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Tips For Packing School Lunches

The secret to packing school lunches your children will eat

By Maayan Jaffe

The alarm clock buzzes and it’s seven a.m. Time to wake your children up for school.

But school means packing lunches, one of the trickiest meals of the day. At some schools foods must be peanut and tree nut free. At Jewish schools, there’s often the added restriction that lunch has to be dairy. Moreover, as many kids today turn their noses up to cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, parents are forced to search for more creative options — for items that are easy to pack, but also simple to prepare.

Devorah Drebin of Pikesville, mother of two-and-a-half-year-old Tova, says she receives a nearly three-page document from the Jewish Community Center preschool, detailing the items she can and cannot send with her daughter for lunch. Tova is a picky eater in her own right, she says, but it is very important to her that her daughter eat healthy food. Thus, Drebin gets imaginative.

“She loves Morning Star chicken nuggets. To make sure they stay relatively crispy, I throw them in the toaster while I’m getting ready and by the time Tova eats them, they’re not gross. She also loves pita. It was the most exciting thing for her the day I sent a large pita and a small container of hummus,” Drebin says.

Because Drebin knows her daughter is likely to pick at this and that, she packs more than one entrée and a variety of vegetables and fruits. This way, if Tova opts only to eat the side dishes, she’ll still be getting a powerful dose of vitamins and minerals.

One of Drebin’s favorite recipes is what she calls “carrot cupcakes,” essentially a carrot kugel baked in a muffin tin. Sometimes Drebin throws in zucchini or bananas instead.

“I tell her they’re cake, and they’re really sweet. Of course they are made with eggs and oil, but these raw ingredients aren’t bad for you. It’s the additives, preservatives and things like that,” she says. “I don’t ever send her with junk food from the store.”

Leah Berry says her 4-year-old daughter, Dassi, a student at Yeshivat Rambam, is a carbohydrate fanatic. She balks at most fruits and vegetables.

To feed Dassi something delicious and nutritious, Berry opts for spirulina pasta, combined with a local retailer’s marinara sauce. She also sends spinach patties.

Melanie Waxman of Reisterstown and Jennifer Osterweil of Owings Mills both send their children to public school. They have no restrictions put on them by the institutions, and Waxman says her sons, ages five and eight, are not so picky. Nonetheless, they are always looking for new ways to mix things up.

Waxman does it with spices. She uses cinnamon peanut butter. Instead of tuna with plain mayonnaise, she adds a little brown sugar and tarragon. She also goes for already-prepared fruits and vegetables with dips, which can be found in the refrigerated section of the fruit and vegetable aisles at the supermarket.

Osterweil, meanwhile, “shapes” things up with cookie cutters — hearts and stars for her 8-year-old daughter, Jordan — or she makes her unique “sandwich sushi.”

“I take a piece of bread,” Osterweil explains. “I spread on sunflower butter and jelly. Then I roll it and cut it like you would sushi.”

All of these families are trying to promote healthy lifestyles among their children. Although there is some peer pressure to send potato chips and sugary desserts, they often look for alternatives. Berry, for example, packs Baked Lays instead of full-fat potato chips and chooses low-fat and low-sodium pretzels when her daughter whines about the cucumbers.

“Lunch is one thing you can control, especially in elementary school when they can’t share, trade or buy their food. They eat what I pack them,” Osterweil says. “I always make sure they have a fruit, a vegetable and a protein.”

Of course, these moms also agreed there is wiggle room.

“It’s really hard to be a working mother. There are times when lunches will be stellar and times when lunches will be less wonderful,” says Drebin.

“It’s better to be a happy parent and it’s not worth worrying about the one time you sent your kid with Dunkaroos.”

Melanie Waxman’s Spicy Tuna Salad

1 can solid white tuna, drained
mayonnaise to taste
1-1/2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp dried tarragon

Mix ingredients together and serve.

Devorah’s Carrot “Cupcakes”
(Adapted from a recipe in “Kosher Palette”)

Four large carrots, steamed and mashed with a fork
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup oil or applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix all ingredients together.

2. Fill cupcake tins and bake at 350-degrees for 30 minutes.