photo courtesy of specialkrb
Ever since my boys were young, they’ve taken a lunch from home to school. They would sometimes eat the cafeteria food, but didn’t really like it all that much. Now that they are in middle and high school, they don’t particularly like waiting in the long lines to get food. The middle school actually divides the 45 minute lunch periods into two half-lunches in order to have room to seat everyone, so my younger son gets about 20 minutes to eat. Waiting in line can leave him with a mere 10 minutes to gulp down what is essentially a fast food lunch.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t really think in the morning until I’ve had two cups of coffee so I’m afraid the kids end up with way too many boring sandwiches with cold cuts and some lettuce. This year, I’m on a mission (again) to find great foods for school lunches that I can make ahead of time for early morning assembly with one hand, while drinking coffee and wrangling teenagers with the other. It needs to be easy and quick to assemble at 5:30 in the morning, nutritious, low in saturated fat, filling, tasty and easy on the wallet. It’s a pretty tall order, all before the caffeine has kicked in! I have found a few things, and will be making up some on the fly. I thought I’d feature some of the teenager taste-tested best here on the blog, and so I present recipe #1:
Chicken Sate Wrap
I found this recipe on www.myrecipes.com. It’s from Cooking Light magazine so the nutritional content is in line with what I’m looking for (about 325 calories per serving). The flavors of (light) coconut milk, peanut butter and chicken are appetizing, and there is a good amount of vegetables worked in as well.The boys love it, and I’ve taken it to work myself so I can say from experience that the wrap doesn’t get soggy before you have a chance to eat it.
I substituted whole wheat tortillas – mine have about 80 calories each and 12 grams of fiber, which improves the nutritional profile. I also cooked chicken breast instead of buying a rotisserie chicken. The recipe makes 4 servings, so here’s how the costs add up (numbers are cost of quantity used in the recipe):
Chicken, $2.25 (I buy mine at Costco)
Coconut milk, $0.56 ($1.69 per can, makes three recipes)
Green onions, $0.79 (1 bunch)
Carrots, $1.08 (I did buy shredded ones for convenience)
Tortillas, $1.24 (Costco again, 16 whole-wheat tortillas for around $5.00)
Slaw, $0.50 (shredded and bagged for convenience, you can shred your own for less)
Soy sauce, vinegar, spices – from my pantry.
Total cost for four servings, $6.42 or about $1.60 per serving! This was so easy and tasty that I made extra seasoned chicken to put in the freezer for another week’s lunch down the line. Now I don’t have left-over coconut milk that might not otherwise be used. Add an apple and a handful of nuts and I’ve got happy boys with full bellies, and the satisfaction of knowing that I have, once again, defeated pizza! 
I’d like to know what you do about the school lunch issue. Does your school system actually make healthy food? Do you have a favorite school lunch idea?
