"you guys should start making fried chicken like wingstop"

and other back-to-school kid lunch suggestions!

August is: end of summer, back-to-school, start of fall, peak summer produce, and days getting shorter.

It’s also: after school activities, school lunches, carpooling, and endless homework help.

Thanks to all of you that took our back to school reader survey - we had a chuckle reading some of your kids’ responses to our question, "who has the best school lunches or snacks, and why?”

This includes the title of today’s newsletter about fried chicken! Unsurprisingly, a lot of our One Potato kids are jealous of the kids who bring store-bought junk food in their packed lunches. We’re inspired to work on some homemade (more nutritious) versions to share with you! Their main complaints about school lunch was that they didn’t like cold food, or that the food got soggy before lunch time.

We also learned that it’s especially hard packing school lunches for picky eaters - when they don’t like to eat much of a variety even at home, but they get bored eating the same things over and over.

If you still want to take the survey, we’ll continue to check in on your suggestions at this link:

Here’s some quick-and-easy healthy snack ideas:

Invite your hungry student to help you brainstorm and make the Snack Pack Menu - it’s easy.  List out the things that are nutritious and delicious and have your child decide what to have which day. (We try to avoid commercial snack packs and sugary items.) When your child is engaged in the decision making, they are more likely to embrace the options.  Kids feel more grown up if the snack or lunch item involves a task (spreading, dipping, etc.) and they will proudly display their skills.  The perfect snack can be packed the night before, requires minimal refrigeration and does not create a gloppy mess.

Some of our easy and healthy ideas are 

• Seasoned tofu chunks (try air frying them after marinating)

• Sweet potato chunks 

• Mini-pita stuffed with shredded veggies and hummus

And then there are the good old standards

• veggie sticks & dips (you can use our One Potato dipping sauces in little containers)

• Homemade popcorn with cheese sprinkled on top

• Fresh fruit with sunflower butter or Greek yogurt

• Healthy muffins

• Cheese and crackers

If you see your lovingly packed snacks (or lunch) return from school untouched, try checking in with your child and ask who had a lunch that looked great and see if you can introduce that into your rotation (and if needed, create a healthier version).

Quick Tip: Meal prep with your kids on the weekend. If you can create an activity out of cooking healthier versions of kid-favorite branded snacks, that they can be proud to have made, they will be more enthusiastic to eat and share their cooking successes.

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