A Lovely Lunch

New ideas for making everyone's
favorite time of day even more exciting.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM EDITOR

. I n Japan, it's an art.
Mothers are judged by
how well they prepare
their children's lunches.
The sushi should be pro-
perly, finely wrapped in
seaweed, and the rice neither
under- nor overcooked. The
desert should be not only
tasty but beautiful, often
molded into a perfect
circle.
In the United States, lunch
is more likely to consist of a
sandwich thrown together
and a few chips tossed into a
plastic bag.
It doesn't have to be that
way.
Here are some great ideas
for making your child's lunch
a lot of fun to make, and a lot
of fun to eat!

Write a happy message
IF Leave a secret message
along the side of your child's
on the back of a postcard, cut
napkin.
up in several pieces to make a
It Make your own peanut
puzzle.
butter (combine crushed
t Use food coloring to paint
peanuts and a little oil) and
a picture on a sandwich made
your own jelly (blueberry al-
of toasted white bread. (Com-
ways works well) for a yummy
bine several drops of food col-
peanut-butter-and-jelly sand-
oring with about
wich.
1 tablespoon
t Cut napkins into fun
Make
milk. Paint on
shapes, like hearts
bread, then toast). a napkin into and stars, or ani-
Or, add food col-
mals if you're more
oring to cream
artistic.
a stax.
cheese to make a
I For a quick, healthy
blue or green taste treat.
lunch treat combine equal
• Make a surprise fruit sal-
parts sunflower seeds, carob
ad by skipping the usual orange
(or chocolate) chips and raisins.
and apple and using such fare
Make a cookie and deco-
as mango, kiwi, star fruit and
rate with food coloring, candy
raspberries. Or, place fruits on a
sprinkles and M&Ms to look
skewer for a fun fruit kabob.
like your child.

Prepare
a mini-salad bar by placing sev-
eral ingredients in separate
plastic bags. Include chopped
lettuce, carrot and cucumber
slices, raisins, chow-mein noo-
dles, a hard-boiled egg. This al-
lows your son or daughter to
feel like a chef as he prepares
his own meal.
I Send a pizza pita.

You will need:

1 pita
tomato sauce
cheese

Plus some selected
toppings:
olives
spinach
green pepper
onion
pineapple
fresh garlic

Place all ingredients inside
pita and warm in oven.
• Send a rainbow of foods:
a purple piece of cabbage, a
blue plum, a green cucumber,
a yellow banana, an orange
carrot and a red strawberry.
t Plan an international
week, with a burrito on Mon-
day, spaghetti on Tuesday,
falafel on Wednesday, Greek
salad on Thursday and fish and
chips on Friday.
t Instead of one sandwich
on bread, make a bunch of tiny
ones on crackers.
I Most children won't ex-

Lunch In Israel

DIANE SCHAEFER STAFF WRITER

slowly throughout the school
day.
The choice of sandwiches as
a main dish is fairly obvious be-
cause Israeli public schools
have rules about what that
main dish may be: sandwiches.
Bourekas, kugel, cake and oth-
er such goodies, often served
for lunch at home, are banned
from the school lunch room be-
cause they might inspire jeal-

ousy among other students.
Israeli sandwiches are con-
structed using pita (the neatest
for messy eaters), the elongat-
ed Israeli roll, or simply two
slices of bread. Tuna is a fa-
vorite filling, as are the tasty
vegetarian hot dogs sold
throughout the country. Other
commonly used fillings are
white cheese (the Israeli ver-
sion of cream cheese), white

cheese with olives, cottage
cheese, chocolate spread
(which Israelis actually consid-
er a food) and eggs, either fried
and spread with ketchup or in
an omelet.
Chani, the secretary at a
health clinic in our neighbor-
hood, says the following
omelet is an often-requested
sandwich staffer with her two
children, ages 6 and 8.

TUNA OMELET

3 well-beaten eggs
1 can tuna, drained
sliced green onions
salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together and
fry, on both sides, in a skillet
Turn out on a plate and cut into
triangles. Place between two
slices of bread or in a pita round.
Serve with cucumber slices and
a piece of fruit

A U G U S T 1 99 7

Trying to decide what to
1 pack in your child's lunch
box for a school day in Israel?
Think sandwiches, accom-
panied by fruit, vegetable
slices and a drink — usually
water or petel, a sugary fla-
voring that is the Israeli equiv-
alent of Kool-Aid. During
hot weather, the drinks
often are placed in plastic bot-
tles then frozen, to thaw