Up your lunchbox game

0:00You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey everybody, it's Marielle. I think when you're an adult, it's easy to forget how stressful school can be for kids. You gotta wake up early. Get there on time. You're not allowed to talk when you want to talk. You have to sit and pay attention when you're bored. You're getting hit with new information all day long that you're just supposed to remember. On top of remembering all the other things that you learned yesterday. And maybe you're not sure who your friends are. Maybe some kids aren't very nice to you. Maybe when you get up to the plate at kickball, everybody in the outfield snickers and moves in because they know you're not a very good kicker.

0:41Maybe you just miss your mom. And then lunchtime comes. And yes, lunchtime can be stressful as well, but it's also an opportunity for us to give the kids in our lives a break, to remind them that we love them and we're there for them. Let's make some lunch for my kids. Today I have some white steamed rice and pork adobo. Today I made Filipino-style spaghetti. Today I'm making a Kung Fu Panda 4-inspired lunch. I added a vegetable steamed bun, and I'm going to make that into Po. Today I'm making a sandwich. I'm cutting out letters A, B, and C, and the numbers 1, 2, and 3. That's Sully Jessica Wu.

1:22She's a self-taught home cook, and those are videos from her Instagram page, where she shares the creative lunches she makes for her three daughters. Now she has a cookbook called Let's Make Some Lunch, Recipes Made With Love for Everyone. On this episode of Life Kit, we talk about how to make artful, thoughtful lunches for the kids in your life. We get into some of her favorite recipes, talk about how to choose a lunchbox, and she teaches us how to personalize lunches with themes and sweet notes and potatoes cut in the shapes of the alphabet. By the way, a lot of what we talk about in this episode could apply to anybody.

1:57Maybe you have a partner or a parent or a roommate you want to make lunch for. It's a beautiful way to show love.

2:17What should you consider when you're choosing a lunchbox? It just depends on what you're using it for. if it's for smaller kids you know definitely the durability and the ease of opening something not a lot of kids can open certain lunch boxes on their own so if you know if it's simple lightweight and durable I think those are the main ones yeah and just having them practice practice if you buy a new lunchbox have them try it out you know have them try to unscrew the thermos cups and And if they're struggling, then probably should find a different one. Okay. And in the book, you offer four options for lunchbox materials, right?

3:01Stainless steel, plastic, wood or bamboo, and rice husk. They all have their pros and cons. Can you talk about some of those? The stainless steel ones I like to have for temperature control, and it's a little bit more hygienic overall. Those insulate the food a little bit better than the rest of them. If I'm doing soup, you want to use like a thermos container, which is kind of like stainless steel. And that'll keep your soups warmer, longer. And then the rice husk is a eco-friendlier version of plastic. So I have a lot of the three-tier bento boxes that I use for my videos, and those are made out of rice husk.

3:44And they're also lightweight, just like plastic, and pretty much really durable. I like to throw them all in the dishwasher. So, you know, that kind of takes into play as well. And then once you have the lunchbox is the vessel for the food itself, but then do you put that into like a bigger lunch bag that they can tote around more easily or to insulate it more? Yeah, usually insulated lunch bags. Almost every lunch bag is insulated these days. And they'll just keep the food temperature regulated better. So if it's sitting out for two, three hours, it's a little bit better to be in an insulated bag so it doesn't go bad.

4:25I like to throw in an ice pack to keep everything cool. And then I also add in like utensils and napkins and my note in the bag so everything is all together. All right, takeaway one, gather your supplies. Think about what kind of lunchbox would work for your kid. Maybe grab some ice packs to keep food cool or a thermos to keep it warm. And then have your kid test out all the equipment at home to avoid hiccups. What would you say are the components of an ideal boxed lunch for kids? So I try to add some veggies, of course, protein, snacks and treats, fruit. And I try to just, you know, keep them sustained throughout the day as much as possible, but also keeping it realistic because I know what they're going to eat and what they're not going to eat.

5:20If I just put all vegetables and just meat, they probably won't like me very much. So I try to have the little treat and snacks to give them an incentive to have everything. if you're a parent or caregiver who's starting to to try to up their lunchbox game what can you ask your kids or their school to help you understand you know what to make them for lunch number one I think timing is important knowing when their lunchtime is and then how long they have to eat so some kids have to line up wait to sit down then they have to open all the stuff and then And by the time all that's done, they get like 10 minutes and then it's recess time.

6:04A lot of the times my kids don't finish their food. They're like, well, I didn't have enough time. So I think just knowing how long they have will also help you with portions. Yeah. What do you do? Ask the teacher? I mean, you can pretty much ask your kids, you know, ask them like, hey, how long do you have? I personally know and I found out myself when my daughter was in kindergarten. And on my days off, we were allowed to go and sit with them during lunch. So I would just go there and sit with her and have lunch, and I would know exactly what time they came in and sat down. If they're in kindergarten or smaller, they don't really know how to explain things to you.

6:43I just speak with the teacher like, hey, what time is lunch? You know, how long do they get for recess? And most teachers are happy to tell you that information. Takeaway two, think about your child's lunch constraints. What are they like? What are they not like? How long do they have to eat? When's lunchtime? Knowing all these things can inform what you pack and how much of it, so you're not wasting food. Okay, so let's talk about a couple of your favorite recipes from the book. Yeah, I like to cook a lot of different traditional comfort-type foods. I have a pozole recipe. So I just add the soup into a thermos cup.

7:27And then the other recipe that goes with it are homemade tortillas and then salsa, if your kids like salsa. And I'll usually add a little bit of the toppings on the side. So if your kids like radish or cabbage or anything like that, you can put those on the side. It sounds like you have a lunchbox that has different sections in it so you can put like dipping sauce in one and then radishes in another and tortillas in another part. Yeah, most lunchboxes are sectioned off, but if they're not sectioned off, I like to use silicone baking cupcake cups or molds. Those are just like reusable made with silicone.

8:06I just throw those in the dishwasher and I just use those to section off things. And then also so many different lunch companies have different sauce cups or accessories that go with your lunchbox as well that you can use. Another category that I liked was the breakfast for lunch one because I always used to think that was a treat when we would do breakfast for dinner. Like back in the day, we would sometimes do waffles with ice cream for dinner or pancakes for dinner. So some of those caught my eye. like you had orange sweet rolls and mini green juice or like the sausage french toast roll-ups with a strawberry dipping sauce could you tell me about that one the french toast roll-ups is that like is there sausage inside of the french toast yeah you just you roll it up in bread so basically you flatten the bread add in a sausage and then you roll it up and then you fry it like regular French toast.

9:08Yeah, it's just kind of like a breakfast sandwich made from French toast, but a little bit more fun to eat because it is in a roll-up and you can dip it in the strawberry dipping sauce. Yeah. And the sausage, do you cook the sausage first or you get cooked sausage and then roll it up? And I'm imagining it's not raw sausage inside that you're then cooking once you roll it up. Yeah, cooked sausage, then rolled up. What about quick recipes, like something you can do when you oversleep and you just need to get your kids out the door, but you still want to send them off with a filling lunch. I have a lot of recipes like that.

9:41Like even my blackened salmon, it takes about like 10, 15 minutes, which it sounds pretty daunting. Like, oh, I got to cook a whole salmon before work. But the biggest thing is just being comfortable cooking. So no matter what recipe it is, if you're comfortable cooking it, you'll know exactly, you know, how much time you need and how much effort it's going to take. So for me, like that salmon is going to take 10 minutes. And there's a lot of recipes that are super easy without cooking. Like I always go to my turkey avocado ranch roll-ups. It's just like a turkey wrap, but it's just rolled up.

10:23So I put avocado ranch, turkey, and some cheese. And you can put anything in there, lettuce, tomatoes, and you just wrap it up. I let it sit in the fridge for five minutes just to solidify and then cut it into bite-sized pieces. All right, takeaway three is to try out some recipes and get comfortable with them to speed up your cook time. What are some of your favorite snacks to drop in as like a side piece for your, the rest of your kids' lunch? I like to do snacks that are more protein based. So if I can do like beef jerky or nuts, if your school allows it. My girls love pistachios. Hard boiled eggs.

11:05That's always an easy one to just have in your fridge to give them a little bit more substance throughout the day. You know, raw vegetables, of course, those are always good with ranch and easy. You don't really have to do much, you know, you're just cleaning it and throwing it in. You can even pre-cut them. Here are some other ideas from the book of snacks you can add in. Applesauce, sweet peppers, edamame, pecans, turkey bacon, yogurt, seaweed, pickles, parmesan zucchini, marshmallows, mini muffins, puffed rice chips, animal crackers, pomegranate seeds. Oh yeah, the list goes on and on. And you also like to cut the food into cute shapes, right?

11:49Yes. Kids just really like it. You know, like my daughter loves potatoes, but she'll be like, can I have it in alphabet shapes? Just because it's cuter. Yeah. Tell me about that. What kinds of shapes do you cut food into? What kinds of foods and how do you do it? Anything that's on the firmer side, like fruits and vegetables that are firm and not watery or mushy, can pretty much be cut into shapes with shape cutters or cookie cutters if you have those at home. so I like to do like apples and peaches watermelon cantaloupe anything like that that's crunchier and harder you said potatoes is that like cooked or how yeah obviously cooked but cooked how yeah so I like to cut them into shapes raw and then I can I'll either fry them up you can bake them.

12:43You can air fry them. And those are perfect for shapes too. Tofu is a really good one too for soups. I like to add a lot of tofu for protein and I'll just cut it into shapes and they love it. Cool. Let's talk about the art of the lunchbox note. I have been thinking about this. Like what, what do you write in them? Is it kind of the same thing all the time? Is it based on what they're going through or what they have going on that day? It's all of the above. I like to keep it, you know, relevant to what we're going through. Today, my daughter is having maps tests for the beginning of the year where they see what level your child is at in the core classes, reading, math, and writing.

13:31So for that, you know, I always just write like, hey, I know you'll do great in your maps testing just try your best stuff like that and then with song lyrics I just write like cute song lyrics about love or like succeeding or being determined anything like that quotes from movies yeah quotes from movies that we're currently loving um I don't know I just kind of try to find inspiration and you know everything that we're doing and what's relevant and what they like, what they're into. Takeaway four, add flair to your kid's lunch. Make them dumplings in the shape of roses. Jessica has a recipe for those in her book.

14:14Decorate their lunch in the theme of their favorite movie or write them a sweet message. Could be a little joke, a quote, an affirmation. Here are some examples from the book. Why did the teddy bear say no to dessert? Because he was stuffed. Three-day weekend. Woohoo. Can't wait to hang out. If kids were flowers, I'd pick you. And I love you with all my belly. I would say my heart, but my belly's bigger. So, you know, the point is be creative. The love really is in the details. There's a quote that I really like in the book that says it's amazing how something as simple as making lunch can turn into an act of love and creativity.

14:52What do you mean by that? I think just putting in an extra effort or a small detail into anything that you do really. So even just like making a strawberry into a shape, I do that often. You know, that just kind of, it's not much, you know, but it is something extra special for whoever is receiving it. I like to give people stickers. I have a tin of stickers that I pull from. I collect them and then I choose to try to choose just the right one for the right person. Yeah. And see, it's not much, you know, it's a sticker, but it could mean everything to someone else receiving it. And of course, that bit of wisdom doesn't just apply to your relationship with the kids in your life.

15:36Try making an artful lunchbox for a partner, a sibling, a parent, a friend or for yourself. It's another way to brighten up the day.

15:56okay time for a recap takeaway one gather your supplies get a lunch box that works for your kid make sure they know how to use it takeaway two consider your child's lunch constraints like how long do they actually have to eat when is their lunch time what do they like to eat takeaway three try out some different recipes and get comfortable with them so you can speed up your cooking time. Also remember to drop in some snacks. And takeaway four, add flair. Use cookie cutters to cut fruit and other snacks in different shapes. Decorate their lunch with a holiday theme or a theme from a movie and write them sweet little messages.

16:34A little goes a long way here. For more Life Kit, check out our other episodes. We have one on how to boost your mood in 15 minutes and another on how to waste less food. You can find those at npr.org slash life kit. And if you love life kit and want even more subscribe to our newsletter at npr.org slash life kit newsletter. Also, we love hearing from you. So if you have episode ideas or feedback you want to share, email us at life kit at npr.org. This episode of life kit was produced by Margaret Serino. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan. And our digital editor is Malika Garib. Megan Cain is our supervising editor and Beth Donovan is our executive producer.

17:12Our production team also includes Andy Tegel, Claire Marie Schneider, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Tiffany Veda-Castro and Kwasi Lee. I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening.