From Dawn Till Dusk

While planning menus and preparing healthy food for the family has been a breeze for quite sometime now, another challenge came along my way as a Mom and Homemaker with Nico already going to preschool. Nico’s schooling may not be that regular for the moment as I expect the daily take ups in June. But sure there’s a lot of braving up to do in terms of budgeting, planning and providing Nico with only the healthy snacks. Like the fears of most stage Moms, I don’t want to face frustration knowing that at the end of the day, my kid’s school bag still had food half eaten or worst, sandwich left untouched. So before I get totally depressed, I browsed through a brief research on what would turn out to be “good snacks” for Nico. I meant “good”, as in these snacks should not only be interesting in terms of taste or appeal, but also “good” in terms of health value.

Here’s what I’ve researched so far (courtesy of Gardenia Bakeries Philippines Inc):

• Use whole wheat bread for sandwiches. Whole wheat bread is rich in fiber, which keeps the digestive system clean and lowers cholesterol. Pair it with equally healthy fillings that are low in fat such as chicken breast and lettuce for a savory and healthy snack.
• Always include a good source of calcium. Remember that kids need their calcium for strong bones and teeth. But bringing milk, a rich source of calcium, to school as part of baon may not be safe since refrigeration and other conditions cannot be ensured. A good way to guarantee that kids get enough calcium in their diet is to make sandwiches using breads fortified with this mineral.
• Do away with junk food. Junk food offers little or no health benefits. They are filled with the additives such as monosodium glutamate and salt. Instead, try making sandwiches or buns filled with spreads, fruit jam or marmalade, as well as pastries. Besides being tasty and enjoyable, the breads and buns have carbohydrates that provide energy, and the fruits for fiber. Whether the spread is chocolate, cheese, strawberry, pineapple, guava or ube, kids will surely look forward to their recess.
• Make baon a surprise. Kids just love surprises. Make their baon a surprise that they can enjoy by preparing something different every day. Variety is not difficult or expensive particularly when various breads are available. Breads come in unique flavors and shapes—loaves, buns and single-serve packs—that can easily be dropped in the lunch box.
• Explain to kids why healthy snacks are good for them. This way you can ensure they understand why eating healthy snacks benefits them, and that their baon gets eaten and enjoyed every day.

Now, that sounds easy to follow. How about putting everything into practice?

Putting the Theories into Practice on Our Grocery Day
And so came Saturday, the day we do our grocerying. All of us in the family were very much excited because aside from having this chore as one of the regular bonding time for us as a family, the inspiration of grocerying for Nico’s snacks and putting them in our grocery cart excites us. It’s something new in the family as Jun commented, “Wow, school boy na talaga ang anak ko. Bibili na kami ng maraming maraming baon ni Nico!”

The regular grocery buys need no list as we already memorized them by heart when grocerying. But for the new buys, I brought in a list with me so that I (always having the CS operation as excuse to be forgetful) can be reminded on what to buy. Of course, I grabbed in a pack of Gardenia, a pack of sandwich zippy bags, and some ingredients for the sandwich fillings like eggs, tuna, chicken, mayonnaise, and cheese. And I was very happy with that.

Not until we came upon the snacks section, or better to call it the “junk food section”. Ngak, Nico together with his pasaway na Dada, rushed through the artificially-flavored tetra juice packs, the super carbonated foil packs of salty chips, and the tooth-decaying capable sweets of candies and chocolates. “Eto bilhin natin yan, masarap yan, favorite yan ni Nico,” the pasaway the Dada said while Nico even insisted that I open a pack of chips, “Mommy, open please”. Naku, I don’t know what to do with my boys that even if I rejected to take those junks, the two persisted putting them in the cart, as in they even guarded me to get hold on to those items up to the time we paid our groceries.

So sadly, we ended up going home with these:

Tsk, tsk, tsk, I know the boys are happy with us three doing the grocerying. But sometimes, how I’d also wished that it was just me taking on the chore para walang kokontra. On the other hand though… hmmm, well, well, well, I got another plan. Since it’s me whose going to prepare the baon…Why yes, I’d just omit the junks and let the healthy food into Nico’s school snack bag (Hehehe), that by the way is this:

It’s a Thermal SpongeBob Baon Bag that has two compartments. The upper compartment can contain the Water Bottle (as seen in photo) and a Tetra Pack of Juice or Milk and about two sandwiches. The lower compartment can contain a foodbox. In this case, I bought an All-Lock-In Transparent Container (as also seen in photo) that can contain Lugaw or Sopas or Champorado or whatever breakfast I prepare.

Since we have been a bit rushing for school in the morning, I’ve decided that Nico just drink a glass of milk at home and just eat his “real” breakfast in school.