I can’t say I envy my mother for her responsibility in packing a school lunch for me. With a six-year old palate that rejected most foods except pasta and bread, the task of filling a lunch box was quite the tremendous one. While some of my classmates’ parents clearly gave up, sending them off with packets of cookies, chips, and fruit snacks, my mother never introduced those items to our pantry. [As a result, I never developed any taste for potato chips, boxed cookies, or soda, for which I am very thankful].
For the first couple school years, inbetween lessons that taught me to read, to add seven plus nine, and to spell the months of the year, my mom managed to convince me to stomach a basic peanut butter sandwich. I didn’t particularly enjoy it, but then again, I didn’t enjoy much food at all in those days.
an update: natural peanut butter on sprouted grain bread
I did, however, enjoy chocolate, and I always found a tiny treat wrapped up for me, most often in the form of a homemade, miniature brownie. While memorizing the fifty states and their capitals in fourth grade, that brownie is the very reason I met my oldest friend.
an update: bitter dark chocolate
As the trying years of middle school crept on, I traded my purple lunch box for the far trendier brown paper bag. Nowadays, ironically, it seems the high level of green-consciousness would make it more “in” to bring a reusable tote than a crinkled, environmentally unfriendly sack. But packaging aside, in the midst of middle school awkwardness, I discovered the 75 cent bagels sold in my school’s cafeteria. They rivaled any classic New York bagel – crunchy and toasted just enough on the outside; soft, doughy, and steamy when ripped apart. Every now and then, I’d swap out my packed lunch for a bagel and butter.
an update: hemp bagel with coconut oil
By senior year of high school, I brown-bagged it about half the time. The other days, I’m embarrassed to say (sorry, Mom) that I purchased a small cup of french fries from the school cafeteria. How I sustained myself on toast for breakfast, fries for lunch, and two hours of ballet in the evening is beyond me; nevertheless, I’d say the french fried lunch was a low point on the quality scale.
an update: butternut squash fries, oven-baked with evoo
I can’t fault my mother for lack of trying – I was simply fussy and undeniably obstinate through all my schooled years. Thankfully, healthy habits eventually clicked, and my lunches these days look a lot nicer.
Mom would be proud.
What was in your school lunch?
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I LOVE THEO CHOCOLATE!!! The 84% chocolate (pictured) is one of my favorite of their line :)
My school lunch was always homemade, wholesome goodies made by Mom.
peanut butter & jelly, every day forever. well, no, not really, but most of the time. i wasn’t a big meat eater so when i did choose to eat school lunches, i shunned the main course for the side dishes. in retrospect, i can’t believe i ate the rectangular pizza that i now remember tasting like cardboard, but i did. but any time mom packed a lunch, it was pb&j, or sometimes a turkey&cheese sandwich. i would feed the turkey to the birds if we got to eat lunch outside, and eat cheese and bread.
i like your upgrades. especially the hemp bagel. those things are amazing!
this post is something i can relate to! luckily, like you, i have upgraded to much better whole foods with the occassional [hah, more like nightly] piece of dark chocolate :]
I had school dinners up until the last couple of years of school and college. In High School we had healthy choices as well as the usual chips and 9 times out of 10 I chose the healthy options. Then in college and I took my own meals.
I was a really unhealthy kid but my mom was not to blame. She would pack me carrots, a sourdough turkey sammie with olive oil crackers everyday but I would usually trade them in at school for frozen costco brand pizzas, arizonia plum ice tea or sometimes top ramen noodles with dorrito chips. It was awful but at the time was the “cool” thing to do.
When I got into high school I was finally able to eat off campus so I started drinking Jamba carrot juice and ate cliff bars..for me that was as healthy as it got.
But I really do enjoy the new healthy and exciting lunches I put together now…basically because I have the time and the open mind to try new things.
Lovely question!
Maggie
We always had great homemade lunches. In high school I loved a half of a bagel with hummus and thin strips of carrot and bell pepper piled on. I am guilty of getting the fries once in awhile too. . . but I never fell for the sugar water Slush Puppies!
My Mom use to pack sandwiches and pretzels and some sort of fruit (usually an apple or fruit cup) and a dessert….. the BEST part was when she put a note in my lunch! I really really loved that. I can’t wait until my kids start school so I can put notes in their lunches!
-A
I had an aversion to bread when I was growing up- I would eat rolls, buns, but not sliced bread. I used to take cold hot dogs on white buns with ketchup, a box of raisins and lots of raw mushrooms, as well as a little fromage frais. I didn’t like candy/cookies/cake/chocolate/potato chips much so didn’t take those. I just liked the hot dogs out the bun and the mushrooms! (I took mushrooms for breaktime too!) I took PBJ when I was really young, or cheddar cheese and Branston pickle (have you tried that? Classic British condiment- sold in a few places in NY!)
Oh my!! I was just going to do a post on childhood/school lunches of mine from years past. We are so similar though! I always brought a peanut butter sandwich–either on yellow potato bread of Pepperidge Farms cinnamon swirl bread. From when I was in elementary school up until senior year. The thought of deli meat scared the hell out of me, and still does. I never brought fruit, although I enjoyed it, because I didnt want it to “turn brown”. And in highschool, I definitely got into buying fries, m&m soft cookies, and soda. Wow..times have changed!
Thanks for such a cool post!
i loved reading this post :) so fun how you updated childhood favs and memories of food as a kid.
when i was little my mom would always pack me such healthy food, like instead of potato chips at school i remember having pirate booty, and like fruit leathers, and like these tofu spinach little pizza pockets lol
i was so jealous of the other “kids cooler” food ;) like those dunk-able frosting things and Doritos lol, but i was a huge bagel lover and still am, and living in NY best bagels ever, and i would get lox and cream cheese on an everything bagel so good lol, such a adventurous eater.
xo
Eliza
Loved this post! brought back so many memories :)
for lunch in elementary school i remember my mom always packing me organic healthy food, and id be sooo jelous of the fruit roll ups and dorritos and dunkaros the other kids had..lol…and once i recall bringing california sushi rolls for lunch in 5th grade and a girl said ew sushi and i felt so bad that i threw it away..kids are so mean, i was so adventurous when i was little, i like everything like spinach amd zucchini was my favorite thing haha!
and middle school i remeber my dad making me brie and ham on bagette, or going to the bagel store and getting lox and cream cheese on a bagel to go :) well this past year in school i stuck to natural PB or other nut butters sammies on ezekiel or a avocado or hummus wrap or sammie, and mandatory pink lady apple…
i never bought fries or chips but in 3rd grade i had frosted lakes for lunch at school every day lol.
xo
maya
This takes me back to my eating rice cakes for lunch everyday. Wow. That was healthy…
Wish I could find a hemp bagel here!
Beautiful fries, and I like Theo chocolate, too :)