Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumNo PB&J Allowed? Put Dips Into Lunchboxes
Looking for ideas for what to pack in your childs lunchbox? Melissa Clark will answer readers questions and share lunch tips in a Facebook chat on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 1 p.m. Eastern time on facebook.com/nytimes.
Before I became a mom, I assumed Id follow the sandwich model when it came to school lunches. Id pack my daughter inventive variations on the childhood favorites I used to tote to class when I was a kid, and shed happily gobble them up.
But like many things involving motherhood, I was dead wrong. My 5-year-old, Dahlia, wont eat any sandwiches except peanut butter and jelly, which are sadly forbidden in her nut-free school.
Enter my new lunchbox plan: Leave out the sandwiches, put in the dips.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/dining/no-pbj-allowed-put-dips-into-lunchboxes.html?hpw&rref=dining&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
pscot
(21,024 posts)and jelly dip.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)My first response is that there may well be a few nuts in that school.
But, upon reflection, it's always best to respect the needs of the least well represented among us, in this case those with food allergies.
Yet, I'm still struck by what seems to be a new trend: and increase in the incidence of allergies to such substances as nuts, gluten, etc.
Is this phenomenon natural, is this a result of medications or high consumption of processed foods or what?
elleng
(130,862 posts)but I forget what and where!
Galileo126
(2,016 posts)But I'm the jerk who was born with the peanut allergy.
Thankfully, my grammar school in the early 70's responded... graciously. If you want your kids to have PB&J, pack it as a take-in lunch.
Interesting thing, BTW, since I can't eat the beloved peanut butter (Oh man, does it smell so good!) Mom always gave me a variety of cool things for a kid's lunch. Almost always veggie oriented, even though my parents were (are) the usual meat/starch/veg sort of foodies.
My fave was broccoli (only after the age of 7 - hated it before then. Tastes, go figure.) But always it was was carrots. Sweet, yummy carrots. (Today's carrots are industrial crap, not like the sweetness of yesteryear.)
So, I say, hummus and veggies rule. Even one of my nephew's dig it.
Go dips!
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)There's some darn fine almond butter out there, especially the 'maple almond butter'. My only complaint is that it's far more expensive, which means it's not in my pantry much at all.
littlewolf
(3,813 posts)in their school, too many kids are allergic.
letters went home to parents.