a peek inside the fishbowl

I was at the grocery store with one of the girls last night and she told me that she’s the only person in her class who doesn’t get a pre-packaged granola bar in her lunch. (That is, her and the guy who has gluten issues.)

She also told me about a conversation she had with a classmate. She told her that we don’t buy individually-wrapped lunch items… no yogurts, or pudding or fruit cups. No little bags of crackers or chips or lunchables. The lack of storebought granola bars got the biggest reaction.

“She was suprised, but then I told her that you bake your own granola bars,” said my daughter.
“But I haven’t made those for ages…”
“I know,” she said with a shrug.

Mental note.

I’ve written about litterless lunches before. The goal here is zero garbage. Each of the girls’ schools has a litterless lunch policy. From a parental perspective, it might sound daunting but it’s not impossible. Foods from big packages can be transferred to small containers, like yogurt. It means ditching the Zip-loc baggies and organizing your containers, that’s about it. But the really great benefit here is that the girls don’t wind up eating very much processed food.

This was the lunch I packed for the girls earlier this week.

It might look kinda boring to you, but this is a very typical school lunch for us. The girls aren’t into pasta salads or cold chicken or anything of that sort. It has to be sandwich, fruit, veg, milk. 

We don’t often pack dessert in their lunches. Dessert isn’t a required part of any meal, and if I pack something sweet we run the risk of them kids not eating the healthy parts of their lunch. And just so you don’t think I’m a total hardass, they do sometimes get a cookie or leftover slice of cake if we have celebratory leftovers. :)

Note the presence of the knife. I had to laugh out loud during that Food Revolution episode in which Jamie Oliver unexpectedly found himself debating the merits of cutlery with the lunch ladies. And then they were left scrounging around for knives. Oh my.

FYI, this knife is for spreading the cream cheese on the bagel. :)

The girls both have two “nutrition breaks” during the day (no big long lunch in the middle of the day anymore) and it’s up to them how they divvy up their meal. It almost always comes home eaten. Orange and banana peels and apple cores come home to be composted.

I would have liked for the bagel (above) to be of the whole-grain variety, but I don’t actually like them very much (that is, from the place we get them from… otherwise we eat whole-grain breads all the time). I don’t give them juice for lunch, ever. Juice is reserved for breakfast only.

Healthy “extras” I have packed lately have included things like cheese curds, sliced cheddar, a small container of multigrain Cheerios etc.

Anyway, that’s a peek inside our lunchbags!

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This post is part of Scattered Mom’s Food Revolution Friday Lunch Challenge! Check it out and play along!

You poor readers never know what you’re going to get when you come here. Is it going to be a recipe? A rant? A photo? Neighbourhood events? News you can use? A craft? I’m sorry for my overall lack of focus… but I’m also not sorry at all. What you see here is exactly what is going on in my head. :)

No rants today! It’s giveaway day. I fully intended to post this yesterday but I was flying all around town and had no energy left to tap this all out.

First, please allow me to direct your attention to our host. Let’s raise our coffee cups to the kind folks at 3 Little Monkeys. They are a local Ottawa children’s store in Old Ottawa South. I haven’t been to the store yet (although I know that some of you have!) but I love them already.

Before I continue, allow me briefly interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for a wee sidebar:

Support your local independent toy stores! They are staffed by thoughtful and knowledgeable people who love what they’re doing. Like many indie stories they are taking a huge risk by going up against the big-box toy stores, the WalMarts and the Costcos of this world. But that’s how much they believe in their products; toys which have been lovingly selected for their design and high quality. These people know their toys, and love their love toys, and they love kids.

End of sidebar. :)

As per my previous post, 3 Little Monkeys sent us a huge box of lovely things for our family to enjoy. I’m going to post pics of a few favourites and then I will outline the details the giveaway. (Note: the following items are not part of the giveaway. I’m showing them here to give you an idea of the kind of treasures you can find at 3 Little Monkeys.)

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