Lunch Box Fun - Magic Apples

My kids will eat just about anything I put in their lunch boxes. And I do feel sorry for them when I walk by their table and their lunch neighbor has Doritos and Oreos and Lunchables and Fruit Punch and Cheetos and white Powdered Donuts and somewhere under that pre-packaged, processed, painfully expensive pile of empty calories is maybe a sandwich. But maybe not*.

My kids eat veggies and they LOVE fruit. But also let me reassure you that if they had a lunch box filled with all of the above, they would eat that and love it too. Then they would ask for more. So we don't have a lot of junk food in the house because they would eat it all. If they could beat Dave to the pantry.

Because of preschool regulations, Wilson has to have a dairy, a protein, a vegetable, and a fruit. So I pack that way for all of my kids. It's healthy, they eat it. End of story. But just because they are healthy, not-fussy eaters doesn't mean that they don't deserve a little excitement in their lunch box. I've got lots of ideas for playing with healthy foods....Here's one:

Magic Apples



I can stick an apple in their bag and they will eat it just fine. But every now and then, we slice one...



Lay them in a single layer...



Sprinkle some magic dust...



Also known as this...



And snuggle them up next to a bagel (with cream cheese for Wilson, cream cheese and jelly for Anna Jane. Though Anna Jane consistently asks for a bagel with jelly and honey. What a sugary mess! Dave is the only one who falls for that one).



We keep our magic in this cute magic shaker. I got it for a wedding present. It had a twin, but it got lost in the last 8 years. Guess it was afraid we were going to fill it with salt. Or pepper. Now it's missing a life full of magic shaking. Poor thing.



I think apples taste better this way (really, I do). So maybe your school-ager will too. And of course they can sprinkle the magic themselves. But not slicing. Please don't let them slice!


*I don't judge you for packing these things. Really I don't.