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. 
Has this woman ever heard of rice, beans, soup, noodles, or you know…um…fire? You know… for like cooking things? This is the blandest most boring most UN-expert bunch of recipes ever.
heres one for the bunch!
Take two pieces of bread. Add a slice of turkey. Close the breads. MMM!!! IM AN EXPERT!!!
OK Judith, I’ll bite. Here’s a YUMMY sandwich recipe!!! At least I won’t lie and say that I developed it.
Gross! Sandwich Recipe
butter or nonstick cooking spray .
2 slices bread
1 egg
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp peanut butter
Step #1 toast bread slices.
Step #2 fry egg the egg with butter or spray.
Step #3 put the peanut butter on one side of the toast & the sugar on top of the peanut butter so that the sugar sticks to the peanut butter.
Step #4 place fried egg between slices of toast.
Enjoy the Gross! Sandwich recipe
What a bunch of loonies. It’s an article on simple sandwich ideas for parents, and these vitriolic weirdos need to challenge each and every possible statement. “She didn’t make these up! She doesn’t feed the kids anyway! She’s so lazy! Her husband does it! No, it’s the cook! She gets a cook for free and I don’t! Her sister-in-law’s sister told me! I know her neighbor’s friend! Call them and ask! And even if she did make them, there’s no such thing as white whole wheat! Oh, there is? Well, it’s not as good for you as…” Blah, blah, blah.
If you have ethical problems with the show, approach the producers and the network. If you think you’re witnessing abuse, report it to CPS (and they can sigh at how some histrionic buttinsky is making a nuisance call). The point is, there are many more appropriate venues for your venom. Oh, and mean-spirited, jealous gossip isn’t evidence.
Now, after my own rant and in the spirit of recipe sharing, I would point out that the Harvest sandwich would be very good grilled.
This is so sad. Really, with the bread? I read that and I literally laughed out loud. I have watched this show (god help me) and you guys are going a little too far with the whole “organic” thing. Do you REALLY care that much? I’ve seen all the “exploitation” hype and if that is truly what you are concerned about, you need to stick to that subject. The rest just makes you look a little bit crazy. Seriously.
Check out the new issue of the National Enquirer. It’s reported that they do have a “personal organic chef.” I know this publication isn’t always accurate, but they were spot on with the John Edwards story, so it’s a strong possibility this fact is true.
I dont know about you… but If we were SOOOOO tight on money ( as the G’s Claim to still be) I wouldnt be putting Smoked Salmon and Hummus on my sandwich’s!
Kate forgot to add the part where you scream at your spineless husband to make the sandwiches for you. Don’t forget to stand behind him the entire time giving him “love taps”.
And don’t forget folks… your darling children must eat every speck of there yummy sandwiches or NO BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES for them!!!!!!! Unless of course its your favorite child then they get to eat them in front of there siblings.
boowabajibil- Well said!!…All these Kate haters have to complain about is because she has a chef or because she gets free stuff. If they had the chance to have all Kate Gosselin does, they would do it in a heartbeat! They claim they wouldnt but we know they would..I Would!!haha! Try voicing your opinions and something that truly matters people…and yes if you stop watching her show the exploitation and everything will stop because they will cancel the show if there are no ratings! And besides where are your children while you are here googling Kate Gosselin and writing things you have no idea about on diffrent blogs? Maybe you ladies are the bad mothers??
“I’m not sure I approve of IVF, but that’s what Roe vs Wade was all about, a woman’s right to privacy and choice.”
They didn’t do IVF. They did IUI. Believe me, I think they are about as close to a living example of rabidly anti-choice (I don’t agree with the term pro-life) as you could possibly get!
Sigh.
Please STOP featuring ANYTHING having to do with the Gosselins. To do otherwise is tantamount to being complicit in the exploitation and general loss of freedom and privacy that has been robbed from 8 childhoods. These sandwiches are neither healthy, nor unique, nor helpful. And why is the salmon only for adults? Ludicrous.
Judith,
I have read all the comments here and agree that this recipe blog is not necessarily the right forum to vent about the show. That being said, I think the thing that is most offensive to me is the fact that you chose to feature Kate Gosselin as an “expert” and someone to be admired. From what we’ve seen on the show (and you do admit you watch(ed) the show), it is clear that Kate does NOT do much cooking. As previous commenters have stated, the only actual cooking we’ve ever seen her do was to make pancakes. Furthermore, to take recipes that have been in existence for many, many years and claim that you’ve “developed” them is a flat out lie. IMO, this is just another indication of Kate’s poor moral character. She obviously more interested in the money she can earn than her own integrity. She is certainly not a person I admire.