Introducing "Just Ask!" and the first question...

We get lots of questions about the rationing project from friends, family and those acquaintances that have heard about Rational Living from a friend.

In order to answer those questions and increase the dialogue on the blog I've decided to start answering a question a week.

Have a question? Use the "Post a Comment" feature to leave your question. I will do my best to answer the questions in the weekly "Just Ask!" feature.

One note of warning: questions by trolls will not be tolerated and an increase in troll activity will require switching to a format where all comments must be approved by the moderator (me). I really don't want to introduce censorship into the Rational Living blog so please, trolls, go elsewhere.

This week's question:

What do you do for the girls' lunches during the week? Do they eat school lunches and, if so, how do you calculate those points?

Answer:

During WWII there was a robust effort to provide well-rounded meals to children at school at little or no cost to families. I wish our local schools had a meal program that was actually healthy but they don't, so our girls have always brown bagged it.

A typical lunch for the girls consists of a sandwich (typically wholegrain bread with peanut butter and honey or homemade preserves), a starch like crackers or pretzels, and then something from the fruit or vegetable families (carrot sticks, raisins or fresh fruit when seasonable). Their drink bottles are typically filled with either water or 100% fruit juice (slightly diluted).

Only a few components of their lunches are rationed; raisins, juices and commercially prepared preserves use blue/green ration points. If they have a ham or cream cheese sandwich instead of PBJ then the deli meat/cream cheese is subject to red point rationing. We also take advantage of non-rationed sources of protein and often substitute the sandwich for a half cup of cottage cheese. Of course, even though peanut butter, honey and cottage cheese are not rationed they are subject to Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer.

And just in case you're interested, TMOTH and myself typically take leftovers for lunch, supplemented with cottage cheese, raisins, carrots sticks and the like. If leftovers are slim we can do PBJs or dry-soup mixes, which are not rationed.

And how about you, friend? What do you have for lunch?

--Rational Mama