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.