A Very Happy Meal

As a mother, chef, and child nutrition advocate, I am happy to say that my son's "no green stuff" phase is a thing of the past. In only a few months, he's decided that asparagus is his favorite vegetable and that lettuce, especially when fresh from the garden, is pretty tasty. He eats veggie sushi for a snack and turns down french fries (the latter being a rather extreme example of his health conciousness). But the proudest moment I've had recently arrived in response to an unusually disappointing choice by his school.

For the most part, the food situation at Thor's school is pretty good. The administration has been supportive of health and wellness efforts. Last fall, we got a wellness committee and in January, the school hired a school lunch provider called Organic Life. While not 100% organic, it's a healthy and delicious hot meal. Thor loves it. There are always, unfortunately, of course, some hiccups.

For the school's final kindergarten field trip the class got Happy Meals for their lunch. This news made neither me nor the little locavore very happy. But because I loath the idea of him being ostracized for his healthy eating habits, we gave him the choice as to whether to get the meal or to pack a lunch. His response? "No way" was he eating McDonald's.

To reward this rather courageous decision, we instead packed a Very Happy Meal, personally selected by Little Locathor.

A cheddar and apple wrap rolled up in a whole wheat tortilla, Pop chips (a delicious baked alternative to potato chips), local strawberries, raspberry soda, and a hunk of Scharffen-Berger chocolate. With the Indy car, we bought as the replacement for the Happy Meal toy, the meal cost a pretty penny, but rewarding such a principled choice was worth every cent.

Apple-Cheddar Wrap
Makes 1

1 whole wheat tortilla
1/2 tart green apple, thinly sliced, rubbed with lemon juice
1 slice cheddar, halved

Lay the cheddar slices onto the tortilla. Layer the apples slices on top. Fold up the edges of the tortilla and halve.