School lunches

Fortunately, I have a daughter who likes to try new foods and enjoys a wide variety of things. Unfortunately, she also demands more than the usual PB&J in her lunch box. She gave me the thumbs up for her first week of school lunches. She has tended to prefer the ones she had more of a hand in. Mostly I've been figuring out ways to send dinner leftovers (sometimes difficult, since she has no way to heat them up), so don't think that I cook like this for lunch everyday!

Tuesday: Cold burrito (filled with spice-rubbed grilled chicken, black beans, cheese, cilantro, canned green chiles, and a dash of lime-cilantro vinagrette), fresh pea shoots (from TJ's, yum), mini bell peppers, and a quarter of an avocado. A kiwi, cut in half, with a spoon. Some iced mint herbal tea. I can't remember what I sent for snack. I think a granola bar. Madeleine cookies (Costco). She left a couple bites of avocado and supplemented her lunch with some mashed potatoes from the cafeteria.

Wednesday: I thought she had chosen to have the school lunch, but I knew she was staying for cross country and wanted her to have a snack after school as well as during snack time, so I sent a lot. Too much, apparently, since she thought I was sending a full lunch and only supplemented it with some sweet potato wedges from the cafeteria. She was ravenous at dinner that night. Mixed fresh veggies (baby carrots, mini bell-peppers, and sugar snap peas) with peanut dipping sauce (I usually put it on pasta) and fresh cantaloupe. Also a little bit of trail mix: almonds, dried cranberries, M&Ms, walnuts, sunflower seeds. She didn't eat the walnuts and sunflower seeds.

Thursday: Leftover grilled chicken and black bean salsa salad: This one had the spice-rubbed chicken, lettuce, black beans, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, avocados, lime-cilantro dressing. Tortilla chips. Cut up fruit: papaya, cantaloupe, and kiwi. Grapes, dill havarti, and multigrain crackers for snack. Madeleine cookies.

Friday: I mixed up the rest of the asian peanut sauce with some plain pasta I set aside from dinner last night. Added some chopped snap peas, mini bell peppers and carrots. Cantaloupe and grapes. A croissant with nutella for snack, and a banana for after school cross country snack.

Ok, so I'm realizing two things as I write this: I already know I think about food way too much, but especially so when I'm watching my calorie intake. I'm thinking this week I've been feeding her extra because I'm eating less. It probably has something to do with wanting her to get off to a good start, too. And second, there's no way I'm going to keep this up for a whole year. It's back to bagels and sandwiches pretty soon.