Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Today's Special

And now I present Thing 1's latest favorite: "Strangled Eggs".

Now that the Things are eating at school, they have very specific requests for lunch, including the "strangled egg sandwich". Can't say as I blame them for trying to direct my lunch making. The first day of school I made them sandwiches with lunch meat, not cheese! Plus, I cut some oranges into quarters and stuck them in a baggie. They looked different on the inside, almost a red color. I wondered if I got blood oranges at the store without noticing. The kids came back home without eating them. I tried one. It was a grapefruit! I felt pretty dense. However, they were the size of an orange, and the skins were orange, not yellow. How was I to know? So, now that I have established myself as a flunkie lunchmaker, let me tell you another do not. Do not pack ethnic foods like empanadas or greek food wrapped in grape leaves, your kids will chew you out because their friends laughed at their food.

I can tell you a good thing to pack. Take a tortilla, spread it with mayo and some thin sliced ham and corn, roll it up and cut it in pinwheels. Send them in ziplock bags. The kids liked that one, and you can fill it with just about any other combination imaginable. Once my kids are in second grade, I have them pack their own lunch so they will stop complaining about my dumb food and I can start chewing them out about theirs. A baggie stuffed to the brim with chocolate chips does not a lunch make! This is why you check their lunch bag before they go.

Seriously, my biggest problem is competing against the school cafeteria. They feed them really yummy food, not the toxic stuff we were served as kids. A certain child of mine tries every year to eat school lunch when he shouldn't and racks up a bill. I can't afford to pay for school lunch every day, and I know that they won't eat half of it anyways, but I am trying to come up with food that can win the war against the lunch lady. Any suggestions? Please? What's your favorite bag lunch food? And while we're at it, on the go breakfast ideas would be great, too. If you comment or e-mail me any suggestions, I'll make a post for everyone!


PhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

34 comments:

Cecily R said...

My kids always eat school lunch and are seriously irritated that I don't send them with home lunch more often. The grass is always greener I guess.

And 'strangled eggs'...that is classic!!

Izzy, Emmy 'N Alexander said...

What are strangled eggs? I must be out of the loop.

I always hated school lunch, but I think it's because everyone else did too.

Amanda D said...

My oldest is too picky to eat lunch at school. I send him with pb&j most of the time. Today he got a yogurt tube and a bag of grapes with it. Yesterday he took a little thing of Spaghetti o's. Those are pretty much it!

Fun post! I hope you get some good ideas!

Killlashandra said...

I sympathize with competing with the school cafe. When they don't serve a single healthy thing on the menu and the kids all want to eat there. I mean who brings their lunch anymore? It's kind of frustrating. At dinner they'll talk about eating pizza and no one ever has a good word for Mom how slaved all day then came home and slaved some more.

ooops...got carried away there. ;)

I do like strangled eggs though. Very creative.

Sass said...

I'm hoping I'll be able to afford school lunches. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to not planning Peaches' lunch bag.

I loved school dinners. Weird, like that.

Storytellin' Mama said...

the school called three weeks in and said my son was eating hot breakfast every day (after breakfast at home) and maybe I didn't know because i hadn't sent any money!!

It is a challenge to be creative and get lunches packed to everyone's specifications. We are stuck in a turkey sandwich rut!!

raising4boys said...

No help here. That's why I like school lunch. We do pack PBJ's once in a while and ham and mayo sandwiches.

I always love how kids interrupt words. My oldest would tell me he preferred boy cheese sandwiches over "girl" (grilled) cheese sandwiches.

tiarastantrums said...

oh my son is so picky - there is no way he would eat hot lunch at school ($3.25 a day!!) he will ONLY eat a Fizzix yogurt, buttered wheat bread, no crusts and perhaps somedays he may eat the fruit snack I put in there. Most days, not!

Anonymous said...

Wow - our school lunches are cheap, so we rarely pack. (Maybe on days when we're close to running out of our money in the lunch account or if she doesn't like what's on the menu that day.) So, I guess we're lucky that way. Mine loves when I put pretzels mixed with something else like Yogos, etc. in a baggie when she does pack. Good luck!

Gerb said...

Ooooh, do I have ideas for you! I LOVE making lunches for my 5 kids who eat at school. First, I always include a joke on their paper lunchbag (or on a sticky note or index card inside). For the main course you can do tortilla wraps, stuffed pitas, bagels, sandwiches cut in strips or with cookie cutters... the possibilities are endless!! And for fillings, try cream cheese instead of mayo/mustard with lunch meat or strawberries or cucumbers... etc.

I'll stop now. I have a million ideas for making home lunches AWESOME!! Maybe I should do a post on it. (?)

Pancake said...

my boys like the school lunch... hum is that a reflection of my cooking??

Strangled eggs!

Sharon said...

My kids' lunches usually consist of sandwiches and fruit and maybe a granola bar. They also like wraps of all kinds. Be creative with the ingredients or let them make their own - with supervision of course. :) Good luck. I'd love to see the blog with all the ideas.

Maude Lynn said...

I think "strangled eggs" is hilarious!

Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? said...

I loved that my mom sent me with lunch...school lunch was quite awful.

I love the "Strangled eggs."

tommie said...

Mine are only in Preschool, so we don't do packed lumches this year. (Last year we did).

I rotate about eight or nine meals: quesadillas made with whatever protein we had, PBJ, the rollups you mentioned, sandwiches, mini pizzas made with mini bagels, mac and cheese, easy finger food type things mostly.

tommie said...

ps, thanks for visiting my story! Happy weekend!

Mandy said...

My kids refuse to eat school lunches so I make their lunch every single day. I totally could empathize with you and was even laughing reading your post because I could have written it myself (other than the one that wants to eat at school).

My kids and I have a deal: if they are up, dressed, bed made and hair done by 7:15 I will make it, if not they make it, they are always ready by 7:15.

I have child that hates sandwiches but LOVES soup so I have been making lots of soup, recipes from motherhood for dummies, cheeseburger soup and taco soup. It's a hit with him. He also loves cherry tomatoes, string cheese, and grapes.

The other loves sandwiches and wants a sandwich everyday. His favorite is tuna. He also loves yogurt, cheese, raisens, grapes, mandarin oranges, almonds, banana bread, well, he eats A LOT! A growing boy.

Oh, my middle child LOVES hard boiled eggs so I sent one with him one day and he said kids laughed at him and he was so embarrassed and not to ever send that again! Crazy, huh!


Well, I have written a book. If you come up with any creative lunches pass them my way please!! I am always looking! Hope I could help a little with ideas?

Robyn said...

I can just picture a 2nd grade puling out something wrapped in grape leaves.
I'm a sandwich girl that or a salad.
For breakfast vans makes a blueberry mini waffle that doesn't have the bad junk in it. I like those.

Anonymous said...

School lunches are expensive, but luckily my kids are about half and half (half typically want to eat hot lunch, half bring from home.) That way it's not too expensive, and not too many to pack (4 in school.) Ours is typically pbj or ham, cheese, cucumber sandwich, and then a fruit or two, few chips if we have, carrot sticks ... or if the fruit, etc supply is low in the house, a granola bar, fruit snacks, etc.

Anonymous said...

heheh...I love 'strangled eggs' actually..:-)

Claremont First Ward said...

I have the same problem competing. My girls school cafeteria serves up good luches that are nutritious. They just increased the price (almost a dollar) to $3.00 a meal. With only 2 kids in school even, I refuse to pay that. Imagine when all 5 are? That would be like $20.00 a day! For just a lunch. I like the scrambled egg sandwich idea!

Unknown said...

I love the name of the eggs and your creative food ideas. Sorry, I never sent sack lunches with our kids (I'm not a morning person at all) so I doled out the money for school lunches (times 5 - ouch).

I remember I always loved soup in my lunch bag.

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

I so feel ya. I grew up with a lunchbox each and every day. Ah, those were the days. :)

I can only hope mine aren't as picky as I was!

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

Strangled eggs! :D I love that!

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

There's not pressure to have school lunch here, the kids are pretty open to whatever. My son takes lunch about 3 days a week, depending on what they are serving at school.

I notice that the parenting mags feature "creative" lunch ideas that I wonder if the other kids would make fun of though...I stick to the basics.

Burgh Baby said...

Don't look at me; I suck at packing lunches. I never once ate anything that wasn't a school lunch since we qualified to get them for free, and I hated it. HATED it. Kind of sucks that I can't pass that annoyance onto Alexis, now that I think about it. She'll always be a packed lunch sort of kid.

Karen said...

I refuse to pack my kids' lunches. I make them buy because now they have options and I read the menu - I only wish I ate that good at home!

But I love the strangled eggs. :)

Kellan said...

The grapefruit story is very funny! I love the pinwheel idea!

Hope you are well, Shellie - see you soon - Kellan

Casey's trio said...

Thanks for stopping by our blog and saying hello!
I'm cracking up over the strangled egg sandwich...I know it is hard to keep lunches fun and exciting. I get bored with the stuff I make myself:)

Darla said...

Ours used to only eat school lunches..and whined, wanting cold lunches. Then last year we went to only cold for a while...they then started to yearn for the hot lunches again. Like Cecily said, "The grass is always greener.."
As far as lunch ideas..mine are always lame, the same, and boring. I tried always to do a sandwich or something filling (usually pbj), something dairy (cheesestick, yostick or yogurt), something fruit (usually apple slices) and something veggie (about 99% of the time two baby carrots...that usually found their way back home!) Oh, and a side note...When we started the regular cold lunches, I got them each their own little lunch bag. After awhile, even the "brown paper bag other side of the fence" looked greener. One of the girls wanted brown paper bag only, please!

Tristi Pinkston said...

Meals are one thing that make me want to cry.

imbeingheldhostage said...

I have the BEST book for making creative lunches-- and then my kids request peanut butter sandwiches :-(
Strangled eggs-- that is classic. Fun PSF!

mommeeof10 said...

My kids can either make their own lunch, with supervision, or buy school lunch. I'm lazy.

debi9kids said...

I just sent tuna salad on wheat wraps yesterday that the kids all loved. I just made tuna salad with mayo and diced red onions, then mixed in sliced red seedless grapes and then wrapped that along with sprouts in a honey wheat wrap. I was certain the kids would complain, but instead they all loved it. Go figure!