Sunday, August 30, 2009

Back to School: Dreading the School Lunch

I hate school lunches. I hate, hate, hate school lunches. The sad thing is, my school has one of the best lunch programs in the state. And it's absolutely disgusting. The chicken patties are made of everything but the cluck. We have some gross pizza-like substance at least four times a month. We no longer are allowed salt, pepper, peanut butter, or anything with real sugar in it. Everything is canned or frozen or bagged. Talk about ew. In fact, there are only two days that every student looks forward to; Breadstick day (Who knows what the actual main dish is) and Mini Corndog/French bread sub (I'm partial to the sub myself). Every other day is dreaded. Well, except nacho day. We only have nachos on a half day.

After suffering eleven years of carb rich imitation food, I've finally found the motivation to start bringing my own lunch. Yup. After a nine o'clock new tupperware run to Wal-mart and a fancy new lunchbox from the kitchen section, I was all set. Well. Except I had no idea what I was gonna make.

I like eating healthy. But I'm still pretty picky. I don't like meat with a lot of fat. I hate carrots, lettuce, fish, raisins, venison, and a host of other things. Still. By just searching around on the internet I've managed to find a bunch of simple delicious recipes that I can pack a few days in a row. A few I'm looking forward to trying is an orzo salad, a variety of wraps and pita pockets, and a recipe for the single chocolate chip cookie.

A popular trend sweeping lunch makers is a bento box. Bento (or Obento) is a japanese style of preparing a decorative healthy lunch by a standard ratio of food groups. The food is used to create a decorative and appealing landscape; whether it be fruit animals, cheese flower, an ocean view, or just a sammich cut into the shape of a dinosaur, all the food looks amazing. Though, I doubt I'll wake up early enough to attempt any of this, it's an interesting subject to read about and hear how people create these magnificent works.

I'd love to hear some suggestions on what meals make great next day lunches, and what your kids do about lunch. I'll be honest. I'm excited about this. Not only will it be saving some money, I can eat food I actually like. Try encouraging your teen to make lunch-even if it's only once a week.

Remember. I'm still looking for questions and topics for a Q&A Blog. Comment the below post with anything you'd like answered or discussed. :)

-Spencer

No comments:

Post a Comment