He's in charge of our rare, celebratory treats, birthday cakes and chocolate chip cookies, and our standard weekly treats, pancakes and eggs and cappuccinos, and the routine of our nightly dinners. He even does the bulk of our shopping. He goes to the store after work, loads bags of groceries into his backpack, and brings them home on the train; and, even when I complain, he's good-natured about it.
"Don't go to to the store today," I'll say on the phone. "Come straight home. It'll save you forty-five minutes."
"Yeah, but then what will we have for dinner?"
"We can live on love," I'll tell him.
But the truth is, I'm happy to let Chris feed the family. I don't like to cook, I'm not creative in the kitchen, and before Chris left for deployment I was terrified about feeding the kids without him. I kept imagining meals piling up like mud bricks all around me, windowless and low: breakfast, lunch and dinner, followed by breakfast, lunch and dinner, followed by...
After a few hundred nights on my own though, I think I'm finally getting a handle on our food situation.
The menu changes, of course, but here's a typical day:
- Breakfast: scrambled eggs (with cheese and red bell pepper); toast; clementine sections
- Morning Snack: yogurt with blueberries (for Penny); kiwi slices (for Katherine, who only has time for a quick snack at school)
- Lunch: peanut butter sandwiches; carrot sticks; mango slices
- After-School Snack: apple slices with peanut butter
- Dinner: African Quinoa Soup with Vegetables
She comes home hungry from school, eats, complains, spends the afternoon still hungry, and then sits down to dinner feeling famished. I want her to have a good appetite at dinner, which is why I've resisted the idea of big after-school snacks, but I just don't think she's getting enough to eat at school. I can't send bigger lunches though. She only has twenty minutes to eat (and she's SLOW), so I think I need to give in and make her after-school snacks bigger, which begs the question:
What do you give your kids when they get home from school? Do you meet them with a plate of warm, homemade cookies? Or a platter of fresh-cut vegetables?
Let's do a swap!
Seriously, don't you ever wish you could peek into your kid's classmates' kitchens?
It is a mix. Children need about 2,000 cal a day. You could try deep fried mozzarella sticks, sushi, yogurt, hard boiled egg, protein smoothie, and sometimes we have a cookie or ice cream. Banana bread or blueberry muffins.
ReplyDeleteI am so uncreative with snacks, but here are some my girls like:
ReplyDeleteEmmy likes a sliced banana with cinnamon sprinkled on top. Sounds weird, but it tastes good! Lily likes cheese and crackers, and sometimes I'll melt the cheese on top. They both like it when I make a "snack mix" for them, which means I just throw a bunch of stuff in a bowl--pretzels, goldfish crackers, Cheerios, maybe a few M&M's.
I do not greet them at the door with home-baked cookies! ;)
My husband -also a Chris!- is our cook, and we joke that I could never survive if he weren't around to feed us. But now that I'm home with the kids all day I'm responsible for breakfast, lunch and snacks. I do make eggs pretty regularly, and we have fresh fruit, crackers and cheese, yogurt, and veggies with hummus and peanut butter, as well as sandwiches and whatever we have leftover from previous dinners. It's not as bad as I always feared, now that I'm here in the house all day. I do have to plan our meals in advance to make sure we have the supplies we need. Otherwise we end up eating goldfish crackers every day until we can't even bear to look at them anymore.
ReplyDeleteShe needs a lot of protein. I've been keeping a pot of chili in the refrigerator, so I'll be sure to have an easy lunch or snack that contains plenty of protein. It's also good to have a roasted chicken in the refrigerator. A drumstick would be a good after school snack. Does she like hard-boiled eggs or deviled eggs? That would be good, and of course you could add some carrot sticks, apple slices, etc. to any of these. My best advice is to keep some of this stuff in the refrigerator all the time so it will be easy to grab.
ReplyDeleteMy husband does most of the cooking, meal planning, and shopping in our house, too :) He also packs M's mid-morning snack, which varies from carrot sticks to half a pb&j on wheat to mortadella on a soft roll to a few Pan di Stella cookies. She often complains that it's not enough.
ReplyDeleteLunch is provided by the school, in courses & is healthy & slow...every single day. Yet she is still famished when she returns home at 4:30. I usually offer her fruit, string cheese, pb crackers, yogurt, prosciutto, a cup of dry cheerios ... all very similar to you. If I would allow her, she would continue to eat until dinner time, but when I limit her, she forgets about it. We work in a special after-school stop at our favorite bar/pasticceria once a week, where I let her get more cookies than she should!
Like everything, balance is the key ... but you know that. They are hungry little girls, to be sure! One of the first signs of sickness for her is loss of appetite.
I worry about establishing good habits for her and some days I don't do a great job of that ... but it could be so much worse, too.
D
PS. The protein works for me, too!
One of my friends and blogger Roni blogs pictures of what she sends in her son's lunchbox - you could probably get some great ideas from that!
ReplyDeletehttp://greenlitebites.com/category/misc-posts/school-lunches/
Hi Emily, Like you, I don't want the girls to eat too big of a snack, so it doesn't spoil their dinner. Annabel usually has fruits, or yogurt with fruit. Yesterday, she ate a sliced banana with sprinkled cinnamon and apple slices. My oldest is more difficult, she doesn't love fruit. By the way, I think you're doing a great job with the meals while Chris is away! xo
ReplyDeleteI'm writing these down for when I have kids.
ReplyDeleteWhat about butter free popcorn with nuts and raisins in a trail mix kind of thing or veggies with hummus/ healthy dip?
I agree that for us, protein is the key. We have great luck with hummus (mine will eat it with a spoon if I let her, although it's great on carrot sticks, pretzels, etc), and don't forget edamame. Ava loves it, and it's so rich in protein, fiber and vitamins. Honestly, I don't mind when she eats so much edamame that it ruins her appetite for dinner (which doesn't happen often, but I don't sweat it when it does). We can even get single serving microwave steam packs of it (surely there's something similar available in Japan).
ReplyDeleteYou know, I didn't realize it until I wrote this but you guys are absolutely right about the protein. She might not be getting enough. Today I made eggs for breakfast and sent chili and carrot sticks with her for lunch. I don't know what we'll do for her snack this afternoon (part of the problem is that she's always SO hopeful that I've baked something), but maybe having more protein for lunch will help keep her feeling full longer. I'm heading to the store this afternoon, too, to pick up ingredients for some of the great snack ideas you've given me. Thanks, you guys! You're perfect! (And you guys have lucky children!)
ReplyDeleteOh, and Brooke: I was thinking about you when I wrote this post. Do you remember years ago when we were talking about what kind of moms we wanted to be when we were older? We decided we'd either be the kind who bakes cookies after school or the kind who sets out plates of fresh-cut vegetables. I like that you came out on the side of hummus and steamed edamame. :)
I do remember that! And I see you came out on the same side (apple slices and peanut butter)!
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, if she's hopeful for baked goods but your still shooting for more protein, what about muffins? You can make cornbread muffins and throw in, for example, taco meat and shredded cheese, or sliced sausage and diced olives. It works with nearly any combo, but it's yummy, easy, and protein-y.
Mia's been REALLY hungry lately, and I can see why: she comes home with half of a leftover sandwich, all of her fruit and yogurt still in her lunch bag. The girl either eats terribly slowly, or lunch time is too short. I vote both :)
ReplyDeleteWhen she gets home, we kind of snack for a few hours. I try to cut them off an hour or so before dinner, but grazing is completely normal for us. Popcorn, crackers, fruit, peanut butter, cheese sticks, hard boiled eggs...pretty normal fare. And yes -- I sometimes have baked things to entice them with. Banana bread is the most common, but cookies do appear from time to time. And though they're not healthy, they DO pack some fats into our otherwise low-cal snack options, which at least keeps them full for a little bit longer.
Well, I'm glad at least *some* kids are being met with homemade cookies. I have every intention of surprising Katherine with them one day soon (and banana bread! that's brilliant!), just as soon as I can get organized for baking. Cookies-and-milk after school is too much of an American classic to forgo it completely!
ReplyDeleteThe protein at lunch did seem to help yesterday. She wasn't *starving* when she came home, so we had bananas and persimmons sprinkled with cinnamon. It wasn't protein-heavy, but it *was* delicious!
Banana slices with peanut butter, chopped up apples, veggies and ranch dressing, cheese sticks...nothing all that inspiring or exciting around here to share. My biggest rut is daily lunch. I feel bad about pretty much sending the same thing everyday for lunch but my kids never complain (turkey sandwiches, applesauce, pretzels,etc).
ReplyDeleteBut what I really want is your African soup recipe...please share. I am always on the hunt for good soup recipes, especially now that rainy season has started up in Sicily.
I always wished I could peek into my son's classmates' kitchens! Luckily, my Mom lived with me and was always very creative about healthy snacks. :-)
ReplyDelete