Thursday, January 29, 2015

This is a post about school lunches

Mandy was interested in this post and I didn't need my arm twisted much beyond that :)

Some background first... at the pre-school
  1. They had their breakfasts at 8 am.
  2. They had a snack mid-morning (bread with peanut butter or jam)
  3. They came home for lunch
these breakfasts were the best food at a blog workshop I attended in November

So I'm thinking they'll now have breakfast here at 7.15 latest, and I'll then send the snack to school.

Well, turns out it wasn't enough.  Connor came home with half of someone else’s sandwich the other day – a boy shared with him but he says he didn’t like the way that tuna was done (I do mine with onions, tomato and mayo).

When we had the parents' evening, the teacher told all of us to please send lots of food, enough for two breaks, because all the kids seem to be starving.

I've started putting the food in two lunchboxes so that it's clear - first break and second break.

(Kendra just told me, "Mummy, Y's doctor told her she has to eat jelly and ice-cream so she can get better. Lucky, hey?!") 

from the same blogger function


They eat breakfast here daily - the usual suspects - Weetbix, Pronutro, muesli - and they've also had a muffin when there wasn't much time. My muffins are healthy - oats, yoghurt, banana and raisins - so I'm happy for them to have those as breakfast.

Currently, we send them with...
  1. bread/ rolls/ pita bread (I bought some but I need to start making them!) with ham, cheese, peanut butter.
  2. a fruit (Kendra told me she wants an easy fruit to eat, i.e. not an apple) - peach, plum, grapes, pineapple, etc.
  3. a snack (peanuts and raisins/ dried fruit roll/ mini muffins (I had some left from the workshop on Saturday)
  4. water
and still more from the blogger function

The school doesn't allow unhealthy lunches which is just fine with me! If the kids are found with sweets/ chocolates, fizzy cooldrinks, etc, these are confiscated and sent home on Fridays.

my take on that delicious breakfast

When the nanny goes to fetch them, she takes an apple with her for them to eat on the way back home.

If any lunch was left, they start with that and then get their normal lunch at home.
  • A sandwich with egg, cottage cheese, peanut butter, ham, tuna or cheese plus
  • A veg - tomatoes, cucumber, carrots


Their snack later is a fruit and yoghurt, or in cold weather, tea and two biscuits/ a muffin/ hot cross bun, etc.
we have a pic like this taken in Scotland looking out at the William Wallace (?) monument - lost on me of course, history not being my thing.

So what are you sending to school for lunches?
Do your kids eat your lovingly-packed lunch?

9 comments:

  1. Unless my kids come home for lunch (French schools have 2 hour lunch break!), they eat at school. But boy, we'd all gladly eat what you've prepared! Wow!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gosh, I have an ongoing battle with the boys to eat the tiny bit that I do pack for them! But if they do not eat it there is no tuck shop money on tuck shop day. I do a lot the same than you do - sandwich(made from one slice) or crackers, yogurt or snack (nuts, cheese strings, biltong/droe wors or dried fruit) and a fruit. Sometimes I add a mini energy bar if they have a long day or activities after school. A is very good to eat everything and sometimes I add a little something for her. We are also not allowed any junk up to grade 4 when it is on our own conscience and does not get checked anymore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh and I have an account at the tuck shop where they can only buy food on if they are hungry after they have finished their lunch and for A that stays alone at school on Friday for science club (with some other friends). Our tuckshop has a wonderful array of healthy food - nice muffins, the usual sandwiches and tramezzini, mac and cheese, spag ballognaise and a lovely biltong and feta or chicken and feta salad.

      Delete
  3. They both get dry wors, a packet of chips, Cam takes a muffin and Kiara bread with nutella. Cameron will eat a sandwich when he gets home.
    It has taken us 7 years to find a lunch they eat and Kiara is still touch and go most days!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The ladies are in school all day, but only get lunch and snack. They come home starving daily. :/
    They eat breakfast before we leave, the normal bit, and then are sent with :
    Lunch- full sandwich, two fruits ( usually berries and apple/orange), something crunch (crackers, pretzel), a yogurt cup with granola.
    Snack - two small snacks as they have to be quick and mess free, so usually more crackers and mini muffins.
    They come home 1.5 hours after their snack and are starving?! If I feed them an additional snack there are dinner issues, but without the snack it's cranky central. They didn't eat this much before school, and they're not very active there, so I'm not sure what is making them so hungry!

    Is this about what they ate before? Overall throughout the day? Our snacks are suppose to be healthy but having been in the classroom it know this is neither enforced or acknowledged. Sadly some of the children don't come with snacks so the teacher is providing. :/

    So what I tuck shop? Why are kids buying snacks at school??

    ReplyDelete
  5. I send a fruit, a sandwich, and something nice, and a huge bottle of juice. Most days Nicola eats everything. She's lost two lunch boxes and two water bottles to date! We found all again thankfully. On Mondays her class gets to visit the tuckshop but we've been told don't send more than R20. She usually comes back with a sweet that she bought for me. Isn't that sweet?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well Kade has breakfast at home - usually cereal and yoghurt or a slice of peanut butter/cheese toast, then we pack a snack box for him and juice/water. Snack box usually has a peanut/raisin bar or a fruit bar or some mini cheddars and a fruit in it. The school gives a cooked lunch and sarmies in the after care for the late pm snack.

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow. We eat breakfast at home - sometimes cereal, sometimes porridge, sometimes eggs. David makes the kids' sandwiches - the older 3 each get 2 sandwiches with peanut butter or jam or sometimes some deli meat or cheese. Now that they are all doing extramurals, I bring them each a big bottle of cold water or Oros or juice when school finishes, and maybe a yoghurt or a piece of fruit. They eat noodles or sandwiches when they get home from school or, if I have time, I make smoothies or paleo pancakes. The littlest one gets a sandwich for snack time but is given a cooked lunch at aftercare every day, as well as juice and a piece of fruit, etc.
    I have been wanting to change the older kids' school lunches for ages but sandwiches were what we could afford. Things are going better now and I'm slowly becoming more organised, so it's becoming easier to offer a bit more variety. I'm seriously considering buying one of those monthly pre-packed lunch boxes, just for the sheer convenience. They have great stuff in them, too - dried fruit, nuts, biltong, etc. Then I'll split it up so that they don't necessarily have those every day but we can alternate - sandwiches for a couple of days and one of the pre-packaged lunches each every third day or so. They get tuck shop money on Fridays...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, and I forgot to add - William Wallace: The guy on whom the movie "Braveheart", starring Mel Gibson, is based.

    ReplyDelete

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