Cam’s Lunchbox
Fellow Mama’s always ask me,
“What do you put in Cam’s lunchbox?”
I try to focus my kids’ diet on the same type of foods I eat, maybe a bit more starchy-type carbohydrates than I (ie. I don’t eat much whole grain, sprouted grain breads, but they tend to have some), but for the most part, the kids eat much like I do.
To clarify, I certainly don’t make multiple meals, but I tend to pack a lunch for them, vs. me eating leftovers from dinner the night previous.
They eat healthy, lean organic meats/proteins, fibrous carbs (fruits/veg.), healthy fats.
Here’s a typical day in Camron’s lunch bag:
1. (Organic) Peanut butter ($5.99 a jar) and (local/unsweetened/organic) ($3.49/6 pack or 3.49 for a large glass jar) Applesauce Sandwiches:
No jelly, because it’s just straight-up sugar, but when we do, it’s jelly that I made myself this fall with 101 pounds of organic apples we picked. I serve them on Alvarado Street Essential Flax Seed Bread ($3.89/loaf). Higher protein, lower carb, lower calories.
2. A serving of vegetables or fruit, whether it be an organic apple, orange, or pear, but also servings such as a fruit leather (ind. packaged at .69 cents each), or Annie’s organic fruit snacks ($3.99/5 pack). They are ACTUAL fruit, without sugar added, and without preservatives, artificial dyes, or other junk.
3. A secondary protein source, such as cheese (these individual Cabot cheese snacks are great, and at .50 cents each) and the Stonyfield Farm yogurts shown above are $3.49 for an 8 pack (great deal). They are also low in sugar and cut out the “yucky stuff.” They also cut out fake coloring junk, and use organic beet juice for color. LOVE that!!
4. Lunchbots Duo Stainless Steel lunchbox. Cool product, fits perfectly 1 sandwich (cut in half) on one side, and then snacks on the other side. I’ve cut plastic out of my household completely, so much so that I’ve even purchased BPA free shower curtain liners. You don’t need to go to the extremes I have if you don’t want to, but basically, when it comes down to it, it’s not new information that some plastics can leech chemicals or other byproducts into your containers. I don’t want that going into me, and I surely don’t want it going into my kids. ‘Nuff said.
Now you may look at this and balk because of price. And, that’s your choice to do so. But, to me, a school lunch is something around $3.00 a day, including milk (p.s. I don’t give them cow’s milk, either, aside from cheese or yogurt) so roughly $15.00 week to pay for school lunches.
The above listed things are roughly $25/wk. (considering I don’t use a whole loaf of bread or a whole jar of peanut butter per week). To me, the “extra” ten dollars a week to control what my kids are eating- unprocessed, whole foods that nourish them, and support their brain function in school, to me, is worth it.
(…even when they’re bickering, not wanting to be photographed together, and putting each other in a headlock 
)
Related posts:
- leanKitchen: The Teacher’s Pet!
- Roasted Curried Chickpeas
- Fall Farmer’s Market Carrot Salad
- Halloween-kitchen: Pumpkin Roll
- Earth Day
MikeMoffit
Thank you, Very good advice!
Great ideas, looks really yummy with lots of variety for adult lunch boxes too! I believe this is also still true, Cabot’s is perhaps the only, or a small number, of cheese manufacturers that does NOT use animal derived rennet in their cheese. It’s the more “politically correct” cheese
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