A Sisyphean task

I love growing healthy food (say baby spinach), finding the perfect recipe (a simple sautéed garlic and spinach), cooking it (it only takes seconds and smells fantastic), and eating it.

I HATE packing school lunches. I have given up on mornings. We are always rushed, I usually forget something, and I end up resentful. I am all about empowering kids, but when they pack, the kitchen explodes and the one-veggie-and-one-fruit rule is often overlooked.

Recently I came across "Tips for making Lunch on the Fly" from Food 52. The author writes:

Everyone needs a few survival strategies for getting through the lunch routine. When I'm short on time and supplies, one of mine is to assemble a few whole foods that I can feel good about feeding to my kids. I wanted to share a couple of these no-frills lunches; they are nothing I'm proud of but they got the job done.

 

Let me start by saying that these lunches are gorgeous; I would be thrilled tuck into one of these babies right now. But the tactics in the column are actually manageable. One of my issues is that my older daughter is a vegetarian (nine years running, so not a passing thing); otherwise she will eat almost anything, including eggs and cheese. The other child professes to hate eggs and cheese but would be happy if I handed her a loaf of white bread every day.

After drooling over the photos on the Food 52 site and considering my realities, here's my adaptation for this week. Truthfully, I do not plan ahead, and the leftovers in the lunches depend on what we actually eat for dinner. But it's not PB&J day after day, and now I have something tasty and healthy in my lunchbox too.

	Kid 1	Kid 2
Monday	rice salad with edamame and veggies, cheese stick, carrots, cubed orange, 2 girl scout cookies	same, but for cheese, sub peanut butter (for dipping) and pretzel sticks
Tuesday	leftover veggie pizza, celery and PB, grapes, chocolate square	the same!
Wednesday	same rice/edamame salad, bell pepper strips, grapes, chocolate chips and almonds	the same!
Thursday	bagel with hummus and cukes, boiled egg, carrots, blueberries, brownie	the same, but sub sausage cubes for egg
Friday	leftover pasta with red sauce, cheese, and chick peas; almonds; carrots and cukes; 2 girl scout cookies	the same!