PB&J 4-ever!!!!!

Cassie's been back at school as a 7th grader for about a week and a half now and I think we've fallen back into the routine pretty effortlessly. My big responsibility every month is to print out the monthly school lunch menu and post it on our fridge. There, Cassie will mark off the days she will take or buy lunch. That in turn helps me plot out my grocery list for the upcoming weeks. Bread--check. Cold cuts--check. Fruit cups--check. Peanut Butter--check, check!

There was an article in the local paper today entitled "Not PB&J AGAIN! Liven Up The Lunchbox". BLASPHEMY! I had to laugh because one of the sandwich 'alternatives' they have pictured and suggested is a cucumber sandwich. My daughter would be trading that off to some unsuspecting 6th grader for something else, I'm sure! I still to this day believe that the PB&J is one of the finest sandwiches out there. The wonderful balance of sweet strawberry jam (my fav) slathered onto a almost-too-thick layer of chunky peanut butter with it's crunchy and slightly salty yumminess......mmmmmm. Think about it, in culinary worlds, the PB&J was waaaaay ahead of it's time with the whole 'sweet and salty' combo!

Now, I don't eat it every day and neither does Cassie--she'll opt for ham every once in a while--but the PB&? is standard. '?' you ask? Yep. Cass is creative, I have to say. Sometimes it is a PB&J, sometimes it's PB&F (that's PB and Fluff--we called that a Fluffer-Nutter). Occasionally it's a PB&H (honey) or PB&AB (apple butter). They're alllll good!

I've been reminded by my middle-schooler that the insulated lunch bag is still a must and they have to be cool looking and colorful, too. Before we roll our eyes at the notion of keeping-up-with-the-Kardashians with our insulated lunch bags, remember when we were kids? We wanted the latest lunch box with the latest and coolest action figure or tv show on the outside, didn't we? Yep! Charlie's Angels, Battlestar Gallactica, Fat Albert--they were the good ones to have. Ya know what lunch box I had in elementary school? A US Mail lunchbox. I am pretttttty sure it was not one of the cool ones. But I do understand now that that US Mail lunchbox may be worth some money!!! I bet my Mom still has it....can you say....Ebay?!

This was my lunchbox!