The Comfort Of A School Lunch

This upcoming school year is going to be fraught with all sorts of anxiety. A comforting school lunch can help ease some of those fears and stresses. Classic sandwiches, hot meals and snacks may bring a smile to those worried faces.

Fun lunches and riffs on cafeteria classics can easily be recreated at home. This is great if the kids are returning to classrooms right away and need to bring a lunch. Egg and tuna salad sandwiches are staples in any school and even college cafeterias. For the egg salad spike it up with some parsley or paprika for color. Tuna salad can be crunched up with the addition of celery which also gives it a shot of green too.Of course kids love bologna and turkey too.Many love the squish of both mayo and mustard. Combine these for a new condiment with the addition of toasted mustard seeds. The last  are easy to toast. It's just five minutes in a 350 degree Farenheit oven. Of course there is the loved for generations peanut butter and jelly . Vary it with crunchy peanut butte or all natural kinds. Change it up with either cashew or almond butter if the little ones are OK with that. (Keep in mind that some will freak out if you replace one kind of peanut butter with another). Get sandwich cutters to give them a festive look. what's good about these is that the cutters also seal in the filling so it doesn't squish all over the place. These will also come in handy when the little and not so little ones return to the classroom.

Some kids may not be returning to their classrooms until October or November. This means a hot or more substantial lunch. This is where your crockpot can come in handy. Make a big pot of chili for dinner one night and lunch the next (also remember that it can be used to top hot dogs too). Think about making crockpot tomato sauce which can be used over such kid favorites as spaghetti and ravioli. Kids love a good steamy bowl of tomato soup. Sure you can open a can but homemade is better - and much more flavorful. It's just taking plum tomatoes and cooking it with either chicken or vegetable broth. There's also diced onions, seasonings and garlic to round out the flavors. It's all stirred and cooked in the crockpot for six to eight hours.Grilled cheese is another kid favorite. Add a slice of ham for a croque monsieur vibe. Older kids may like it the French bistro version with a bechamel sauce on top. Bechamel is an easy blend of milk,butter and flour. Salt, pepper and nutmeg are the seasonings that elevate it. You could serve it with bistro fries or shoe string potatoes for a really fun lunch.

Start this  unprecedented school year off with familiar foods for lunch.It can be a hot soup or a cold PB & J sandwich. Whatever they like as long as it's a comfort to them.