Today’s menu: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, juice, fruit cup
Oh
My
God!
It’s baaaack!! I guess the universe decided to stick it to me one last time before 2010 ended. How appropriate that I’m eating this meal on the day that President Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (Child Nutrition Act) into law! You can read all about it here and read the transcript too. Yippee!!
I felt physical nausea when I saw the packaging. If you have been reading since the beginning, you know that the first time I ate the sandwich, I came home and threw up. Handing over money for today’s lunch was hard.
Interestingly, I noticed that the packaging has completely changed since when I ate the sandwiches last year (twice). Last time it listed a brand name and the calories. Stupidly I didn’t take a picture of the nutritional information earlier this year. You’ll notice that today’s version doesn’t say anything. They scrubbed the packaging of any vital information. I wonder.. Is it because of my blog?
See? We do need the Child Nutrition Act!
The good news: it tasted better than any of the “sandwiches” I ate last year and it seemed thinner. So they may have redesigned the food and the packaging. Before the graham cracker was limp and crumbled when I tore into it. This time I have to say that there was a crunch! Little improvements, right? (Having two fruits in one lunch still meets the USDA guidelines, by the way.)
I ate half of the sandwich. I couldn’t physically eat anymore.
But.
I had another sandwich left.
So.
I quietly slipped it into my purse. I had to show my husband what the kids and I had for lunch.
The sandwich on my dirty counter next to the watering can
While I was making dinner (broiled mackerel, red quinoa, edamame), I tossed the sandwich non-chalantly onto the counter, exclaiming, “Here’s what I had for lunch!”
He was throwing something into the trash and turned. His reaction was immediate, “EWWWWW!!!”
He continued, “That looks like what I ate when I was in the Grand Canyon!” (Background: one spring break, he and his roommates drove to the Grand Canyon, hiked in and out, ate MREs)
Pensive he restated it, “No, that’s astronaut food!”
The sandwich is thinking, “This is not what I bargained for.”
I don’t know what to label this thing but it’s not a sandwich. Since I was at home and wasn’t constrained by lunch times or secrecy, my husband and I took our time dissecting our specimen (after our son went to sleep of course).
My husband opening the wrapper for inspection
My husband then declared, “I’m going to eat some and we’ll compare our thoughts about what it tastes like.” That sounded good because I’m a one-woman show and rarely get to compare notes with anyone.
His first couple bites
He said, “I’m disappointed at the lack of jelly. It’s all peanut butter. There is no way this is a ‘sandwich.’ It’s a peanut butter cracker.”
He pulled it apart and started peeling the layers of peanut butter down
The tiniest amount of jelly I have ever seen
We discovered that the peanut butter was layered on there with the teeniest dribble of jelly.
He smiles at me, “I’m going to eat the whole thing.”
I stare at him, “No, honey, please don’t.” I start jumping up and down because I know Mr. Q is a determined man and is totally not lying.
“No, No!! Remember how I got sick when I ate this before? Plus it’s been in my purse for more than eight hours!”
He replies, “This is fun and I don’t mind eating it.”
“Please don’t, you’re sick,” which is true as he is having an asthma flare-up. Meanwhile during our fun dissection, our massive black Lab has been patiently sitting, watching us and drooling.
“Ok, I’ll feed the rest of it to the dog so it’s not wasted.” (Ironic that he’s concerned about waste considering how many of theses the kids throw out)
Our dog gobbled it down, licking his chops!
No, this is not the golden ticket!
A couple random tidbits about these sandwiches: When I first posted that I ate them for lunch last year, some people inquired as to where they could buy them as they ate them at school as kids and were nostalgic for them. I was floored! Also, this summer a mom emailed me to say that she took her daughter to some kind of summer school program (out east, I think NY) and much to her shock these exact sandwiches were served. So they must not be completely regional. I had never encountered them until this year.