school lunch

I am supposed to like food. But school lunches, having to prepare them at the end of an already busy day just makes me cringe. Ahhh how I dread them.

I have two school age children, and in kinder they ate salad, sandwiches, wraps, anything. Once they begin school though they have found this aversion to sandwiches. Sandwiches are easy, they're a meal, an all in one. Instead now I have to be a nutritionalist: I have to have it be balanced, contain protein and calcium all without a sandwich. This is hard. There are alternatives to bread, but some crackers go soggy. Sadly, I know which ones do and which ones don't.

And I need to be able to do it the night before.

I don't know why we don't have school dinners, well good school dinners anyway. Aaron says when he was a kid in school back in Missouri it cost 95c a day for lunches. I am sure they were not great but it meant his mum didn't have to worry. 

My mum would have been making 6 lunches a night whilst trying to watch Don Lane. My eldest sisters would have gotten leftovers - sautéed peppers in white soft bread, or schnitzel home made in a lovely fresh roll my father baked that night. He'd bring home warm bread at night from the bakery he worked at. I think mum got a little less enthused by the time my brother and I went to school, Dad would get us some Fonzies and a banana.

The weekend lunches go something like home made pizzas, or a really quick stir fry, and rice features nearly always. My kids prepared this list for Aaron while I was out having a coffee, he is a little more laid back about when lunch would occur, it could be 11 it could be 3. There is variation and flexibility, or possibly starvation.

I was a childcare cook before I had children and I made lovely nutritious food. The parents would want to buy the leftovers of if there had been any.  So I love school holidays, lunch can be cooked, they love cooked lunch. 

But now I'm even avoiding writing about school lunches, because I hate them. I do whatever I can to make it easier how to  do a rubbish free lunch, both in the "packaged" sense and the "bad for them" sense, it isn't easy ticking all these boxes. I pop my own popcorn I love it they love it, I avoid the packaging  excessive salt or sugar it's a win win.

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Ines' real-food microwave popcorn
small handful of popcorn
Brown paper bag 
salt or sugar is opptional

Simply place the handful into the brown bag , fold top down allowing room for expansion 
lay bag folded side down and microwave for 2 minutes or till they don't pop for 5 seconds. 
Melted butter can be added at this step, only  if you are going to keep it in tupperware to send to school.

keeps really well in an airtight container.