Yucky Lunch at School

Dear Spatulatta,

My best friend is a HUGH fan of your webshows and I just learned about it. I look forward to seeing this very much.

But the reason I am sending you this is because me and my friends are all 13-year old girls and we have a big problem.

At our school we don't have a well balanced diet. Its all greasy pizza and taco salads. Everything that the school says is healthy, no kid wants to eat because its not delectable.

And it's not just our school it's all the schools in our town. Many of our schools have bad lunch menus. So I want to ask you if you would possibly tell us some fun tips to make lunch fun and
healthy.

Thanks!

adrienne, dorie, and val

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Dear Adrienne, Dorie and Val,

When I read your letter I felt so bad. Greasy pizza day after day for lunch is really depressing.

Bringing your lunch to school is the easiest way to get a healthy, nutritious lunch. You can start by packing a salad or a sandwich on whole wheat bread. Look around our Recipe Box to get some great ideas.

If you want your food to stay cool and you don't have lunch pack with a cooler insert, you can experiment with putting ice in one zipper freezer bag and then putting that bag inside another. That way if the ice melts and the water leaks it, won't get too far. Just don't put the ice directly on top of your lettuce.

If you have a Thermos, you can take soup or stew to school. We like to make soup on Sunday while we're all hanging around the house. Then we freeze small containers for later use. Pop one into the microwave, heat it up and there's lunch. Add an apple, banana or orange.

The great thing about making your own lunch is that you can control how much fat, salt and sugar goes into each meal.

If you young women would want to make sure other kids get a healthy lunch, you might enlist the help of one of your teachers to put a presentation together for your PTA or PTO. Most parents don't ever see the kind of food their children are served in school. It might be an even bigger shock to them to taste it.

Also let your parents know what's going on in your cafeteria. Three families are a good start. If each family can recruit another family you have the beginning of a movement. You could be champions for all the younger kids who hate lunch just as much as you do but don't feel they can speak out about it.

Healthy Schools Campaign and Common Threads are both organizations that are working to help kids eat healthier lunches at schools.

Keep us updated on how your quest for a healthy lunch is going.

Team Spatulatta

Nakima's Moldy Sandwich :)

Hi, my name is Nakima [Na-ke-ma].  I am 12 years old and I love making sandwiches
especially a moldy sandwich.  This sandwich is good for an April Fool's snack.

You will need: 

• 2 tablespoons of peanutbutter
• 1 package mixed food coloring
• 2 slices of bread
• 1 teaspoon of powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon of jelly
  

The tools are:

• 1 dull kitchen knife
• 2 small bowls.

Creating green peanut butter:

• Use the knife to mix peanut butter and 4 drops of blue food coloring in a bowl. Combining these ingredients will turn the mixture green.
• Put aside two thirds of green peanut butter for the sandwich filling.

Making the mold:

• First use the knife to lightly dab green peanut butter patches on top of one slice of the bread.
• Next, sprinkle a little of the powdered sugar on some of the patches and tap it in with your finger. The sugar will take on a gauzy look.
• Combine 2 drops from each color of food coloring in the second bowl. Dab the mixture on or near the green areas to create blotches that look like black mold spores.

Assembling the sandwich:

• Use the other slice of bread, the jelly and the remaining 2/3 of the green peanut butter to make a sandwich.
• Make it a little sloppy so that some goo drips over the sides of the bread.

Pulling the prank:

• Wrap sandwich in plastic.
• Put it n your lunch bag and get ready for some stares during LUNCH TIME or AT HOME.
• LET YOUR PARENTS OR FRIENDS know that it is just a prank so they won't get too worried.

And that is how you make a moldy sandwich.
Bye

Need for Speed: A Mommy's Lunch Manifesto

By Biggie, a work-at-home mom of a three-year-old preschooler in San Francisco, obsessed with cooking and building a faster, better packed lunchowner . You can learn more about Biggie and her passion for bento lunches at lunchinabox.net

I'm a mom who packs lunch. What's important to a mom? Nutrition and speed: I want to feed my family nutritious food, but spending a lot of time on every meal isn't feasible. I strive to achieve balance between the two - losing this battle would either have me waking up hours before everyone else to cook lunch, or reaching for a Lunchable processed lunch.

Spending an hour preparing a weekday lunch is only going to happen in my house if it's a special occasion like a birthday or holiday - I spend my morning getting myself and a preschooler ready to go out. Although ornate lunches shaped like cartoon characters and whimsical shapes are artistic and intriguing, I know my limits. I would burn out if I tried to do that every day. For me it's got to be sustainable over the long run, which is why I make speed bentos.

How did I arrive at this point? I lived in Japan as an expat for nine years and am fluent in Japanese, but didn't pay much attention to the whole lunch-packing ("bento") culture there until my husband was misdiagnosed with a food intolerance that ruled out restaurant meals. Back in San Francisco, I decided to send him to work with delicious lunches that would make him feel like he was eating better than his colleagues who were going out to eat. A trip to the local Japanese-language bookstore turned up bento cookbooks that I started studying, especially the creative packing tips and techniques that could be adapted to our normal diet. My husband has since been "undiagnosed" with the food intolerance, but then I found myself carting around a diaper bag stuffed full of little Tupperware containers for my toddler son ("Bug"), or leaving the playground early to go get lunch. Time to pull out those bento boxes again so we can spend more fun time out and about!

So now I'm learning to think on my feet when I look at the refrigerator in the morning. Where I used to see either uninspiring food or time-consuming meals, I can now see quick lunches taking shape. I have fast lunch items in the freezer and fridge, and speedy prep techniques at my fingertips. Let me tell you about some of the speed techniques I've picked up from reading Japanese packed lunch cookbooks.

Use your leftovers!
Don't hesitate to pack food left over from dinner! Leftovers can be your weapons against boring lunches - maximize payout for the time you already put into dinner by making a little extra food. Granted, eating the same thing again can get boring, so look at your leftovers creatively and find ways to give them a makeover. Potato salad can become potato pancakes or faux Scotch eggs, leftover curry can become the base for a curry noodle dish or the stuffing for dumplings.

Pre-pack lunches when possible
If you find yourself with dinner leftovers, get a head start on the next day's lunch by packing up some of the meal directly into your lunch container (Tupperware, Laptop Lunchbox, bento box, thermos, etc.) when cleaning up the evening meal. This way you have most of the next morning's work done already, and lunch will be ready with only minimal preparation like cutting up some fruit.

Ready-made foods
You don't have to make everything for lunch the same day. Make full use of frozen foods and canned foods to speed things up. Frozen vegetables can go into quick sautes or little frittatas, canned beans can become quick salads. Ready-made deli foods such as hummus or tabbouleh are quick lunch additions. Also, ready-made foods don't have to be store-bought: many dishes can be made in advance, batch frozen in individual portions (spaghetti cups, unsauced pasta, sandwiches, rice balls), and either defrosted naturally or in the microwave. A well-stocked freezer can save the day on time-pressed mornings.

Pre-made sauces give fast flavor
Stock your pantry or refrigerator with a few flavorful sauces that can be added to simple sliced vegetables or sauteed protein/vegetables. These sauces (homemade or store-bought) can be varied to suit your family's dietary preferences; think black bean sauce, barbeque sauce, teriyaki sauce, cooked salsas, curry sauces, noodle dipping sauce, vinaigrettes or Italian dressing, Korean barbeque sauce, etc.

Make full use of the microwave and toaster oven (or broiler)!
Japanese bento cookbooks often tout the time-saving technique of cooking multiple items simultaneously: in the microwave, toaster oven, frying pan, etc. This saves time and energy; the trick is to select foods that will cook well with the same method and to check doneness periodically (don't assume all dishes will be done at the same time).

Time-saving kitchen tools
Lastly, a couple of tools are particularly useful in speeding up lunch prep. A quick slicer (mini mandoline) makes short work of slicing vegetables and is easy to clean. A microwave mini steamer reduces cook time by 50%, quickly cooking vegetables or frozen dumplings.