How Does Your Lunch Measure Up?

A few months ago, one of the morning shows were previewing the new book “French Kids Eat Everything”  by Karen Le Billon and I was hooked.  Then I forgot all about it, probably because I don’t have little kids anymore. I have teenagers and most books like that are for parents of young children.

Today I stumbled across the website for Karen Le Billon and was hooked again.  I haven’t read through the entire site, but I was fixated on French school lunches.  Wow!  I wish I was in school in France!  These kids eat amazing lunches.  They have fresh fruits, veggies, the main dish, bread and cheese and something sweet.  Can I go to school there?  Then it made me think.

I’m a homeschool mom and homeschool moms have a reputation of sorts for home cooked everything.  Right?  I have friends that make everything from homemade crackers to growing only organic foods and some are even looking into butchering their own cows. I don’t go that far, I just have a small garden, but could I do better?  With all of the fuss in the U.S. right now over how everyone is eating, thank you, Michelle Obama, how are we as homeschoolers stacking up?

I must say that when my kids were little it was easy to plan their lunches and make sure it was very healthy.  But, as they get older and we’re in a rush to do school and get out the door for practices and games, it’s gotten really hard.  Especially since a lot of the time, they make their own lunch.  So how does your lunch stack up to the French?  Is there a way to do it or a version of it that would fit in a homeschool?

The French eat 3 meals a day and one after-school snack.  Lunch is their largest meal wherein the U.S. it’s supper.  Refer to the picture above of a typical French School lunch.  Here’s a typical U.S. school lunch?  Are we any better than that?

Here’s our lunch today:

• Oven baked chicken tenders (not the breaded kind, fresh)
• Sautéed corn (ok it was out of a can)
• French fries (baked, not fried)

Not exactly what the French would have in mind but it sounds ok.  What do you think?  Are homeschool lunches better than school lunches?  How do you think we stack up against the French?  Have we succumbed to fast and easy over nutritious and yummy?  How does your lunch measure up?  I would love to hear your thoughts and feel free to share your lunch!