Food, Glorious Food...

Religiously, on Sundays when the kids were in elementary school (and before I quit trying to send them to school with a healthy lunch), I would put an assembly line together to make a week's worth of bagged lunches. With one or two little helpers, I spread out the 20 pieces of bread, slathered peanut butter and jelly, and squished the two slices together - or we might branch out to sliced ham and swiss with a quick swipe of butter (neither child would touch mayo or mustard!). The favored job, though, was bagging the cookies and Cheezits. There would often be an argument about who got to help with those tasks - and obviously lots of nibbling occurred. 

Packing lunches is in my history - for many years my sisters and I packed our lunches to take to school. One of the memories that I relish (and enjoy embellishing) is packing lunch for my sister and me when we were in middle school. We lived in Germany during those fateful years (7th, 8th, and 9th grade for me (she was a year younger)) and my sibs and I rotated jobs to help out the family. There were five of us kids (with 13 years between us) and my mom had her hands full. We had different chores assigned - making the milk (yep, mixing up the powdered milk in a 2 quart container (it's not bad if it's cold)), making the salad for the family dinner, bathing the little ones, and making lunches for the three of us in school. My sister and I would lay out that wonderful German brown bread (long and oval-shaped), smear it with peanut butter and Nutella, and we'd be good; although to get it to fit in a plastic sandwich bag took some creative cutting. I do recollect it being pretty dry to bite in to...perhaps my memory is faulty. :) 

I've begun packing lunches again - for myself. I've found that if I don't take a lunch with me, I'm apt to eat any snack food that I can put my hands on - or, I've learned a Popeyes chicken sandwich can be delivered for a small price...which, when I'm hungry I'm willing to pay. 

So, Sundays, again, find me in the kitchen, this time chopping romaine lettuce into bite-sized chunks and doling it into 5 plastic containers. Next, I determine the veges I am going to load onto the lettuce - this week I added chopped cucumber, diced tomatoes, and sliced beets. Finally, I've figured out that there must be something protein-oriented (as well as some fiber) so this week I mixed Black-eyed Peas and diced ham with garlic and celery and a little oil and vinegar - and ta-da - a salad topping. 

I probably should have begun this post by admitting that I am not a cook - I don't create anything with food. But, I do find pleasure and reward in implementing this assembly line of lunch creation that will serve to sustain me (and/or various family members) for the week. And, wow, the salads taste pretty darn good!