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Strollerderby
Do You Put Veggies in Your Kids’ Lunch?
Spinach Salad, Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Bun?
Once in a while–usually when there’s no fruit in the house–I’ll include some sliced carrots, pepper or cucumber and ranch dressing (or, again for the weird child, ketchup). And that’s it. I have never added a slice of lettuce or tomato to a sandwich, never included a container of salad, never even considered basing a sandwich around the veggies themselves–and now I feel like it’s too late. They don’t think a sandwich includes those things. They believe a sandwich consists of meat, bread and mayo. They like ‘em minimal, tidy and with the crusts cut off–and after years of getting them back with the cheese peeled off, or with a single bite taken out of the crust free middle, I have conceded. They eat vegetables, and even salad, at dinner, but at lunch, especially knowing that when they’re done they get to go outside and play, I just can’t see them forking in the zucchini squash or squishing together an unmanageable-looking sandwich to take a bite. Nor can I see myself now, this late in the year, changing the lunch-packing system to amp up the green quotient. Am I really going to slice up an apple and a tomato?
Next fall, I will improve. With all of the impetus of a fresh new school year before us, maybe we will add “a veggie” to the current list of lunch-box musts (protein, fruit, snack, drink). It just sounds so complicated. My mom made five identical sandwiches at the beginning of the week, froze them and then stuck one in every day along with my pre-packaged bag of chips, my Coke and and my Twinkie. I’m pretty sure packing that lunch today would mean we’d have to switch schools.
Image Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
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0 Comments
Maureen commented on May 17 10 at 3:10 pmI put carrots and fruit into my kids’ lunches. Carrots are really the only veggie they will eat raw or cold. We do veggies like broccoli or green beans at dinner. I’m fine with that. My kids do not like salad or veggies on their sandwiches and neither did I when I was their age, so I don’t push it.
Nancy commented on May 17 10 at 10:04 pmIt’s a fine balance. Morning’s lettuce is midday’s compost.
MomofBeans commented on May 18 10 at 7:12 amMy daughter (almost three) will not eat vegetables or salad either. I keep offering a selection at each meal, and sometimes she will give it a shot, but most of the time she turns up her nose. She will, however, eat veggies if they are hiddne and mixed together with meat somehow. She seems to have the eating preferences of a T-Rex.
jenny tries too hard commented on May 18 10 at 11:06 amMy kids will eat carrots or celery in their lunchbox. Any other veggies really do get slimy by noon. I have to say, I love vegetables but not in sandwiches–except once in a while baby spinach. So I get it. The only real fallout is that we don’t have carrots–in any form–at dinner because everyone’s already eaten them at lunch.
LogicalMama commented on May 18 10 at 8:33 pmMy son has been loving wraps these days…. fresh turkey, avocado, cucumber and red/yellow/orange pepper! He loves the little cherry or pear tomatoes in a container, broccoli with Braags Amino Acids on the side. I feel very lucky to have such a great eater! He’s been known to eat broccoli and mushroom sandwiches, salmon, lentils and rice with vegies! He loves Trader Joe’s Apple/Carrot Mashers…
Me, I was bologna with mayo on white bread– only!!!!! I don’t know how I got such a fantastic eater!!!
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