"Do I hear pizza for my veggie slices?"

When I was in elementary school, my mom packed a huge vitamin C tablet as the dessert for my lunch.  I did not consider this to be a suitable substitute for hard candy, even though it required a lot of sucking on a really sour tasting lozenge.

Ahhhh, but on the stock market trading floor known as the lunch room, I was able to find an excellent trade for my vitamin C.  Each day, my friend traded either her Hostess Cupcake or her Swiss Cake Roll for those gross lozenges. Honestly, she loved those vitamin C tablets so much that I was able to have a real dessert every day.

At the age of 8, I would've vowed to give my children dessert for every meal. Back then, I imagined my children to be the envy of every other child because mine would have the most sought after sweets.

Except that, well, I grew up.  Just like my mom, I don't want my kids to be eating so much junk.  And since I home school them, they rarely have the opportunity to gloat about some great treat or trade their food on the cafeteria trading floor.

Our lunches might consist of dinner leftovers.  Salmon and potatoes from the night before? C'mon, you'll need to try harder to weird out these kids. Pot roast at noon? Helloooooo,  you've just described a warm, comforting meal on a cold winter day.  PB&Js are usually accompanied by mounds of sliced veggies or fruit.  Some lunches are just sliced fruit and vegetables.

Since we take classes outside the house once a week, my kids do tote along their Doritos and cookies like all the other kids.  But writing this blog entry prompted me to ask the kids what food they trade at those weekly lunchtimes.

You'll be happy to learn that the tradition continues.  My oldest daughter gleefully relayed that she can trade her veggie slices for desserts, pizzas or empanadas at lunch. I'm so amazed that kids still willingly give up their goodies for healthy foods.  As long as kids come together to eat, the stock market of food will continue.