School days, school days...

Dear ol' golden rule days..

Ah, yes, it is that time of year again. Time to dust off the old backpacks and lunchboxes (and replace the ones that the cat defiled near the end of the last school year), label mountains of new socks, try on the old uniforms, school shoes, sweaters...And time for school lunches.

In a world full of quick this and disposable that, we have made a concerted effort to strike a balance between convenience, health and personal responsibility. It's harder than it sounds...and, also, easier than it sounds, once you get the hang of it.

Our children carry lunch to school each day. We have thought about letting them buy school lunches, but, as vegetarians, the options available to them at the school cafeteria are very limited. Even on days when they offer a vegetarian option (cheese pizza is the only offering I have ever seen), they cannot guarantee that it will not be gone by the time my girls get up to the counter. Besides which, Justice can't have the cheese, anyway.

The great thing about packing lunches is that I know exactly what they are getting, so I can try to make healthy choices. Another bonus is that we can use reusable containers and utensils, so we aren't adding heaps of garbage to the landfill. The girls have cloth lunchbags, thermal bowls, water bottles, containers in a variety of sizes and cloth mats for wrapping their sandwiches. In addition to the health and environmental benefits, I find it is fairly easy, most days, to make sure that everyone has something she actually likes and will eat.

There are a couple of down sides. At least once a year, some teacher or other adult with express concern about the fact that one of my children isn't eating what they consider a "complete lunch." The truth of the matter is, sometimes my girls can be finicky (some more than others). I know what they ate for breakfast, what they will eat for snack after school and what they will have for dinner. In short, over the course of a day, they will get everything they need. To be honest, Kaia doesn't like most fruits and vegetables, so I don't often pack them for her. It would be a waste of perfectly good food. She also doesn't like sandwiches, or most traditional school lunch foods. I guess it throws them off when they see that she has things like crackers, yogurt, nuts..., but no real "main dish," as it were. The other stumbling block we have occasionally hit is other kids at school thinking my kids' lunch is "weird." The girls have all had to deal with this at some point, and I am pleased to report that they have all gotten through it. Hallie once said to a kid who told her that her food (hummus, tabouli and pita bread) was gross, "Um, you're eating dead animals." Granted, probably not the most polite thing, but, really, mashed chickpeas are gross food and flesh it not? Eh, it's a matter of opinion, to be sure, but, having both mashed chickpeas and sliced rare roast beef while working at a deli in college, I would beg to differ.

Anyway, here we are, on the first day of school. We have new haircuts, new backpacks, new pencils, a huge supply of fresh loose-leaf paper, carefully selected back-to-school ensembles...and our very first school lunch. What to pack? hmmm...

Well, it was the first day back, so I asked each of the girls, if they could choose their very favourite school lunch, what would it be? Their answers were surprisingly do-able, so they all got just what they asked for. Here's what they took today:

Justice:
gnocchi w/ olive oil, basil and garlic (packed in thermal bowl)
baby carrots
chocolate soy pudding
water

Hallie:
panini w/ fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil
baby carrots
peach-mango gel (vegan jell-o)
water

Kaia:
peanut butter (in a small container w/ a spoon)
banana
panini cut into slices
chocolate pudding
apple juice

I think we did pretty well, frankly. I'll admit, I did buy the prepared pudding and fruit gel in little plastic cups. Like I said, we try to strike a balance. Nutritionally, I think their lunches stack up pretty well. Kaia's is most likely to raise a few eyebrows. Funny thing about that is, if I had made the peanut butter, banana and bread into a sandwich, nobody would have thought twice about it. The only difference would have been that the child would not have eaten her lunch, and, for me, that's a fairly monumental difference.

Now, what's Mama having for lunch? hmm...leftovers, perhaps? We had tacos last night...maybe a taco salad? Or perhaps some of that gnocchi? Come to think of it, what's a great "back to school" dinner?

Off to the kitchen!