Smoothies

For several months I've had great difficulty getting Jay to eat his lunch. Every morning I would spend time making his lunch - with love I might add and every afternoon when I would check his lunch box his sandwich would not be eaten or his fruit wouldn't be touched. The interesting part is it has never occurred to Jay to simply throw his cold lunch out at school. I'm not encouraging him to lie but really I gotta admit it's hard to believe the kid has gotten all the way through 3rd grade and hasn't figured out if you just throw your lunch away then mom and dad will assume you've eaten it. Mike and I had about lost our minds about two weeks ago because Jay was eating NOTHING for lunch and we had tried everything. I bought him a thermos so he could have "hot" lunch. Mike grilled him cheeseburgers (for his thermos), I packed him soup, gondolas, you name it, I tried it. The big piece of the puzzle that I haven't mentioned is Jay is on a medication that decreases his lunch time appetite. He doesn't purposely not eat his lunch, he just doesn't have an appetite but just the same I was desperate to try and find a way to get him to eat something healthy at lunch. My dear friend Karen Neal (Thank you Karen!!!) suggested smoothies. For about two weeks I've packed Jay peach smoothies, banana and strawberry smoothies, you name it, I've thought of it and Jay has loved them! They are packed with yogurt, fruit and honey so he's getting the protein and calories he needs, in a healthy way. I was hoping to score some extra mom points and asked Jay if his friends were jealous that he was getting smoothies in his lunch and his quick response was, "No, AJ and Tristan both get candy in their lunches." Oh boy! To Jay's credit he has thanked me for the smoothies and just the fact that he's finally eating/drinking his lunch is thanks enough to me.