Aha! With all this back to school lunch talk, I always chuckle because I've been packing school lunches for about 13 years now.I pack multiple lunches each day,and one year I even calculated how many lunches I've packed. I don't remember the exact number, but it was pretty staggering.
I'm now packing lunch for an athletic high school boy. Last week, I rose early and prepared to make a hefty sandwich, but Isoon gasped because I discovered that a little gnome had eaten the last of the cold cuts during the night!! I knew I needed a rapid fire backup plan. Scrambling around well before dawn that morning, I decided to wing it and pack a burrito.
Luckily, I had recentlypurchased some massiveDon Pancho 14-inch tortillasat Cash & Carry here in Seattle. So,I decided to load one up with some fixings from the prior night's burritos--taco meat, black beans, white rice, fresh cilantro, a dollop of salsa, sour cream, and some shredded cheddar. Because theDon Pancho tortillasare so HUGE, I was able to pack a lot of punch into the "package" and was amazed at how well the whole thing wrapped up. There were no loose ends. The tidy but bigburrito fit nicely into a Lock and Lock container.
On the way to school, I told my son to use the microwave that he has access to in the lunch room. My directions were pretty bare bones...just heat it up for a few seconds and be careful not to get it too hot. Much to my delight, he listened to me and heated that big bad burrito up in the appliance. Will told me that the burrito was a huge hit and that he would happily eat that daily. He also reported that he thought the rice and beans carried him through cross country practice later that day.
So, if you are stumped on what to feed an athletic teenage boy for lunch,forget the school lunch and those processed saltyLunchables andseriously considerputting beans, rice, a little meat, some cheese, and a king-size tortillain the bag!
--Melissa A. Trainer
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