire "family sized" pack of Pizza Pops she'd purchased just that morning for my teenage brother had been confiscated -- and my sister confessed they were in her dorm fridge! Moms never get obsolete, you are always a provider... even when you don't expect it ;)

Antropóloga said...

My mom made me lunches until I was out of high school, I believe.

Wow, now I think about it.

Good variety you got there. :)