Fun Functional and Fresh
Get Fun, Functional and Fresh with Frego
Fun, Functional, Fresh… that fits frego to a t. These are concepts that parents and kids can come together around when it comes to packing school lunches, even when the lunch choices are debatable.
Fun
With four brightly colored containers that keep their shade and do not fade, you’ll keep lunch fun and interesting. Break away from the every day ham sandwich whose reappearance made my son want to cry by the end of fifth grade (prior to our discovery of frego!). When it was one too many and was on the verge of returning to the unpredictable school lunch, he confessed, Mom, you ruined ham sandwiches for me for life.
As a mom, this is not something you want hanging over your head. He’s got a lot of graduation parties in his future. When we discovered Frego it gave me the confidence to send leftover casseroles and soups in the winter, cold salad with protein for spring and fall months. It was an eye-opener for my son too. I can have something other than a sandwich for lunch?
We had to work at it. And sometimes I’d find myself boiling water in the morning rush while my coffee brewed, just to make a quick pasta fix dish to keep the variety alive. My daughter, two years older than him, caved years ago for the convenience of school lunch. That works for her…. but this one…. he’s particular.
Sometimes we even color-coordinate our silicone with our eats – spicy Mexican in orange (see Six Sisters’ Black Bean and Turkey Enchiladas), subdued mac-n-cheese in green (see Martha’s Stewart’s Mac and Cheese) and watermelon in the blue hue (my very own handiwork on a Black Diamond variety – the juiciest in my opinion!). A side and important benefit is that it teaches a life-long skill of food prep and thoughtful ways to eat. Granted, a lot of the side notes in his lunchbox are pre-packaged. But that’s okay!
Functional
Keeping the site lines open in a fridge full of condiments, containers and questionable items is key. I love that you can store food in frego’s glass container with its clear silicone lid. They stack great (none of the sliding you’d have stacking purely glass containers), lay flat and you can clearly see what’s in them.
When it comes to school lunches, my son always takes the two-cup frego. For family-style leftovers, I use the four-cup frego. This is a quick visual cue as to what’s grab and go for lunch and what works as a dish best reheated and served at home. Many times the four-cup goes in the freezer and for a quick dinner, straight to the microwave. Bonus if you used plastic prior, with frego there’s none of the worry that defrosting your dish will cause toxins to leach into your food so painstakingly prepared.
Fresh
Fresh ideas are needed to get (and keep if they’re already there and interested) kids in the kitchen. See our post here about kids in the kitchen for some inspo. Frego does its part visually and functionally to make meal and snack time a fresh experience. Every parent and child can appreciate that.
In addition to fresh ideas, fresh also means prepping and enjoying real food. The experience of food prep is a learned skill at a young age that will serve them well for life. In this day and age when everything imaginable comes pre-packaged, I believe we need to work harder at this. It still happens daily – my kids open the cupboard, completely overlooking the bowl of fruit on the counter, and shout What’s to eat? I think what they really mean is I’m so dang hangry that if I can’t rip open a package of sugary goodness right now I’m going to explode!
Have patience, dear children. Your parents and frego have your back. We wish all of you a fun, functional and fresh school year and can’t wait to share in the conversation with you – hop on over to frego on Instagram and Facebook and get your kids involved in the quest too!
-- Jen Gilhoi, parenting by the vowel and blogging at edamomie
