Sunday, September 14, 2008

Who Knew That School Lunch Could Be So Good?!

Every day I ask Ella to tell me about two great things that happened at school. She pretty much says the same two things: lunch and milk break. The apple does not fall far from the tree when it comes to my girl's love of food. In particular, Ella is fascinated by school lunch. She wants to eat it every day. I usually pack her lunch because I find that school lunch is pretty expensive ($2.50/day) and it is not nearly as nutritious as what I fix. What they do have, however, is variety. There are two main course offerings, starches, vegetables, fruit, etc. In addition, they offer an assortment of lunch meat sandwiches. While we are not vegetarians, we eat virtually all organic and have almost nothing in the house that has high fructose corn syrup in it. While we pay a small fortune in groceries every week, we don't eat out in restaurants and only eat fast food when we travel (or the girls visit their grandmother.)

Ella's typical lunch packed by me is either a cheese sandwich, a hummus sandwich or PB&J. She also gets baby carrots, a piece of fruit and a crunchy thing like pretzels or something sweeter. Unfortunately, Ella is, according to her, the ONLY kid in her class who brings her lunch. She wants to buy her lunch like everyone else because she is tired of cheese sandwiches and PB&J. As a compromise, I have been allowing her to buy her lunch one day a week, on a day she chooses. Last week, she chose Friday's lunch choice of cheeseburger on a whole wheat roll. She was practically bouncing off the walls Friday morning because she was so excited to be eating like everyone else. She also felt compelled to run down the street and tell our neighbors that she was getting to eat school lunch. The neighbors are getting used to her happy but odd outbursts and find them cute. I am sure they will no longer think they are so cute when she is 10.

When I picked Ella up from school on Friday afternoon, I asked her how her lunch was today. She said that lunch was "awesome." When I told her that I was glad she liked her cheeseburger, she said,

"Welllllllllllllllllllllllll, I ended up not having the cheeseburger. I gotted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and itwassoyummybecausewedon'thavewhitebreadathomeandthis
hadwhitebreadandIreallylikewhitebreadandithadpurplejelly."

White bread. You are the devil.

6 comments:

Arwen said...

Too funny. Noodle won't eat the school lunch, not matter what. She too, is one of the only kids who brings her lunch and she wouldn't change it for the world. We eat the cold cuts you can get at Whole Foods. We also eat Peter Pan PB. I don't think she has ever had the purple jelly but I am sure she would love it.

Rhea said...

My boys want packed lunches daily and won't touch the cafeteria food. Weird, huh?!

White bread is the devil. hehe

Anonymous said...

We think your daughter sounds adorable!

Anonymous said...

I so totally GET Ella. I loves me some white bread, too. Nothing better than fresh, white bread.

I think you qualify as NOT being the world's worst mother for this: you not only usually provide her with a healthy, organic lunch, but you also allow her a little bit of fun by having school lunch once per week. That's pretty awesome if you ask me! :)

Anonymous said...

That is just so funny!! I work at a school and I know what excitement a school lunch can bring. I also know how crummy those school lunches are, too. Nutrition? Ha! (at least at my school)

BTW, our school lunches went up to $4 for elementary kids this year! Rip off!

kimmyk said...

what kind of bread does she usually eat her cheese sammich or pbandj on? wheat?

lol.

she's so cute. be thankful though, my kids spend 5 bucks a day on school lunches. insane.