Napkins

My weekend project was to make some cloth napkins to pack in the boys lunches. My original idea was to hem them but then I got lazy and decided to just cut them out with pinking shears. We shall see how they last. I wanted to make napkins for two reasons. For one, it's better for the environment for them not to throw out napkins every day. We use cloth napkins at home and I didn't realize until this week how many paper napkins we would go through just packing them in the boys lunches and snacks! Four paper napkins a day adds up quickly! The other reason I wanted to have cloth napkins in the boys' lunches was that I wanted to decrease the likelihood that they would accidentally throw something (lid etc) out with the napkin. By trying to have a waste free lunch there will be no need to throw anything away and hopefully all the tupperware etc. will make it back home! They did awesome last week - they haven't lost anything yet! (I hope I didn't just jink us...)

Waffle Grilled Cheese

First off today are the snacks. Last night E loved dipping carrots and cucumbers (both from the garden - yum!) in to a "dip" so I thought I'd pack that for todays snack. How could I resist a kid who was loving his veggies? It wasn't until later that I thought about the fact that the "dip" was made with mayo and it would be unrefrigerated for two hours. Yikes! Well he didn't get sick so I guess it was ok. By the way the "dip" was just mayo mixed with ketchup. I know, sounds gross but it is really quite good! S had peanuts and raspberries. All the raspberries came home and he has decided he doesn't like them anymore... He is so fickle recently.

For lunch both boys had grilled cheese sandwiches made in the waffle iron, carrots, unbaked oatmeal cookies (Dad is baking again) and pears. I love making grilled cheese in the waffle iron. It is quick (no flipping), easy (just put some cheese between two slices of bread, place in machine and close lid) and since there is no butter it is probably better for you and easier to clean up! a pear slice or two and about a half of a sandwich worth of grilled cheese (the "crusts") came back home. I think I'll trim the crusts off next time. That sometimes backfires though and they eat only to the non existing crust... sigh..

Pesto Pasta

I'm trying to sick to fruit and a protein for snack. E's teacher is all about fruit or vegetable for snack and I want to give them some protein to tide them over until lunch. I'm really don't have too many ideas for protein that is easy to eat and can stand not to be refrigerated for 2 hours. I think I'll just rely on cheese-sticks for E (S doesn't like them - for now, he changes his mind) and peanuts for S (E can't have in class due to allergies). Anyway above is E's snack of cheese stick and raspberries and S had peanuts and raspberries.
Lunch was pesto pasta in the thermos and pretzels, peanuts with chocolate chips on top and cantaloupe in the other container. Both boys came back with just a few peanuts and a few pretzels. I think I final have the food quantity thing down. They both said they had trouble opening the thermos but that it was warm enough. Luckily they are not picky on temperature because I didn't find that these thermos' kept things hot enough for me.

Mini Cheese Bagels

Today for snack E and S both had a half of a banana and a cheese stick. I wondered what they would think of the banana since the cut end would be brown by the time they ate it. Surprisingly they were ok with that although S has declared that he does not like cheese sticks anymore.

For lunch they had cantaloupe, two chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (made by Daddy the resident cookie maker) and two mini bagels with melted cheddar. They each came back with most of one of the bagels. They say they ran out of time to eat it.

Roll ups

S and E had similar lunches and snacks today again. Today I tried to pack more food.

E had the same snack as yesterday- cantaloupe and cheese stick. S had cantaloupe and peanuts (now that I've been assured that peanuts are ok in his classroom.) I forgot to take photos of the snack boxes. Both snack containers came back empty.
For lunch they had roll ups. S. had cream cheese and jelly and E had turkey and cheese. Next to the roll ups are fruit snacks. In the second lunch container they had pretzels and fruit (pear for S and peaches for E).
They both left about 1/3 of the food from their lunch. Maybe I packed too much. They only have 20 minutes to eat which is not much time at all. I think packing the fruit snacks was a mistake. Those take too long to chew!

A and I ate lunch with S and E today. Above is my lunch. I had a rice cake with turkey, cheese, mustard and garden fresh tomatos (yum!), peanuts and raisins and cantaloupe. I always have a hard time packing rice cakes. They get soggy if I pack them with anything with the least bit of moisture. I have taken to packing them in plastic baggies and laying the toppings on top of the baggies. Then when I want to at, I take the toppings off, take the rice cake out of the bag and reassemble. Kind of a pain and it adds to the waste which I don't like.

A had fruit snacks (out of the bag since he can't open it), cantaloupe, pretzels, turkey roll ups and a cheese stick. I realized that the fruit snacks were definitely a problem when it took A the entire lunch period to eat JUST the fruit snacks! In the fruit snacks defense however a friend tells me that this brand is usually not that hard to chew. I think I've just had them in the pantry too long.

First Day of School!

Here it is! The very first school lunch for S and E. Yesterday was the first day of first grade! They each got the same lunch and snack today.

Their snack is in the grey container. They will eat this mid morning. They had cheese stick and cantaloupe.

Their lunch is in the larger clear container. They had a cream cheese and jelly sandwich shaped like a heart. Veggie booty, carrots, raspberries and the small square container has chocolate pudding.

The drink is water which they will have most every day. They also have a water bottle on their desk to drink with snack (and any other time during the day when they get thirsty).

When I emptied their lunch boxes they had eaten everything with the exception of a few squished raspberries. S was very hungery when he got home. Tomorrow I will pack more food!