Let's Talk Lunch

School lunch is one of my favorite topics. Especially right now with the new school year back in session. Whenever I am researching or talking about a specific topic relating to food, whether it's clean, sustainable farming, healthy meal time habits or just nutrition in general, I get so excited and caught up in the fascination of it all. I am passionate about food and eating well and it just reinforces for me that this was the right career path for me. I am never bored of it (well, maybe a little bit bored with dietary supplements and pills and occasionally with really intense bodily processes involving nutrition) and I could talk about food all day, every day. My philosophy is pretty simple though: eat a variety of REAL food and enjoy it! And keep sacred the family meal time. Kids will learn what they need to to eat and live well with these things in place.

A huge part of meal times for children involve eating away from home during the school day. This is where they are subject to peer pressure and poor food choice options and significant time constraints with eating their food. Now obviously, that is still a year away for Will since he is only in preschool, but he does eat lunch at preschool once all the other kids leave for the day because of our transportation arrangements. Will waits there until my mom is finished closing up for the day and then she drives him back to our sitters. So I am getting great practice and a nice transition with packing a lunch for him just three days a week and he loves it! When we do "High/Low" at the dinner table, he always lists "eating lunch" in the top three highs (he never has just one) for his day.

What I like about packing his lunch is that I can give him a variety of healthy foods that I know he likes and be guaranteed that he will be as nutritionally prepared as possible to have enough energy for his day. This post is not at all going to be about bashing the lunches that are served in school cafeterias. But I've looked at our school district's menus and I have a co-worker who surveys school lunch programs for the USDA in our area, and let's just say that schools (not ours specifically) are able to squeak by under the radar as long as they make the required numbers add up even IF the foods that USDA allows to "count" for a serving of this or that are processed garbage. Not to mention the waste that goes into cranking out this acceptable "kid food" on a daily basis. I don't really want any part of that. I'm not opposed to my kids selecting a few choice days to buy lunch if they wish, but for the most part, I plan to send a packed lunch.

So, with that in mind, there are several things to consider when packing lunches.

#1 - Portion sizes: you want enough food to sustain them, without too much going to waste.

#2 - Presentation: I don't just mean how the food looks, though that is important too. What I mean, is to consider all the distractions and lack of time a kid will be up against when he/she sits down to eat and how you can present the food to them that keeps them focused on the task at hand... so they don't miss the opportunity to actually eat something. I'll expand on that further down.

#3 - Balance of nutrition: How do you include enough of what your child needs without overdoing one thing and overlooking the rest? Keeping each of the food groups in the back of your mind when choosing what to pack is a very good baseline for meals.

I've been wanting to purchase a new lunch "system" - a Bento style, specifically - for Will ever since last school year when I was getting annoyed with all the little containers I was trying to cram into his lunch bag. I always tried to use containers rather than baggies to save on waste but they just fit so awkwardly in his bag. And the Bento style boxes just present the food so nicely and are most similar to the kids' divided dinner plates right now. At the beginning of last school year, Will wasn't particular about having specific characters on his lunch bag but we were given a Spiderman lunch bag as a gift. Will wasn't really partial to Spiderman (and he's now using that bag for toy storage) so he wasn't devastated with getting a new one. But I wanted to keep in mind that he may care about the bag's appearance this year. Most of the lunch systems I was looking at, however, were just solid colors with no characters at all so I was hesitant. I actually showed Will pictures of many of them and he was pretty accepting when I showed him the choices that were available. (Love that kid - he's so easy.) For the longest time, I was pretty set on the Laptop Lunch systems that I'd seen advertised on Weelicious. All of the school lunch photos she posts were packed in a Laptop Lunch box and Will was even excited about the carrier bag with the race car tracks on the front. The price is pretty high for a lunch bag, but it's more than just a bag... and I am willing to make an investment on a system that will make school lunches easier and more practical given the challenges I listed above. On several occasions, I had it mind that I would get it for him, i.e. for Christmas, then his birthday... But something was holding me back.

Well, sometime in August this year, I started focusing on the return to school and what sort of things I wanted to get in order. The lunch bag topped the list immediately and I was close to purchasing the Laptop Lunch system once again. I decided to do some more research before ordering to solidify (or challenge) that decision: I found several food blogs where moms were given a specific company's Bento box to trial and review; I poured over the options on Laptop Lunches; I discovered a cute blog that discussed lots of different Bento options, which led me to scoping out a company called Easy Lunchboxes; I checked out the Planetbox, which was another product advertised on Weelicious; and I read literally hundreds of user reviews on Amazon and elsewhere for all of these various products. I put HOURS of time into researching this and easily spent more time coming to this conclusion than I did purchasing a car. LOL ;-)

The writer of that cute blog I linked has some nice lunch ideas, which she posts in weekly pictures, but she seems to prefer smaller, stacking boxes without divided sections and she just creates dividers with silicone muffin cups and the like. She also reviewed several others, including the Easy Lunchboxes (which were significantly cheaper than the Laptop or Planetbox) but said that they were hard to keep closed without a special band wrapped around it (extra hassle) and the carrier bag was pretty bulky. The more I researched, the more I came to the conclusion that the Laptop system might actually be more of a hassle than I thought. When you look at the Weelicious photos, you see the containers pictured with all of the individual lids off. Those containers are opaque and are tightly packed together. So, #1: this presents the same problem as a bunch of individual containers from home - they have to open them ALL to see what all is packed and they may not get to all of them with the time allowed and distractions that interfere. And #2: opening each of those containers may be a little challenging for the kindergarten and younger elementary set, not to mention the spilling that might occur if they're held sideways while opening.

So finally, that led me to feeling more and more impressed with the Planetbox. At first glance (a long time ago) on the Weelicious site, I wasn't initially impressed and didn't really give it much consideration. I'm not really sure why I wasn't interested. Maybe the stainless steel was a bit off-putting or too harsh or something? But after reading tons of reviews and considering all those points I listed above, the Planetbox system really is GENIUS! The stainless steel is completely safe and non-toxic. (As they say "which typed of plastic is going to be deemed 'unsafe' next?") The divided sections and slightly shallow depth make for easy packing of just the right size portions. Packing each section makes it easy for parents to notice right away if they've overlooked a certain food group, i.e. a fruit, a veggie, whatever. And there are no individual compartments to fiddle with so kids can spend precious little lunch times allowed actually eating their food. It's basically a divided plate with a lid that closes down and keeps the foods separated. The latch that opens and closes is very easy to manipulate (far easier than individual lids) and the child need only pull down the latch, lift the lid and see their entire lunch all in one glance. SOOOO NICE!! Also, not that this was the determining factor, but the lid of the stainless steel Planetbox is designed to accommodate a selection of magnets to help your child customize/personalize their lunch box. You could purchase more than one set if you choose and have them be interchangeable if you wanted variety. Carrying cases are thin, just like the stainless steel box and have a pocket on the the top interior to hold an ice pack and/or a napkin and utensils. On the outside of the carrying case, there are two compartments: one with a flap to store an extra snack or utensils and an elastic pouch to store a drink container.

So, I was pretty set on getting this system but wanted to get a little more confirmation from my friend Nichole who purchased several systems to compare and have a variety with packing. Nichole purchased the Laptop system, the Planetbox system and a Bento box and bag from Pottery Barn. And after just a short time, she confirmed that Planetbox was the favorite for both her and her kindergartner. Yippee!! I ordered right away. (Thanks, Nichole, for all your input and lengthy lunch discussions! And thanks for all your great packing ideas!) Also, Will thought it was extra cool that he and his buddy had the same lunch bag.

Craig knew I had been researching all of this and was a little appalled at the price of these lunch systems at first. But just as I trust his expert opinion in certain areas (finances/investing, cars, etc.), he trusts mine in this area. He knows I put a lot of thought into this decision. It wasn't spontaneous and it was well researched. So, yes, this was an expensive purchase, but I don't have one ounce of buyer's remorse with it. I consider it an investment in my child's good eating and health, and that's worth every penny to me. I'm so pleased with the Planetbox!

Before we ordered, Will chose the bag color and magnet selection. He, of course, wanted red just like his backpack and he selected the rocket magnets because they looked like outer space and planets. Also, the fact that this system is called a Planetbox made it even more interesting to him. :)

Note the thinness?

Again, the thinness:

And a close-up of the latch. It's hard to tell, but there are indents where the latch sort of snaps into place on the top. So it's not loose at all and could not slip open on it's own unless it wasn't closed properly to begin with. It's very easy and pretty much fool proof.

The system also comes with two insert containers (thoughtfully called the "Big and Little Dippers" - haha) that can be used for (duh) dips, sauces, yogurts, puddings, applesauce, thicker soups, pastas or casserole type things, etc. So far, I haven't used them much. Will doesn't really prefer dinner main dishes anyway, so we keep things simple with lunch-type foods a little more than dinner leftovers. I have used the little dipper a couple of times and it seals very nicely for a small compartment.

To go along with the planet theme that Will selected, I ordered him five, reusable, cloth napkins from this seller on Etsy. He LOVES them, though I don't think he needs to actually use them too often. Still, they're nice just in case. All the fronts are the planet print and the backs are a solid orange fabric.

I have a few other extras that I've purchased to supplement with lunch packing, which I will post about when they arrive. But, for the most part, the Planetbox is perfect in and of itself!

So now that we've had a week and a half of using the Planetbox under our belt, let's take a look at some lunch packing ideas. I just LOVE looking at lunch packing posts on various blogs to get new ideas so I'm going to share mine too!

This was day one. Will's first day of school on September 7th.

Contents: peach dices and raspberries, green beans from our garden and red bell pepper slices (from my aunt's garden), cucumber slices and yellow tomatoes from our garden, my favorite white bean dip and baked pita chips, and some dark chocolate covered raisins for dessert (in the center). All of the veggies I included are good dipped in that bean dip (which is also a protein source to round out this lunch). And I forgot to mention the little "treat" compartment in the center, because "a little treat goes a long way". I'm going to try to make note of what gets returned each day as well. This day, the box came home with most (?) of the pita chips and I think all of the dip returned. He's so off-and-on with this dip. When I asked him if he'd rather I not pack it in the future, he said "no, you can pack it again". He eats it at home and it's an easy idea for something different, so I'm not ruling it out. Everything else, he ate.

Also, I wanted to include a little love note from mom for his first day. Will has a game that he loves to initiate where he tells us he loves us bigger than something and then we respond that we love him bigger than something else... and then he responds back, etc. Inevitably those "somethings" involve dinosaurs or planets because (duh) they're very big and one his most popular choices is planet Jupiter. So since it was fitting with the whole outer space theme we had going on, I printed a picture from Google Images of the planet Jupiter and wrote him a little message:

He LOVED it! So I decided to continue. :)

Day two: Friday, September 9th.

Contents: grapes, snap peas and red pepper, pb&j on wheat bread cut into two brachiosauruses with our sandwich cutter, edamame, yellow tomatoes from our garden again and chocolate chips. What came home? The edamame and the snap peas. He used to devour the snap peas last year, but this year he's decided he doesn't care for them anymore.

Love note for day two:

Day three: Monday, September 12th.

Contents: strawberries, pear slices and carrot sticks, a couple each of walnuts and pecans, 4 "ham sammie" kabobs (bread cubes, chesse cubes, yellow tomatoes, ham cubes), 2 Wee Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Came home: both cookies (whaaa?), and only the bread cubes and 2 cheese cubes from the kabobs.

Monday's note:

Day four: Wednesday, September 14th.

Contents: pitted bing cherries and blueberries, dried fruit and nut mix (walnuts, pecans, dried blueberries, dried cranberries), red bell pepper, cucumber and yellow tomatoes, wheat Ritz crackers with cheese stars (4 crackers and 4 stars stacked) and chocolate chips. Came home: most of the dried fruit and nut mix. Again, he usually loves this stuff, so I'm not done offering it. The kids shared it as a snack while I made dinner this night.

Wednesday's note (I've taken to printing picture of specific planets and listing facts about that planet now - he usually requests which planet he wants on his note for the next day - haha - "tomorrow can I have Mercury on my note?"):

And finally, day five: Friday, September 16th.

Contents: cucumber, red pepper, yellow tomatoes, grapes and cheese cubes, peanut butter apple sammies (apples sliced horizontally, seeds removed and pb spread between two slices) plus some extra apple slices, a Wee Peach Muffin cut into quarters (adapted from the Strawberry Muffin recipe) and 2 Hershey "Hugs". Came home: most of the cheese cubes and 2 chunks (or 1/2) of the muffin.

Friday's note:

One tip I've found helpful in my lunch packing is to keep my Tupperware FridgeSmart container stocked with partially used raw veggies. Often times, there are part of a large carrot stick, at least one color of bell pepper and some cucumber in here. This makes the veggie portion of lunch packing a breeze.

And that's all so far! I'll probably be posting a weekly or bi-weekly school lunch post. I thought about going back through my dinner posts to those occasional lunch pictures I posted from last school year, but those were so inconsistent and I don't even like looking at the unorganized appearance of those lunches anymore. Haha - I'm such a lunch packing snob now. ;-)