This post is part of the National Milk Life Campaign’s Back-to-School program. Two of my kids are now in school all day, it’s so crazy how fast this stage came. I remember last year on the first day of school when my oldest went to school all day, I was so sad and in a wreck. I missed her so much. My second daughter was still in Kindergarten so she got out at 11:20 and picking her up and realizing that I wouldn’t see my oldest daughter for another 4 more hours made my heart ache. So this year, I thought I was going to lose it when both of my girls went, but you know what? After I dropped them off on their first day of school, I wasn’t sad one bit. Hahaha, so I thought, “Am I a bad mom? Why am I not sad at all?” I felt this way for about 2 months but just last week, I shed a tear one morning when I dropped my girls off and realized I wouldn’t see them for 7+ hours. I told my mom that it took me 2 months to be sad about it which surprised me and she told me it’s because I still have a child with me at home. She said the day I drop my youngest child off at school for all day, it’ll hit me really hard. I guess I don’t have to worry about that for another 4 more years!
So since both of my girls are in school all day, they eat school lunches or home lunches, depending on the school lunch’s menu and if the girls want to eat it or not. We print out the school lunch menu schedule in the beginning of every month so they go through it and mark the days they want to eat school lunch, and the days they’d rather eat home lunch. The school lunch menus are actually pretty good, and my girls end up eating about half school lunch and half home lunch. The days they eat home lunch,I pack them a drink, it’s either water or barley tea, no exceptions. My girls call me the juice & soda Nazi and t.v and iPad Nazi. The days I don’t pack them a drink, it’s so that they could go get milk from their school. They give out milk for free to the students during lunch time and it’s a good way to make sure they get the protein and the calcium they need.
Here are 3 lunches I made for the girls this past month. I love looking at what other parents pack for their kids lunches to get ideas, so you can get some ideas from mine!
Pita bread sandwich w/ cucumbers, sprouts, tomatoes, turkey & cheese
Pineapple moon cake
Roasted chestnuts
Cherry tomatoes
Sliced apples
Sliced persimmons
Roasted coconut flakes
Fresh-picked raspberries
Tortilla sandwich w/ turkey, lettuce, cheddar cheese, tomatoes
White rice
Mini-sausages sauteed in ketchup & b.b.q sauce
Fresh-picked raspberries
Homemade strawberry/raspberry fruit roll-ups
Cucumber kimchi
My bento lunches are definitely “Asian-ized”, don’t you think? With the pineapple moon cake, roasted chestnuts, sliced persimmons(if you’ve never had them, try it, they’re so good!), cucumber kimchi and rice & sausages. I grew up not drinking milk when growing up in Korea and even when we moved to the States because my parents don’t drink milk(which is pretty common for Koreans), so I want to make sure my girls get enough calcium. So they usually drink a glass of milk in the morning with their breakfast, and then at school. I emphasize to my kids the importance of eating a good, healthy breakfast with protein so that they stay full and content, since that’s proven to have the kids be more alert and do better in school! I mean, I am Asian and all, so I do expect my kids to get straight A’s. 😉
We now have a giveaway exclusively for my readers where a winner will receive two gift cards worth the amount of a two free month’s supply of milk (valued at $36). All you have to do is comment below with an answer to this question:
How do you include milk throughout the day to make healthy snacks or meals?
Visit MilkLife.com for some fun recipes.
