Max Week: Buyer

Falafel Pita with spinach and feta

David making Max a sandwich.

Deconstructing brussel sprouts.

Making salad.

Max balances out his love for chocolate with an incredible love for fresh vegetables.  I am so lucky to have him as the oldest to be  an example to his younger siblings.  He is the kind of kid who ASKS for salad for lunch or snack.  It doesn't come so naturally for Oliver, but he has learned to love it all from Max.

Since the beginning of the school year Max has been intrigued with the idea of being a "buyer" at school.  A "buyer" buys school lunch.  A couple months ago he came home and in tears cried to  me "I just want to be a BUYER :(((( I am tired of being a PACKER!! :(((("  He reassured me that they have healthy choices. And I said the next time a menu came home we would take a look together.  Of course it was how it always is, pizza pizzatas, chicken nibbles, mini corn dogs, uncrustables. I did notice that every day what would have been the fried food side (french fries or tater tots) was replaced with a "garden salad".  Hmmmm...I thought.  Maybe they are trying to make changes.  I told him that I would think about it and maybe I could volunteer a day and come in and see what they were offering.  

Well, life has been busy and I haven't been able to go in.  A couple months passed and David was out of town.  Max had a couple rough days at school.  I knew that being a buyer would cheer him up.  So we looked over the menu carefully together and he chose a day.  Cheeseburger day.  I read him the options and he decided that he would have a cheeseburger, the garden salad and the fresh fruit.  I tucked him into bed.  A half hour later I heard, "Mom??" and went in to check on him.  He asked me, "Mom?  What drink should I choose?  they have chilled milk and chocolate milk and three kinds of juices -- orange pineapple, apple and grape." In my head I am thinking -- this kid has been studying that buyer lunch for a while.  I told him that I knew he knew what was healthy and that he would make the right choice.  He had a huge smile on his face as he drifted off into buyer dreamland.  

You would have thought it was Christmas the way he woke up the next morning, bounding down the stairs asking where his "buyer envelope" was so he could pay for his lunch.  We tucked it into his backpack and finished the morning routine.  I kissed him and he skipped, buyer-style off to the bus.  

When he got home I was anxious to ask him about his lunch. 

"So, tell me about lunch!"

"It was good."

"What did you choose?"

"cheeseburger, garden salad and chilled milk"

"oh, chilled milk!  Were you thinking about healthy options?" (healthy options is a term they have been using in their kindergarten health unit)

"yes."

"Great.  What about the rest of the lunch"

"Mom.  They didn't even have lettuce, tomato, ketchup or mustard for the cheeseburger."

"Really?"

"And mom, the salad was not good.  The lettuce tasted funny and there was no broccoli or cucumbers or tomato -- just green and purple lettuce (I am sure red cabbage) and these bendy carrots. You know, they were little and straight and they were bendy and didn't break when I was bending them. And no dressing"

(I am thinking he missed some kind of condiment table, which I am kind of bothered they didn't help him find)

"And what about the fresh fruit?"

"I didn't see it"

"oh.  so you just had the plain cheeseburger, the salad and the chilled milk?"

"Yeah, but I couldn't finish the salad."

"So, what did you think about being a buyer? Do you want to do it again?"

"It was fun but I like our salads and hamburgers better.  Their hamburgers were only medium size. Yeah, I would like to try it again someday"

One point for home food.

Zero for school food.

On Monday I took Mormor to get her haircut at the mall.  Next door was Old Navy.  We went to browse around while Mormor was getting her half inch taken off.  I was so happy to come across this.  A to-go salad container by sistema. We have already been using sistema lunch cubes for a couple years now, but I had not seen the salad containers.  Oh!  My little salad lover would be so happy!  I bought one in blue.  (they had pink too --and I originally bought my lunch cubes at Macy's-so I know that they have options there as well).  

As soon as I showed him he wanted salad, so we did indeed have a trial salad run right then and there -- made sure he could get the lid off the dressing container and put the collapsable utensils together.  It was a gobbled-up rousing success.  

He is planning on taking his first salad to school for lunch today.  Yummy romaine, crunchy carrots, cucumber, olives, cubed cheese, croutons and a homemade vinaigrette (It would have more veggies, but I need to get the store -- I have had strep throat this week).

I hope it's another christmas morning being a "packer".  I am excited to hear the report this afternoon.  

**Welcome to Max Week -- where you get Max to the Max.