Monthly Archives: November 2011

Lunch Wrap Up Week of October 24th

Packed lunches

The week of October 24th was a weird week for lunches. My son was ill and was out of school for a couple days. My husband stayed home one day and I stayed home the other. It’s times like that when I wonder how single moms do it.

Charlie’s lunches

Pasta with sauce; spinach (CSA) and carrots (backyard); bacon; pepitas; applesauce

He ended up eating this lunch at home with Daddy. I know I offer a lot of bacon. He loves it (and so do I) and I think it’s good for him. And I’m finally going to ditch the applesauce cups. They might be convenient, but they are a waste of plastic. Child care menu: Turkey hot dog, rotini pasta, baby carrots with ranch dip, applesauce, Italian bread.

Homemade pad thai; leftover salad with carrots and bacon; pretzels; pepitas; apple slices

I made pad thai with jarred pad thai sauce and mung bean noodles (from a package). I told my husband that I will master pad thai before I die. Child care menu: Turkey and cheese wrap, mashed potatoes, corn, orange, rye bread.

Apple and orange slices; carrots; hard boiled eggs; raisins; graham crackers; bar

Definitely a “kid friendly” lunch. Also I haven’t been banned from sending raisins at this school, so I sent golden raisins (my favorite). I just felt like changing it up. Child care menu: Hamburger au jus, ketchup, mac and cheese, mixed veggies, apple, hamburger bun

Pepitas; ketchup; sliced hot dog; mashed potatoes; muffin; apple slices; carrots

Yes, I sent hot dogs in my son’s lunch. I so rarely serve hot dogs at home, but the night before I was desperate to get something on the table. Plus the new child care does have turkey hot dogs on the menu. I have to admit that I do enjoy a *good* hot dog. I don’t know if it’s cultural or what but I really like eating sausages. I am least 1/8 German after all! Because I don’t serve hot dogs for dinner very often, my son isn’t a huge fan (and neither is my husband). Child care menu: Chicken nuggets, pasta, mixed veggies, cinnamon sliced pears, wheat bread.

My lunches

Roasted chicken with potatoes and beets; pepitas; mandarin oranges; KIND bars

I have discovered the wonder of roasting a whole chicken. It’s cheap (costs about $5 at the grocery store), easy (350 degrees for an hour), and there is a ton of chicken (always enough for leftovers and lunches). Roasted beets are DIVINE. There’s only one problem with beets: you will have pink pee, etc. Just be prepared.

Homemade pad thai; mandarin oranges; spinach salad with raisin; KIND bar

How did I make the pad thai? It’s not magic — I read the recipe on the back of the jar. I’m not able to “wing” things like this and so I think the pad thai was really good for a first effort by a non-Asian.

Two hard-boiled eggs; crackers; carrots; apple slices

Can you tell I was pressed for time? Have you noticed that the lunches at the end of the week are less complex? Yeah, I was running late. It’s my life story.

Hot dogs with sushi rice/quinoa mixture; ketchup; carrots; mandarin oranges

Yep, it was another crazy morning. I think Friday morning lunches are the worst most of the time. I’m usually running low on  lunch containers too. I should be more disciplined about washing dishes mid-week.

My husband likes only plain quinoa so if I serve black quinoa, I cut it with another grain, usually rice. I bought some sushi rice (short grain) on sale and threw that in the pot with the quinoa. My husband and son love rice, but my son hates quinoa. He refuses to eat it. We got Charlie to eat a few bits of quinoa by telling him that Aaron Rodgers eats quinoa. Yes, he is a budding Packer fan (what can I say, I’m from Wisconsin). I asked my son if he wanted to call Aaron Rodgers and talk to him and he was thrilled. I had to fake it on my phone, but of course Charlie believed me. As I was ending my “conversation” with Aaron Rodgers, I asked my son if there was anything else he wanted to say to Aaron Rodgers. Charlie said there was. I held the phone up to Charlie and Charlie told Aaron Rodgers, “I ate quinoa!!” My husband and I both nearly died laughing, but my husband scolded me not to do it again. Of course tonight we ended up phoning Aaron Rodgers to tell him about my son running, falling on the plastic dustpan, getting a scratch, and needing a bandaid. Oh boy, what have I started!

One month as me

Media, The book

One month ago I came out a Mrs. Q and my book was published. It has been a remarkable experience. All this time I thought I would get fired, but thankfully it didn’t happen. I guess everything you guys said about me being “too paranoid” was right all along.

Many of you have reached out to me to let me know that the book resonated with you. Thank you for telling me that. By the way, if you have read the book and have the time, please consider writing a review of the book on Amazon.com. Some of you have told me that you read the book in a just two days. That was my objective when I was approached about writing a book. I didn’t want to write a dry, depressing paperweight that sat on bedside tables for weeks on end. I wanted you to start reading the book and have trouble putting it down.  It sounds cheesy to say but I wanted it to read like a thriller. To me, these issues really are life and death.

The interview question I’m being asked that is the hardest for me to answer is “What’s next?” This past month was not about what was coming next, but instead it was me finally arriving at the reveal. At last I can think about a future that doesn’t involve my termination. What’s my purpose and where do I fit in now that Mrs. Q is me? I get ideas every day. I think it will be an interesting year to come.

Some coverage about me that I didn’t mention before (this is not an exhaustive list):

Oh yeah, I have been getting questions about the picture on the front of the book. It is not of my son. It looks oddly like him, but the publishers chose the cover design. I love the cover and it’s pretty fun that many think that cute little boy looks like him.

Halloween Post-Mortem

The Food

Thanks for all the great discussion in the comments of my guest blogger’s post Fed Up With Halloween. As with so many things I have learned since blogging school lunch, food is personal and so is Halloween.

I thought you might be interested in what we did for Halloween. Our child care center mentioned that parents could provide treats to the kids. I thought about what to send for Charlie for a long time. I wanted to send non-food items, but on the other hand I wanted to support independent candy makers. So I compromised…

I sent 20 treat bags with Charlie to be handed out to his friends. I labeled the bags as “from Charlie” because I have seen the chaos in classrooms when the teacher and the kids forget who brought what to share.

Every bag contained a Halloween pencil, a temporary tattoo, and a YummyEarth lollipop. I decided that if I opted out of candy, I wouldn’t be putting money towards manufacturers who are doing candy right. So I bought YummyEarth lollipops. Here’s a blurb about the company from their website:

 As big-time lollipop fans and new dads, we invented YummyEarth to share delicious treats with our kids made only of stuff we would be proud to cook with at home.  We proudly handcraft 22 delicious flavors with real fruit extracts and are just as proud of what is in YummyEarth as what is not; in fact, we even use organic black carrots and organic pumpkin for fabulous color in our organic lollipops!  Everything YummyEarth makes is certified organic or all natural, gluten-free, peanut-free, tree nut-free, and has no chemical colors, artificial flavors, or high fructose corn syrup, just fabulous award winning taste.

Just to be clear, I didn’t hand out candy at our door. We live in a neighborhood with older people with few families so no one ever stops by.

My little swashbuckling rapscallion

Did we trick or treat? We sure did. Charlie was a pirate, but his costume wasn’t warm enough for him to go walking around without a jacket. We plopped him in the stroller (haven’t done that in awhile) and put his jacket on him like a blanket. That way when he ding-donged a doorbell, he could be in full costume without a jacket. We only walked around the block, but it’s amazing how quickly that pumpkin filled up. After about 10 homes, we had half a pumpkin, which is way more candy than anyone in our house could eat.

When we got home he wanted a piece of candy. We let him choose from his pumpkin and he chose a jolly rancher (made me nervous that he would choke, but he didn’t). He asked for a piece of candy after school the following two days, but since then he has forgotten about the candy. That means that Mommy and Daddy have a lot of candy on our hands.

I believe most parents don’t let their kids gorge irresponsibly, but instead are like us — left with candy they themselves end up eating. I have eaten more candy than my son has… and for a lot of parents, it’s the last thing we need.

Facts about Halloween (Source – Huffington Post):

  • Americans purchase nearly 600 million pounds of candy a year for Halloween (16 billion fun size Snickers bars or 158 trillion individual candy corns).
  • Two billion dollars are spent on Halloween candy, $1.2 billion was on chocolate candy and only $680 million on sugar candy.
  • Americans purchase 20 million pounds of candy corn.
  • The top five candy selling days are in October.
  • Google searches for gluten-free candy are currently 20 percent higher than searches for sugar-free candy.
  • The average American household spends $44 a year on Halloween candy.

Cooking Up Change (Part 1)

School issues, School Lunches

Tonight I attended Cooking Up Change. It’s an event where high school students create a school lunch meal for $1.00 per serving and then compete to earn a spot in the national contest in DC. I was able to chat with every single team (12 teams from 12 different high schools from Chicago Public Schools participated) and find out more about how they developed the recipes. I was impressed by their food knowledge and their enthusiasm — as well as the food!

Next week I’ll write a post on my experience and share pictures of the creative and delicious school lunches that the students created. For now a photo of my program will have to suffice because I’m exhausted!

NaBloPoMo

Happening Now

 

Some of the grapes we picked in September (off the vine in the backyard of our rented house — how lucky are we?). We made some fantastic jelly out of them. It was the first time we were successful at making jelly.

On a whim I’ve decided to participate in NaBloPoMo. The challenge: post a blog entry every day in the month of November. Can I do it? I certainly have the content (for example, I really should do a post about making grape jelly) — it’s just finding the time. Maybe some days I’ll just post a photo. Wish me luck!

You can sign up here to participate in NaBloPoMo, follow NaBloPoMo on twitter.

Drumstick, anyone? CPS getting antibiotic-free chicken!

News

Chicago Public Schools will be purchasing Amish chicken for school lunches! In an article in today’s Chicago Tribune, Monica Eng reports that Chartwells-Thompson has purchased and will be offering antibiotic-free chicken drumsticks in school lunches. We’re talking 1.2 million pounds of antibiotic-free chicken entering school cafeterias. Holy cow, am I thrilled! Check out this quote from Bob Bloomer (he answered a Q and A on the blog earlier this year):

“Two years ago I would have said that there is no way I’m ever bringing in raw chicken into our schools,” said Bob Bloomer, of Chartwells-Thompson, which caters the 473 CPS schools that will be serving the chicken. (A second company, Preferred Meal Systems, caters about a third of CPS schools but is not part of the program.)

“But we trained all the (CPS) cooks and managers before school started this past August to bring them up to speed on how to safely handle chicken from the time it comes into the back door to the time it’s served to students on the plate,” Bloomer said. “And we actually created a training DVD for ongoing education.”

Long time readers remember that I met Bob and even introduced myself to him after a screening of Lunch Line earlier this year. I had quietly attended that event, intending just to watch, but I was so struck by Bob in person that on a whim I went up to him and introduced myself as ‘Mrs. Q.’ I just liked the guy — and luckily he didn’t snap a picture of me on his phone and tweet it! Today’s announcement confirms what I thought back in the spring: Bob is committed to improving school meals. I’m so encouraged by today’s news.

Read the full article: Amish-raised chicken on CPS lunch menu (Chicago Tribune)