0 Introduction

My son is entering full-time (8am to 3pm) preK this year. This is a long day for a four year old, and it requires not only a packed lunch, but two snacks as well -- one for morning, and one for afternoon.

My mom was an artist. She loved to paint, draw, sew, craft, sculpt. She did not, however, like to cook, clean, or organize. Dinner was usually a Shake'N Bake chicken with a baked potato. Lunches were somewhat less creative, sometimes quite bleak.  Often, there would be a rut of a certain kind of sandwich. A rut could go on for a week or even several weeks. Lunch for me was much like Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day" -- an eternity of opening a brown paper bag to find the same sad tuna sandwich and an apple. Needless to say, I do not remember my school lunches fondly.

Growing up in my home, with my creative and artisic Mom, Ramona, I did not pick up very many practical Mom-skills. One summer we made papier mâché puppets, painted scenery and built sets for an elaborate puppet production of Hansel & Gretel. And yes, those creative projects taught me much about the usefulness of a scrim and various other stage craft.  But no. I learned woefully little about the essential task of feeding myself or a family.

Cut to now. I am a wife. A mom. And thanks to YouTube and cooking shows like Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals, I am now an amateur cook, capable of making easy, healthy meals from real food, (not frozen boxes of space niblets.)

I realized late into my thirties that I am hypoglycemic. And early on with my baby boy, I noticed an all too familiar Food-Mood connection. By the time he was two, I'd figured out that I had to feed him every three hours. If I didn't, my sweet boy would turn demon, and trying to get a demon to eat is so much more difficult than feeding a sweet child.  Also, I noticed the quality of food made a big difference. As long as I gave him protein with every meal and as long as I limited carbs and sugars, he remained an angel. Knowing to always have protein was a lesson I quickly learned, reinforced when, in its absence, my son had wretched sugar crashes: A breakfast consisting of a single jelly toast one morning resulted in a total meltdown 20 minutes later!  Potty training with M&Ms became total nightmare - 15 minutes after his M&Ms reward, he'd be sobbing histerically over something quite trivial like a tipped toy train. 

So, I'm now in the habit of avoiding corn syrup and processed sugar; and I am always looking for proteins he will eat. But my son is a slow eater. At home, I can encourage him to finish his meals and time is rarely an issue. Who knows how he'll eat at school? 

Challenge 1   Frequency- Will my kid get to eat every three hours? 
                      Well, the 2 snacks and a lunch schedule will hopefully solve the frequency issue. 
Challenge 2   Quality -  Will my kid eat his protein at every meal time? 
                      What if my son only eats fruit items and neglects to eat protein?
Challenge 3   Quantity- Will my kid eat quickly enough to finish & hence get enough fuel? 
                      My goal is to prevent socially-crippling melt downs related to low blood sugar. 

So here is my blog - a diary about packing nutritious lunches my son will want to devour in record time when he is at school. I'll be striving to avoid the lunch purgatory I suffered through and create a Yum lunch each day that is packed with protein, fruit, veggies, and a little fun.