I Made Peace with the Sandwich

This is my second year of packing Casey’s lunches every school day. I pack him a lunch and two snacks every day but Wednesday, which is the day he gets school lunch for a treat (mac and cheese) and a break for me.

I remember well the first day at his Kindergarten school – the first day of lunch packing. I wanted to start out strong, with a meal that was nutritious, interesting and NOT at sandwich.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with sandwiches. But to my overachieving mama mentality, they are the easy way out. What’s creative about a couple pieces of bread and some meat?

I distinctly remember thinking that if I started him off with said interesting food, he would think nothing of it and simply accept it. He would eat enthusiastically. Lifelong healthy habits would be instilled. I would be regarded as a very creative, smart and resourceful mama.

The first lunch?

Buckwheat noodles with peanut-soy sauce and edamame.
You’d eat that, wouldn’t you?

It came home untouched.

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And so began two years of searching for creative kid-friendly lunches that incorporate a healthy amount of protein with minimal sugar and refined carbs. In my opinion – and to the best of my knowledge – this is a winning combo for a kid to get full and stay focused through long days of learning and playing.

(I promise I do try to send veggies too, but moms have to pick their battles and I choose protein over green stuff.)

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There is a bottomless well of lunch idea resources. Website galore (I dare you to Google “bento lunch ideas” and not spend your evening down that wormhole). Books to purchase (I picked up this one at the grocery one day last year). And books for free (this one for Kindle, or go crazy at your local library).

Lots of great ideas out there, and I have tried lots.

Here’s the problem: The creative lunch comes home uneaten.

… for a variety of reasons:

• “I didn’t have enough time to eat it”
• “It got knocked on the floor before I could eat it.” (Yes. Really.)
• “I didn’t care for that part.”
• Or, a range of face scrunching and head shaking to indicate varying levels of disapproval.

After months of scheming, trickery, bribery, and hunting for specialized food containers (there has got to be a way to get a deviled egg to survive in a six-year-old’s lunch box until 11am, but I have yet to figure it out), I finally came to a conclusion.

My kid will eat sandwiches.

These days, I’m sending a sandwich a couple of times a week.

When I send a sandwich (sometimes it’s salami and mayo but usually PB&J – organic and low sugar, of course), he not only eats the sandwich, he often eats some fruit and/or another semi-healthy side.

Actually, who am I kidding? Bagel chips are not a semi-healthy side (reference comment about refined carbs). But he does eat them.

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Since I loosened my grip on making lunches creative, interesting, and healthy, life got easier. Sandwiches are fast and easy to pack (not a lunchbox classic on accident). And, I find that I can now rotate in some sorta healthy, non-sandwich lunches (leftover stir-fry or chili) and those get eaten (sometimes) too.

These days I am getting crumbs in the lunchbox at the end of the day (instead of a full lunch minus the side of raisins – yes, some days the boy had to subsist on raisins). I don’t have to think so hard about what to pack, and I don’t feel guilty about sending PB&J twice a week.

I’m still working on how to amp up the protein in his lunches and snacks, but that is an evolutionary process.

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For now, I’ve made my peace with the sandwich.

Giving up this battle – this personal crusade of mine – has resulted in a boy who actually eats his lunch.

And as important, I get to feel awesome about giving my kid what he actually likes. My meal packing routine is exponentially more enjoyable.

Making and serving food to our families is a sacred act. It sustains our bodies and comforts our souls. And it is often the simplest foods and the simple act of putting another person’s need ahead of our own that is a simple path to Grace.