I don’t usually pack school lunch. My children are grown ups now, with children of their own. So the only time I have to even think about this is if one of my grandchildren sleeps over and the next day is school and then, because it is not a task I am familiar with, I have to ask a lot of questions.
When I need advice like this I call on an expert:
My daughter Gillian, mother of three, healthy food person and entrepreneur who developed an app for exactly this: lunch.
Her mealplanning app is called lalalunchbox. She blogs about it at www.lalalunchbox.com. The app, which helps parents and children plan and pack healthy lunches together, empowers kids to select a week’s worth of lunches in advance (and then generates a handy grocery list for parents) has been critically reviewed and has become a best seller. You can check it out here.
And by the way, the app is free for the entire back-to-school season.
I asked Gillian about lunch recently, to do this particular post and my question was timed perfectly because she was just getting her daughter Lila’s camp lunch ready. She and Lila, using the LaLa Lunchbox app, had picked a mozzarella cheese sandwich and grapes.
Beyond involving kids in meal planning, Gillian believes that children are more likely to be excited about what they eat when those meals are visually appealing. One of her favorite tricks is to cut sandwiches into smaller cubes and skewer them on to lollypop sticks (such as Wilton’s) which you can buy at craft stores.
You can see the final result in the first photo. The others give you a step by step on how to make this fast, easy, simple, pretty and tasty sandwich for when you need to pack a lunchbox.
La La Lunchbox Mozzarella Sandwich Kebabs
2 slices whole wheat bread
1 tablespoon olive oil, approximately
several slices (about 1/4-inch thick) fresh mozzarella cheese
several fresh, whole basil leaves
skewer sticks
whole red seedless grapes
Place one piece of bread on cutting board. drizzle the olive oil on top. Place mozzarella slices on top. Layer some basil leaves over the cheese. Place the second slice of bread on top. Cut the sandwich into 9 pieces. Skewer the smaller sandwich pieces on the skewers, alternating with the grapes. Makes one serving