My food obsession and the lunchbox

I have always been obsessed with food.  What's for lunch? When's dinner? What are we having? Is it time to eat yet? How many calories have I eaten today?  When I was a working mom I would usually pack my own somewhat healthy lunch of salad or soup or yogurt or whatever.  For my girls the lunch debate was much harder, as they wanted chips, juice boxes, and junk.  Being pressed for time in the mornings I would throw together a lunch of 100 calorie packs, peanut butter crackers, and granola bars.  Or we would consult the school lunch menu and possibly go with a bought lunch of pizza, hamburgers or nachos (yes this is actually passed off as a school lunch).

When we got back to NC, I was shocked to learn that here my kids could purchase "extras" with their school lunch.  Cookies, cake, juice,  and ice cream are all available every day for children in Kindergarten through 5th grade.  They don't even need cash, as they just punch in their pin number.    I know when I was a kid, I would have gotten ice cream every day if it was available!  When I was a kid, we just got a tray, and that was your lunch, no choices, no questions asked.

So now that I have more time, I have been on an overall quest to eat healthier and make better meals for my kids.  I follow a great blog called 100 days of real food -- http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
This lady posts pictures of her kids' school lunches and it has inspired me.  I bought these great Ziplock divided containers and have been trying to sneak in more fruits and veggies into the lunchbox.  Here's what they took today:

 

Sarah's lunch - she loves peppers and cucumbers

Olivia's lunch. Tomatoes are one of the only vegetables that she will eat.  I know the lunch meat is not great, but baby steps, right?

 

I made these banana whole wheat muffins this morning from a receipe on 100 days of real food - really! I know that these lunches have a long way to go, but at least I got them to eat some vegetables instead of another processed food. The crackers are wheat thins.  Also not great, but at least there's whole grain in there.   I also packed water bottles, and an ice pack.  Hurray for the #tinywin !