by Diane Sagers
CORRESPONDENT
It's back-to-school time. Time for books, new crayons and freshly sharpened pencils, clean notebooks, loose-leaf binders and school clothes. It is also time for lunch planning. While the schools of Tooele County offer a school lunch program that offers good food choices for a reasonable price, not all kids are suited to the program. They may have food allergies or food preferences that make a packed lunch a better option. Some kids like school lunch but want to vary it by taking lunch from home occasionally.
If you are sending lunch from home, it doesn't need to be boring. You can find an assortment of ways to enhance the usual sandwich and apple with different foods.
Kids like fun treats in their lunchboxes. You can find serving-size packages of treats at the grocery store or you can save money by making your own and choosing your ingredients for nutrition and taste.
For example, if your child has a nut allergy, you would not want to give them a commercial trail mix packet, but you could take this recipe for Gorp (another name for a trail mix), leave out the nuts and perhaps add some other treat to the mixture. It is extremely simple to make -- just stir together an assortment of your student's favorite ingredients and make it as nutritious as you wish. Use the optional variation to coat the mixture for an extra boost.
Send it in the sack lunch or other small container for a special treat.
Gorp
5 cups Cheerios
5 cups Corn Chex
5 cups raisins
10 ounces mini pretzels
2 cups salted peanuts or other nuts of choice
1 pound package M&M's or gummy candies
Mix together
Optional variation
2 (12-ounce) packages of vanilla chips
3 tablespoons oil
Melt the vanilla chips with oil. If using a microwave, stir the chips every 10 seconds after the first 30 seconds. Pour the mixture over the other ingredients. Stir well to coat the cereal and pretzels. Store in an airtight container.
Popcorn is an inexpensive easy-to-make treat that kids love. Try making it into caramel corn and you have a winning snack.
Microwave caramel corn
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 cups popped corn
Spray paper grocery sack with non-oil cooking spray. Put popped corn into sack. In a 1-quart bowl, microwave brown sugar, margarine, corn syrup and salt. Bring to boil and boil 2 minutes on high. Remove and add 1/2 teaspoon soda and stir. Pour into bag over popcorn. Fold down top of sack and shake well. Microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes. Shake again. Microwave for another 1 1/2 minutes. Shake several times during cooling.