Moms Talk: Back to School Lunch Box

As schools around Santa Cruz County launch into the new teaching year, parents fumble to recall the routines of last year and possibly start some new, more efficient ones.

Working parents have their plates full between long work days, commutes, children’s after school activities, homework projects and the endless array of duties that go along with the job of parenting.

Keeping kids fed—let alone fed well—can feel like an unmanageable conundrum. Here are some tips for making lunch and breakfast a little easier and more interesting during the hectic first weeks of school and work.

Cereal day-after-day gets boring, even with a whole isle to choose from, so break out of the quick fix breakfast mold with some of these easy and quick options:

• Whole wheat bagels with butter, jam or cream cheese are good for their fiber-value and ease.
• Muffins. There are varying degrees of nutritional value involved in the muffin. While they all hold the same shape, some are packed with nutritional benefit, while others are mostly just sugar, butter and flour. So sneak in some bran, whole grains and fruit to get your kids off to a healthier start. We like Trader Joe’s Vegan Raspberry and Blueberry Bran Muffins.
• Fruit. I usually feed my son at least one fruit for breakfast because I know he is more likely to eat it at home than if I send it to school with him. Pears, grapes, stone fruit and berries are his favorites.

For lunches, we have implemented a parent-friendly do-it-yourself lunch system at our house. My son is in the fifth grade this year, but he started making his lunch last year. Kids like being in charge of some of the decisions in their day, so why not have them make their own lunch?

Here are some ways we make this work at our house:

• We stock a drawer full of snacks at kid level. It’s filled with favorite granola bars, fruit leather, single serving applesauce, crackers packed into individual serving containers, nuts, seaweed snacks and pretzels.
• For a “main food,” at the beginning of each week or on Sunday, we do one or more of the following:
  • Bake homemade pizza—with Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough, pesto and grated Quatro Fromagio, the job is easy and delicious. This makes a great dinner, and we cut the leftovers for lunch servings.
  • Flatbread and hummus make an easy, healthy sandwich alternative.
  • Garlic bread with cheese on top is another easy pizza alternative, and we usually have the ingredients to make it the night before on hand, so even if the grocery run doesn’t happen, we have something for lunch.
  • Sandwiches are also great lunch foods because of how easy they are for kids to make. Get creative and come up with new combinations. Chicken salad, egg and cheese on a bagel and falafel in a pita are good alternatives when kids grow tired of eating peanut butter and jelly every day.

, located at 1415 Main St. in Watsonville, is a great place to stock up on items to fill the lunch snack drawer.