Lunchbox

It is that time of year again when we have to start thinking- school lunches!

 Now I don't know about you but the mornings in our house are not leisurely, we don't have a lot of time to make glamour lunches. I once saw a magazine with 'back to school lunch ideas' in it (before I had kids) and they were making 'sushi sandwiches' flattening out the bread, making a concoction of carrot sticks the size of matches and rolling them with a delicious looking chicken and sour cream mix. I thought YES- that is what I am going to do!

Well reality struck and Max isn't getting anything of the sort. One of the main reasons he doesn't get the chicken and matchstick sushi sango  is the fact that half his lunch use to come home untouched  because he complains "Mum you don't understand..... I hardly have any time to eat!" Twenty minutes is not long enough for him to deconstruct the sandwich, see if it passes the 'do I really want to eat this in front of my friends test' and then eat leaving at least 15-minutes of 'playtime'. 

Having said that I do think that roasting a chook on the weekend then stripping it down for sandwich meat for the coming week is a great idea and one I do. I also like the idea of making a zucchini slice and popping that into his lunch box. It is protein packed with egg, loaded with cheese, grated zucchini and carrot for the 'healthy' angle. I can only get away with doing this every now and again as it isn't very 'cool' to stand out from the crowd at lunch time so I hear. So for us the above Vegemite and cheese sandwich on nutty whole wheat bread is going to have to do- followed by a muesli bar and fresh apricots due to Max's busy lunch schedule. I do however have to make sure I have the meat lasagna and milkshakes waiting for him when he gets home for his 'after school snack'- Max is bitterly disappointed when he arrives home to find a glass of milk and an apple awaiting him instead. I guess having a chef as a mum isn't all that is cracked up to be on a day to day level. The surprise baked cheesecake or scones with jam and cream are very few and far between, I need a few more years of experience, or I just need to open up my own cafe to satisfy the after school starvation!