School lunches advice from an expert: Kate Gosselin, mother of 8
If you want to learn about something, ask an expert.When I wanted hints about packing school lunches, I asked Kate Gosselin, the mom in TLC’s reality series Jon and Kate Plus Eight, who is speaking to food writers on behalf of the Grains Foods Foundation.
Granted, Kate’s got only two children in school — 7-year-old twins Mady and Cara are in the second grade — but she’s also got 4-year-old sextuplets at home. Aaden, Joel, Collin, Hannah, Leah and Alexis are in preschool three afternoons a week, which means that Kate and the kids must sit down to lunch at 10:50 a.m. on those days. Planning and organization are obvious necessities for the Gosselin family, but Kate’s also concerned with nutrition and variety.
She asks the older girls each evening what they’d like for lunch the next day, then gets to work as soon as she’s done with dinner. Nine times out of 10, Cara and Mady get sandwiches. “They rarely agree on what kind of sandwiches,” Kate says.
“I cut out the sandwiches in shapes sometimes, change the bread,” she says.
Each lunch also includes yogurt or a cheese stick, a piece of fruit and something crunchy, such as popcorn or an oatmeal-raisin cookie. Finally, she tucks in a note. “Just my way sending love along with them to school,” she says.
None of her kids are picky eaters, although Joel went through a phase where he wasn’t interested in dinner. “For about a month, we had to tell Joel to pick up his fork or he didn’t,” she says. To compensate: “I bulked up his breakfast and lunch.”
Kate says she’s always thinking about new and different recipes. “I’m constantly at the store looking for things that are healthy but kids like,” she says. “It’s kind of my hobby. I like to fill them with healthy calories.”
She buys bread in bulk, “a whole flat of bread that the bread man brings in,” because her family goes through a loaf a day. She has three chest freezers (and two refrigerators). “The advantages of having eight kids is nothing has a chance to go bad or get stale,” she says.
Here are some recipes that Kate Gosselin developed for the Grain Foods Foundation:
FALL HARVEST SANDWICH
2 slices whole-wheat bread
1 tablespoon honey mustard
1 slice Cheddar cheese
2 slices honey ham
1/2 Granny Smith apple, sliced thin
Top 1 piece of bread with mustard, then cheese, then ham, then apple slices. Top with the remaining piece of bread. Cut on the diagonal and serve.
PB & APPLE
2 slices whole-wheat white bread or oatmeal bread
Peanut butter
1/2 apple, thinly sliced and drizzled with a tiny amount of lemon juice
Spread each slice of bread with peanut butter. Place thin apple slices on one slice. Close sandwich and cut into triangles.
CREAM CHEESE ROLL
1 slice whole-wheat white bread
Light cream cheese
1 slice smoked turkey
1/2 cucumber, sliced lengthwise
Trim the crusts of the bread and gently roll out the slice so it resembles pastry. Spread with light cream cheese. Place the turkey slice in the center of the bread. Add cucumber slices. Roll the bread similar to a sushi roll and cut into mini rolls.
CREAM CHEESE ROLL (FOR ADULTS)
1 slice whole-wheat white bread
Light cream cheese
1 slice smoked salmon
1/2 avocado, sliced
Trim the crusts of the bread and gently roll out the slice so it resembles pastry. Spread with light cream cheese. Place the smoked salmon in the center of the bread. Add avocado slices. Roll the bread similar to a sushi roll and cut into mini rolls.
HANDY HUMMUS WRAP
2 or 3 leaves lettuce
1 whole wheat or whole-wheat white wrap
2 to 3 tablespoons hummus
1/2 cucumber, sliced lengthwise
1/2 red pepper, cut into long strips
Place lettuce leaves in the middle portion of the wrap. Top with hummus. Add sliced cucumber and red pepper. Roll and cut in half.
(107 votes, average: 2.48 out of 5)
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Judith Evans is the food and travel editor for the Post-Dispatch. 
I was an avid viewer of this show until I realized that the kids were the entire show, and by watching I was passively supporting their exploitation. Judith, in all the episodes that I viewed I never saw Kate actually prepare or serve a sandwich, so I find it hard to believe that she should be considered an “expert” on this subject. If you had interviewed her regarding her pancake recipes I’d find that information half way credible, but sandwiches…no.
Ty~ Most typical people (as in functional adults) in the USA value and protect children to the highest degree. I just can not believe that anyone would consider how the Gosselins support their large family as healthy or in the best interest of these minor children. J and K could and should get real jobs to support the kids that they felt they needed to have. It’s called being the parents, people. Oh, and nurses can and do make good money (I know I am one)…it’s called weekends and off hours(day care problems solved). For all you Gosselin Fans, do you support your kids or do you expect them to support you? Enough said
— Lisa,
For all those women that are moms with negative comments…shame on you.
1:25 pm September 20th, 2008
Let me just say, to all those women who put Kate Gosselin on a pedestal…Shame on you!
“She is a stay at home mom now (she was a nurse)… with 8 kids the cost of childcare would be more than any RNs salary. Jon does have a job.
They don’t have a chef… on the few days/year that there is taping in their house then there is ‘craft services’ of course.”
Come on. He doen’t have a job other than the show. They don’t tape a few days a year; they’re shooting 50+ episodes for this upcoming season. They are shooting 3-4 days a week for 10 and 12 hours. Do you realize the amount of footage it takes to get enough usable for that many shows? Craft services are there and the chef who cooks for craft services stocks their freezers. It’s okay. They are riding that gravy train. Her taking about packing lunches is a hoot. PB and apple, who’d a thunk it!
An expert? This woman doesn’t know what organic is, yet constantly announces that’s all they eat, and thinks fiddler crabs in NC grow up to be Alaskan King Crabs! She is not that bright and hardly an expert on nutrition. She fills her kids with juice and wonders why they have no appetite and have sugar crashes throuhout the day.? Was she really an RN? Scary.
Of course I’ve seen the show. I wouldn’t have written about it if I hadn’t.
That said — these comments have gone WAY off topic. It’s time to stop all the trash talk. This is a recipe blog.
Want to comment? Post a recipe, please.
— Judith Evans
Well, if you can’t stand the heat, Judith……….ah, you are a foodie, you know the rest.
Correct me if I am wrong here, Judith, but as an editor I am sure that you are well seasoned in researching those you write about and/or interview.
You say you watch the show, fair enough. Is that where your research on Kate Gosselin began and ended?
Because I have to tell, you, Judith, one Google search would have scored you the history of this KON. If you still chose to write about parents and corporations that wallow in the blatant exploitation of children, you and your publication either wanted a piece of the pie, or you were counting on a dumber than dumb audience.
I am voting for the former, and as such, shame on you.
Kate an expert ?? An expert in what??? Sandwich making?? Cooking organic?? What are her credentials Judy????? Did you catch the episode when Sara Snow came to visit her to teach HER to cook an organic meal? LAST SEASON. What a joke. Looks like the PR firm that they hired is trying to repair their reputation. Too many people can see through Kate and Jon, no PR firm can repair that.
Judith, Let me offer my apology…I did see Kate prepare peanut butter and fluff(natural)sandwiches for their family picnic lunch. I wonder why she didn’t include that healthy recipe? I guess she does have some expertise in this area. Maybe she could get a real job preparing and selling sandwiches, and let her kids get back to enjoying their childhoods.
Cindy O- Whats wrong with the way they raise their family? All you can say is that they have their kids on tv making the money, well are you going to tell me that any other tv show you watch dont have kids in it? Are you advocating for all the kids on tv or just the Gosselins? I think the Gosselin kids are very well taken care of, they are Not abused they seem healthy, their clean, they have nice clothes, nice house..whats the problem? So what if they make their money doing the tv show..theres alot of kids that are on tv doing the same thing!
Ty~ Kids who participate in “reality” based tv shows are not protected by the same laws that govern your run-of-the -mill kids acting on everyday tv shows(aka actors). The protections on time, conditions and economic rewards are not applicable to the Gosselin children like they are for the child actors that I’m sure you’re comparing them too. These kids could be filmed 24/7/365 if their parents so elected. The kids have no say or economic advantage in this show. Please do not tell me that you would advocate for or support this lack of regulation and protection for these kids (or any others for that matter). Do you have any idea of the true meaning of exploitation…all the worse when carried out at the hands of those who are suppose to protect you, your own parents. Think about it!
Cindy O,
Thank you for being a child advocate and caring about children. It seems that some people don’t have a lot of common sense and understand it doesn’t matter if a woman can make her kids PB sandwiches, if she allows those children to be filmed naked and at private times and then those pictures are shown on youtube so that pervs can see their private parts. Oh yes, their private parts were shown and who do you think taped it, gee their film crew? Well duh. Yep J&K are truly looking after their kids. Really people, before you worship Kate, take a long hard look at what she has allowed to happen to her children. No one is jealous, they are just fed up with the way this woman treats her family and friends and then other people call her an “expert”. Oh yeah, she is an expert alright.