On August 21st I re-vamped our entire lunch life. We went from sunbutter and jelly or sunbutter and honey sandwiches to full blown healthy (and delicious) monkey platters. Initially, I put no pressure on myself, but wanted to try it for a few days.
Well here we are over a month later and not a single sandwich has been consumed by the kids or me in all those days! I don't often congratulate myself on being a fabulous mom, in fact about 75% of the time I remind myself of my multitude of failures as a parent. However, seeing my kids eat fruits and vegetables (often with gusto!) makes me feel like I am awesome!
Our daily fruit and vegetable intake was abysmal prior to the beginning of Monkey Platters. My guilt over this was high, but not high enough to devise a solution. I detest washing, peeling, and chopping vegetables. I am not even too thrilled about selecting them at the store or market: testing for firmness, deciding if it is ripe enough for tonight, not ripe enough to last for three days, organic (for the dirty dozen), grown in the USA, local....the demands on a healthy eater are endless! (#firstworldproblems, I know!)
So often when I did bring home fresh produce, half or more would end up rotting before we ate it. Even peeling a banana felt like too much work most days. The really tragic part is, my kids love fruits and vegetables. Sure, they would choose potato chips over cucumbers, but if it is just the cucumber they will devour an entire one while I cook dinner.
So Monkey Platters saved us...is it the name? I literally don't mind prepping vegetables now. In fact, I look forward to figuring out how to add a new flavor or color to their muffin tins. I get excited when I come up with a new addition to change it from yesterday.
My dilemma with the Monkey Platters though came in the form of to-go lunches. Ziploc bags of smudged fruit, watery cucumbers, drying carrots often awaited us when we opened our lunch bags. And packing such prettiness in such a bland container, honestly took some of the fun away.
All that has changed now. Our brand new, quite shiny, totally excellent PlanetBoxes arrived yesterday! I had told Luke and Ian that we were getting new lunchboxes and tried to hype them up. Well when they arrived, imagine my surprise when we spent thirty minutes discovering the boxes! Practicing opening and closing them, putting the dippers in the boxes, putting the dippers in the bag pockets, reviewing the possibilities for each compartment, practicing carrying everything, applying and studying their own magnets, checking if their cups fit, loving on them!! What fun and what amazement I had!
Ian keeps calling his, "Laptop!" I think it reminds him of his Dada's laptop bag. Another bonus!
So today was our trial run in the wild. The kids sat at the counter talking to me and watching eagerly as I prepped all the food, helping me pick compartments. They were very excited to get their magnets off the fridge and place them on their boxes. (Love that Luke helped Ian! These things not only help us eat healthy, but increase harmony!) They each put their own lunchbox in their own bag. I overheard Luke say, "Ian good job putting your water in the pocket. I am proud of you." (Melt a Mama's heart!)
They loved eating from the boxes and I loved watching them! I am definitely ordering two more for Mark and me. They are expensive, but already worth every penny!
