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September 9, 2013

My new fave passtime

Salaam ya'll! I love packing Aaminah's lunch! I love everything about it! No, really. :) I love the planning, the shopping, and actual packing. I enjoy the fact that I can provide her with healthy, yummy options and she doesn't have to eat yucky cafeteria food. Now, at our Islamic school we have CATERED lunches. Yes, you read that right, masha'Allah! Catered. By local restaurants and it's all halal. So yes there are a lot of vegetarian options and tho we do love our meat we like veg too so it's all good.

Sometimes it is catered by Muslim-owned restaurants and then we are able to get zabiha meat. If it is not then they go veg. I let Aaminah pick lunch from school one day per week. It's a little pricey, $5 a day or $20 for the whole week but I understand. They also get a half pint of milk with the food so the school isn't really making any profit on this. Still for us it's too much so it's a weekly treat. Last week Aaminah chose the Petros chili and chips with cheese and sour cream. Basically it's Fritos corn chips smothered in a veg chili with toppings. Really delicious plus it is a locally owned franchise that was started in Knoxville during the 1982 World's Fair. Yes we hosted it. It sucked. The theme was "energy" and as a 4th grader I could not have been more bored. :)





Ok so back to packed lunches. I know I probably send her too much food but I don't want her to be hungry. Plus anything left over she eats later as a snack. Today here is what I sent her:

1 Chobani blueberry yogurt stick
1 clementine (baby orange) peeled and segmented
1 can tuna in water, drained, with a bit of mayo n pickle mixed in to make a salad spread.
7 chocolate covered raisins and 1 date-sized no bake chocolate-peanutbutter oatmeal cookie

I think there was something else but I'm drawing a blank. Oh I made her an English muffin with one fried egg for breakfast but she only wanted her milk. She is still in Ramadhan mode and doesn't like to eat breakfast. :) I packed it so she could eat it at snack if she wished.

Now this wasn't really a good example because I needed to go to the store which I did this morning. I bought some grapes and strawberries (she loves fruit mA!) and I also bought some jelly for sandwiches (her least fave lunch option). I also bought some turkey pepperoni. We make little cream cheese pepproni "sandwiches" for snack or sometimes make a pepperoni and cheese quesadilla. It's very packable and kids love it!

I also bought some veggies I know she likes. I got cucumbers and shredded carrots. She really likes the small thin carrot shreds and of course I slice the cucumbers. I like to get the baby hothouse cucumbers but at over $3 for 4 tini cukes it wasn't happening. I bought 2 large cucumbers for $1.40. :) I wanted to get her some sugar snap peas but I always look to see what's on sale or even clearance veggies before I do that. You can save up to 50% of the cost and just use them in a couple of days; it's all good. :)

They have shelf-stable milk which is awesome. It's a little pricey ($1 a container) but it's organic and flavored. I get her the strawberry and the vanilla and she loves it. I usually freeze it for about an hour before school so it will be really cold plus I put a freezer pack in her lunch box.

Oh speaking of lunch boxes, I waited til now to buy them because of the great clearance deals you can find. I got her a really cute Igloo brand purse-style in a cool chevron design for $5 and I just picked up a Rubbermaid sandwich lunch kit for $5! It's normally almost $15 so it was a great savings! It has a sandwich/main dish keeper with a specialized freezer insert and then 2 snack cups and 1 side cup. It will be great. I've eyed them for a while but put it off until I found them on sale. Patience pays off!


 
 
InshaAllah next time I pack her lunch I'll try to snap a pic of it. I think it's great to give each other good lunch ideas so our children are nourished with love. :) For her drink I pack the milk plus I fill her water bottle with flavored water. I don't like plain water unless it's bottled; our tap water doesn't taste good here. :(
 
Alrighty then, talk to ya'll later, ma salaama!


2 comments:

HijabiMommy said...

I really enjoyed this post. Loved all your food ideas.

My 1st grader is such a picky eater. It's typically the same boring lunch around here....bagel and cream cheese, or PB&J sammy's {I've recently been rolling them like sushi to make them more interesting and appealing}, or mac and cheese. Last year, the girl only wanted bread with butter. Can you believe that? With all the yummy options out there?! LOL.

Along with a sandwich, I pack her some pretzels/crackers, some cheese, try to sneak in some fruit like clementines or a banana. Or some days she will take a granola bar. Not a big veggie or fruit eater, unfortunately. And that's about it. Boooo-ring!

My 2nd is a much more adventurous eater and I can't wait to pack her lunches next year, In shaa Allah.

Have you noticed the bento craze?? You know I am all over that! Such cute lunch ideas all over the web.

Oh and one last thing. I JUST picked up those rubbermaid containers this weekend but OMG I almost peed my pants, they are so expensive. I'm thinking of returning them and waiting for them to go on sale.

Anyways, you should do these posts more often. I loved your ideas!

<3 Take care! Salamz! Sorry for the novel. =)

Umm Aaminah said...

I love getting comments! Hence the tag on my sidebar. ;)

Aaminah is an adventurous eater; we are mostly constrained by our budget and my energy level. :)

I was so hyped to find these containers on sale at Kroger! If ya'll have a Kroger local check in the kitchen wares section. iA you can find one at a good price!

I really wanted a planet box? bento box but good lord, they are like $40!!! Oh well. :)