While Catie was at public school, she bought hot lunch pretty much every day. Only $1.60, for a drink, a hot entree with a side, and fruit. She loved it because the girls in our family adore cafeteria food. (Recently I took Catie and Elisabeth out for dinner anywhere they wanted. They chose Lubys Cafeteria and we all feasted on lukewarm comfort foods. So proud.).
Sam and Elisabeth also bought hot lunch every day last year. At private school, it’s not government-subsidized, so it’s $5.00/each. But for the convenience of not packing lunches? Yes! We were hot lunch junkies.
This year, with all four kids in private school, we had to quit the hot lunch habit, which would have been just about $400/month. Armed with new Thermoses, enough enviro-friendly snackware to pack a horse (which would be weird), and fistfuls of recipes, I took on the challenge of packing just about 20 healthy lunches a week.
And it’s killing me. I need help.
Others in this house (M) would certainly say it’s the healthy part of that equation that’s killing me. Or the environmentally-friendly part. He would point out that Costco sells Lunchables in bulk. The grocery store is overflowing with 100-calorie packs of Oreos, FunSize bags of Cheetos, and more gummy fruit than actual bananas and blueberries.
Heck, our own pantry is filled with that stuff. Every time M does the grocery shopping, he stocks up on this kind of “lunch box filler.” Probably because he is sick to death of me filling dozens of metal dishes with sliced strawberries and Thermoses with day-old chili.
That’s not even the disgusting part of cleaning all these containers every day. We’ll get to that in a second.
But packing healthy is part of the equation for me. The lunches at our kids’ school are pretty good. If I’m passing up fresh fruit because I don’t want to pay $5 a kid for it, I need to at least send something just as nutritious.
Which I’m trying.
But, oh my goodness, I am so sick of packing lunches. And I’m doubly sick of cleaning out the lunch boxes. The kids eat about half of the spaghetti and soup in their Thermoses. I won’t get into specifics, but I would like to announce, chili is pretty dead to me. Let’s just say that after a three-day weekend, I discovered we had forgotten to clean out the Thermoses of chili I had packed on Friday morning. I think M might feel the same way about pulled pork, after recently discovering the remains of that. x4.
(Incidentally, this is precisely the reason I don’t have the kids clean out their own Thermoses. I send chili and pulled pork a lot. Cleaning leftovers out of Thermoses, kind of makes you hate both foods. That won’t work for future lunches.).
If it sounds like I’m whining, it’s because I SO AM WHINING. Of the sixteen waking hours in my day, I figure I spend about seven of them shopping for, preparing, or cleaning up from meals. How do other parents do this? Yes, I’m talking to you, other parents. How do you do this?
Maybe I should just embrace the Lunchables? I mean, they’re kids. I ate bologna sandwiches pretty much every lunch of elementary school. And, yes, I eventually contracted a string of health problems, which the doctors connected to diet. But maybe kids are more resilient?
Or maybe, we should go back to our hot lunch habit. I know this is M’s vote. If there is an anonymous comment who suggests we (Tina) gives up highlighting her hair in favor of hot lunches, I’ll know who it is.
Or maybe there’s some lunch-packing tip you other parents know? Prepare all the meals on the weekends? Make the kids clean out their own containers? Fill the landfills with Ziploc bags?
What are you doing, other parents?
1. Kids age 4+ clean out their own lunch box and associated Tupperware or re-useable snack/sandwich bags. We don’t yet have homework battles, so this plan works for us. Maybe you could switch off….each kid takes a day cleaning everyone’s lunch boxes, so you don’t have to nag about it (x4) each night.
2. My main lunch box “menu” is protein/fruit/snack. Protein could be half a sandwich, rolled up pieces of turkey with sliced cheese, leftover hamburger from the night before, sliced turkey sausages, etc. Fruit is self explanatory. Yes, you have to wash it and sometimes slice it up…but I always go for the real deal. Snack is usually a mixture of fishy crackers, peanuts, walnuts, pretzels, raisins, dried fruit or whatever other “not exactly junk but not purely healthy” food we have in the pantry.
Our school doesn’t allow “Pre packaged” food for lunch, so it has forced me to be creative. Although sometimes I do unwrap that string cheese and put it in a re-useable container so it doesn’t look pre-packaged. (-: I’m not one to do a week of lunches at a time, but I do pack them the night before, NEVER in the morning.
It doesn’t have to be hot or fancy to be healthy. Most of the time when I send my kids with stuff that I assume they will re-heat in the microwave, they just eat it cold. The school also doesn’t let the kids throw food away…they have to pack home whatever they don’t eat. Sounds gross, but it is helpful for me to see what and they are really eating so I can pack more/less/different food.
The part of this comment I loved the most was you opening pre-packaged food to pack in the lunches. The part I agree with the most is the kids should probably be cleaning out their own gross lunchboxes. Thanks.
Oh, and everything I use to pack the lunches is dishwasher safe…that makes life MUCH easier. (Assuming you get it in the dishwasher before the food turns to cement). Good luck!! Isn’t Catie old enough to start packing everyone’s lunches yet??
Oh look!
An anonymous donor has just taken notice of your situation and selected you for a hot lunch grant for one month.
Ha, ha, M. I’m guessing this donor is going to suggest we save that $400 at the salon. And taking this deal means I’ll be a brunette.
Oh sister! I feel your pain! I need
More ideas for lunches! My girls love rice and pasta (which about as bad as pre-packed foods! ) and im guilty because I let Ella have one pizza lunchable a week. 🙂 I like the idea of the kids washing out their lunch containers but i’m almost certain right now E would think I asked her to climb Mt. Everest if I asked her to do that! Haha 🙂 Love your blog- brings joy to my day! 🙂
Kendra… My kids will find the lunchbox cleaning like Mt. Everest too. I’m guessing the nagging will wear both of us out.