Okay. It’s August first. Summer’s already half over. Can you believe it? Been to the store lately? Seen the Back-to-School stuff making its way onto the shelves? AAAAaaaahhh!
I’m just not ready for school to start again. First of all, my kids have shifted their waking hours…they go to bed later and wake up later. As in too late for school days. Realizing that it’s August first hits home. It’s time to start the slow shift backwards in bedtime, so that by the time labour day rolls around, we’ll be comfortably back to a reasonable bedtime and coordinating wakeup time.
And it’s time to start thinking school lunches again.
It’s funny, because sometimes I feel like I’ve struck gold with my children’s school lunches. Ham and cheese on brown bread with mayo. It was a real winner! For a week or so. Then the sandwiches started coming home with only one bite gone. And the kids were cranky and peckish at dismissal, barely managing the walk home. No wonder, when they weren’t eating lunch! So we bought a thermos and hot meatballs in sauce had about 10 days of glory. Then it was whole wheat pita with cinnamon spread (really scraping the bottom of the school lunch barrel with that one!)
The point is, kids get bored even of their favourite lunches. And these days, you can’t just whip off a PB&J or Nutella sandwich at 8:15 on the day of. Today’s school lunches require a fair bit of planning and prep. Everyone’s day goes a lot more smoothly when all you have to do is reach into the fridge and load lunch into the backpack on school mornings, and the routine gets thrown right off if you’re rooting around looking for something quick to stuff in the bag while yelling at the tykes to get their coats and boots on.
So this week’s entry is dedicated to preparing (we have a month here, fellow moms!) for back-to-school and to going BEYOND THE SANDWICH in our kids’ school lunches. Ready? Me too! Here goes…
We went out to our Kitchen Party partner, Cuisinart, and our Cuisinart Brand Ambassadors from the first Kitchen Party hosted by urbanmoms.ca, and asked them for their suggestions on how to take school lunches beyond the sandwich. Their ideas are fabulous! Check below for recipes to download and ideas on how to use the incredibly versatile Cuisinart Griddler to make lunchtime easy and fun this September!
Recipes to download:
Download Chicken Quesadilla Recipe
Download Personalized Pizza Recipe
And from Cuisinart Brand Ambassador and urbanmoms.ca member, Sue, comes this great suggestion:
As you know, the Cuisinart Griddler has become indispensable to our family and retains its proud position on our countertop. It’s amazing how leftover meat (that my kids would otherwise not touch) becomes part of a nutritious lunch the next day. Here are some examples of my speedy kid-friendly favourites:
- Diced steak, diced tomatoes, cheddar cheese and French salad dressing on a folded whole wheat tortilla.
- Diced chicken and apples, cheddar cheese and ranch salad dressing in a whole wheat pita pocket.
- Chicken, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, and mozzarella cheese in a whole wheat pita pocket.
- Diced chicken, mayonnaise, and old cheddar cheese in a whole wheat pita pocket. Then I add shredded lettuce after the Griddler has worked its miracle.
For snacks, the kids favourite is still: sliced apple and old cheddar cheese on a folded whole wheat tortilla. For adults, I substitute cambozola cheese for the old cheddar.
These are all easy to eat for kids, they don’t involve a knife and fork (which the kids love), and work for both lunch and dinner. I round out the meal with sliced fruit or veggies. As a parent, I feel good because the kids are getting nutritious food (ie. Not hot dogs), and these are really quick and easy meals to make for our busy lifestyle – even quicker than pasta! I use the Cuisinart Griddler so much at home that I miss it terribly when we’re at our cottage!!
Wow! Talk about getting creative and going well and truly Beyond the Sandwich! I don’t know about you, but I could see my kids digging their teeth into each and every one of these, and I can also see them taking centre stage in some school lunches next month (ack! it really is only one month away!).
But what do you think? Let us know below in comments. Do you have any great ideas for making school lunches interesting, exciting, nutritious and…best of all…simple to prepare? You do? Well, then…dish!