I’m fairly sure that people who sell lunchbox recipe books must know that, in Australia at least, January may be the second-best time for sales, as parents are gathering ammunition for the lunchbox campaign. But then there are mums like me, who maybe think they know what they are doing for lunches for kids, who are all smug about having systems in place for prepping and freezing sandwiches and healthy sweets, who have all that upended as the reality kicks in of a preppie who doesn’t eat sandwiches and there’s only a certain time for eating before you get to play and who wants to miss out on playing just because of some boring basic necessity like food? Not any kid I know. 

So. A brief recap because that is what I like to do. When C started school, I didn’t want to do just sandwiches. Also, I was really worried about her eating anything at all because she could take a ridiculously long time to eat anything. Like, two hours for a muffin. She scored mini quiches and savoury muffins and filled croissants and all sorts of things, but it turned out what she really liked were sandwiches. I can’t remember if it was the start of grade 1 or 2 for her – I do remember I was slightly peeved that it had taken me so long to work it out – I got onto freezing sandwiches, and had a nice little flow of getting a loaf of bread and making three sandwiches to freeze. I had my way of lunch prep, and I could fill her lunchbox in about 18 seconds on the way out the door, as it turned out. C has been an ok lunch eater, and this year she has turned into an amazing lunch eater.

E started out well. Corn thins and a yoghurt would be more eaten than Biscoff love heart sandwiches, but generally she retuned empty or near-empty lunchboxes for the first two weeks. Then week 3 happened, where I discovered they start the routine of eat then play (instead of careful eating away from the rest of the school before playing just in the prep area), and I swear in week three her total food intake amounted to half a Biscoff sandwich, a bite of pancake with homemade raspberry and chia jam, three pieces of popcorn and a pickle. Oh wait. And a packet of Bluey Poppeasys every day, and a serve of fruit each day.  And a packet of tiny teddies. For a girl who does a walk of a mile each morning to get to school, and comes along to dancing for C two days a week, and does Irish dancing herself one day a week and has to walk home three days a week and does 90 minutes of dancing on a Saturday, this was not enough. 

Coincidentally, in week three I also just happened to find a number of posts in my feed for lunchbox recipes and ebooks. I looked. I investigated. My finger hovered over the Add to Cart button a few times. I bought one. Okay, fine, I bought three from the same company, but one was for lunchbox recipes, another was for bliss balls, and the third was party food and ideas, and as this was right before the “simple party just a birthday cake”, and as C will be having a birthday party in a few weeks, and S really wants a proper … you get the idea. But they were all greatly reduced in price so, you know. I have no regrets.

Also – proud mum moment here – I actually listened to what E told me at the end of week 4. “I can’t eat all that food”. A brain cell perked up and I realised she was suffering from too much eyes. You know when they’re ridonculously tired and have been active all day and you want to feed them up at dinner to replenish all that expended energy so they don’t wake up at 4.43am absolutely ravenous and ready for the new day, but what happens is they look at the normal serve of dinner in front of them and can barely manage a bite because this looks like too much of a job for their brains to handle and instead of eating even a little bit they get overwhelmed and don’t eat anything. 

Week 5, I had some new recipes, and I also reduced by about half what I put in the lunchbox. Mostly success! E really doesn’t like pancakes, though – actually, she never has, now I think about it – and two mini muffins in one compartment was still too much. Weeks 6 and 7, I am very smugly proud to report, have returned entirely empty lunchboxes for E and almost entirely empty lunchboxes for C. 

It has been a bit of a mental exercise for me to work out E, but – have I mentioned she is very different from C? – I go more for categories for her, and balance out the nutrition across the lunchbox. So. She is my crunch-lover. I aim for something crunchy, something protein, something sweet. Like, a corn thin and a yoghurt pouch, veggie straws and a flower sprinkle cookie. Or mini chicken drumsticks, baby cucumbers, and a mini chocolate chip and raspberry muffin. Or pea crisps and pickles and chocolate chickpea slice. Last week she asked if I could please also include poppeasies and as nothing has come home in the lunch bag, we’re good. That may continue.

This whole escapade has also boosted my happy super mum cup. By that I mean, I have been feeling more like a good mum – like the mum I always thought I would be and definitely wanted to be but lots and lots of things got in the way – and making loads of this myself. Caramel popcorn. Bread. Yoghurt bread. Flower sprinkle cookies. Banana oat chocolate chip cookies. I have found it possible to make the time to make the food. Partly, I am beginning to discover (as my oldest is about to turn 8, so that does deflate the new super mum feelings somewhat), as my focus is on calm and happy that then helps my girls be calmer and happier. And, admittedly, letting them watch a movie or some shows while I get things done in the kitchen helps. It helps.

So this weekend – which had birthday parties both mornings AND insistence from S about what I make as presents – I made the banana oat peanut butter cups that I love, green chocolate chip muffins, yoghurt bread, salted caramel popcorn and salted popcorn. There are still flower sprinkle cookies, blueberry bliss balls (try saying that three times in a row), banana oat choc chip cookies, chocolate chickpea slice and blueberry buckle available. I’ll make some more sandwiches with the yoghurt bread and then I guess I’ll be making another bread soon as we are out. Which makes me immensely happy. 

I still have to think when doing E’s lunches. I haven’t made it to the auto phase just yet. But super organised mum me is also planning a visual aid to help speed it up. Of course.