Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Tempting Little Tastebuds

Early last term Offspring #1 began bringing home his school lunches uneaten. I wasn't too worried initially. Maybe he'd had a full-on day? Maybe he just wasn't hungry? I figured he'd get over it and go back to demolishing his lunch as per usual. Except... I was wrong. I tried to question him in a totally subtle mum-type way (ie like a bulldozer) but came up blank. School was fine. He had lots of friends. Lunch was fine. He liked what I was making for lunches. No-one was being mean to him. He just didn't want to eat his lunch. I set his Dad onto him and he gradually, as Dads do, drew the answer out of him. It took him too long to eat his sandwich and then he didn't get enough time to play, or he was still eating and his friends had finished and gone off to play. He'd decided that rather than miss out on playing he'd miss out on eating.

This was not a solution I was happy about and I've spent the last few months coming up with lunches that are both tempting enough that he really wants to eat them and small enough that they can be bolted down super-quickly. I've had some success with the pizza muffins - the normal ones are too big but making mini muffins from the mix worked nicely. One mini-muffin equals about one 7-year-old's hugest possible mouthful so two muffins can be eaten without fear of missing out. Meatballs were an unexpected winner as well, for much the same reason.

With school back today I knew I had to come up with another lunch idea and was considering a ham and cheese scroll recipe from the ugly binder. I was multi-tasking - looking at recipes and checking emails, face-book and twitter - and when I stumbled across a link to Cheesymite Scrolls on twitter I had to check it out. It looked simple and was soon baking in the oven. Both kids have taste-tested and declared it a two-thumbs up winner and Offspring #1 has enthusiastically agreed that they would be great for lunch. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll actually eat it when it's in his lunch box.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Both my kids have complained that it takes them too long to eat their lunch and they miss out on playtime. It's not surprising, really, when it takes them twenty minutes to eat their cereal in the morning. I actually think the schools could help out with this issue - making sure the kids take ten or fifteen minutes to sit and eat before they're unleashed on the playground. My two cents. -Trish.
PS these look yummy... I make cinnamon scrolls quite regularly but have never attempted a savoury version. Might have to now!

The Cookbook Junkie said...

I think most kids would play instead of eat if given the choice. Here, we were given a set amount of time to eat and you were glued to your seat for that time. Then we had recess. I'm pretty sure it's still the same way. I'll find out soon!

Melody said...

Wow - they look like proper ones. I'm going to check out the link and get around to making them asap. I *heart* cheesymite scrolls. I know a little girl who does too! Ahh, a little bit of Australia might not make me feel so homesick...

Red Dirt Mummy said...

Thanks for the comments. His school has a 'sit and eat' policy for the first 10 minutes of lunch but he got caught out a few times - talking too much and not eating quick enough so when they were let loose he was still eating. This little lovelies appear to have done the trick for now.

Sorry you're feeling homesick Melody :(