What's For Lunch?

Did you see the article about Pink Slime?  Here, let me link it for you.
Gross?  Did you want to eat some of that?  

Did you eat cafeteria food when you were in school or were you lucky enough to bring a healthy lunch from home?  Did you know that parents have to jump through hoops to send a qualified lunch to school or daycare?  There are rules.  Crazy rules.  Rules that I had to laminate and refer to often in order to make sure I'm not missing anything. 

Did you know that parents could take the easy route and just order school lunch for their children?  I've done it for many years.  It's easy.  The kids enjoy it because its junk food.  And, I didn't have to make sure that I met the correct measurements on a daily basis. 

Well, maybe I'm older and wiser now.  Or, maybe I'm just sick of cringing every morning when I read the lunch menu for the day to my 4 year old son.  Today on the menu was a chicken patty on a whole grain bun with sun chips.  Wow, really?  And how does that meet all of the requirements?  I am not seeing it? 

Check out this blog: http://fedupwithlunch.com/  I came across it by searching school lunches on pinterest.  This motivated mama and teacher took packing lunches to a whole new level and actually created a blog about it and wrote a book.  I think I'll be adding her blog to my reading list. 

While browsing the web I also came across this link at Kitchen Stewardship.  She has a list on her blog with some great school lunch ideas.  This motivated me to create my own list for my family.  There were a lot of things that included Peanut Butter on her list.  I couldn't include those items for my kids lunches because daycare has a very strong rule against no peanut products due to allergies, but I kept them on my list for myself and my daughter.  Maybe we can start sending peanut butter with the boys when they start school.  We all love peanut butter. 

Do you pack your kids lunches?  What do you pack for them?  What do you pack for yourself?