Consumer Reports called on the Department of Agriculture today to remove Lunchables food kits from the National School Lunch Program. CR recently compared the nutritional profiles of two Lunchable kits served in schools and found they have even higher levels of sodium than the kits consumers can buy in the store. CR also tested 12 store-bought versions of Lunchables and similar kits and found several contained relatively high levels of lead and cadmium. All but one also tested positive for phthalates, chemicals found in plastic that have been linked to reproductive problems, diabetes, and certain cancers.
I used to love lunchables, but now that I’m an adult, I can’t believe we were allowed to eat that trash.
I’m in my 30s and I still love them. When I’m really sad I get one and it makes me feel like my life is simpler than it is and helps calm me down, gives me something to do with my hands while not requiring me to be functioning well enough to actually cook. They are trash though can’t argue that lol
Get a block of cheese, crackers, and some kind of lunch meat. Only tool you need is a knife. Plus, you can add variations, like tuna or cream cheese or whatever you want. You pay more up front but get more food out of it and reduce plastic waste.
I appreciate the suggestion and I’m not trying to say it’s bad, just explain what I mean. Actually making my own cheese and crackers is already more steps and a dish into the mix. I don’t love lunchables because I think they’re fine dining I love them because some days I have the capacity to do exactly two things, and that might end up being “buy lunchable, open lunchable”. The nostalgic ‘life is simple’ feel they give me can sometimes boost my mood enough to get more done in a day which is unique to just a couple of foods for me. When I am normal sad I do things like you’re suggesting and I’ve lived with a chef for over a decade so I’ve got a lot of great value to effort knowledge there
Yeah, fair enough, I get the whole “I want to eat but I want to put exactly 0 effort into it” including to the point where I’ll put more effort walking back and forth between the fridge and freezer thinking of what could be easy to eat than it would take to cook up something simple. Though usually because there’s something else I’d rather be doing and I have enough self control at the moment to keep myself from getting into that until after I’ve eaten.
Though I’ve noticed that when I’m in one of those depressed moods where I feel like doing nothing at all, eating or otherwise, a vitamin b complex makes a night and day difference. Though please don’t take this as a “fixing depression is easy!” but as a “this helped me, maybe it could help you if you haven’t tried this angle of attack before”.
It sucks being in a mood like that, whether I have things to do that I instead just neglect or have some free time during which I’d like to do things I enjoy rather than just deciding everything sounds boring or not worth the effort, so finding something that has (so far) consistently helped with that has felt kinda like a super power.
Best wishes!
What was so good about them?
Marketing, TV Ads got me as a kid. I feel bad for my mom cooking me real food and my kid self being brainwashed complaining about wanting corporate toxic waste Lunchables
Why do you feel bad? That’s what parents are supposed to do.
You are getting tired. Read the whole sentence. OP is feeling bad about not appreciating their parents cooking for them.
Finger food that wasn’t messy and exploits the fact that kids haven’t yet lost all their taste buds.
Any kid between about 4-11 loves making little food stacks like that.
Given that charcuterie boards are pretty popular I think many people still like making stacks of food.
charcuterie boards but for kids makes sense
And they save the parents all that valuable time slicing a salami and a bit of cheese. Doesn’t save them any money though.
They definitely cater the flavor profile to what a kid would like. There’s no spice or offensive flavors, honestly kind of bland.
I loved the pizza one as a kid. Tried it as an adult recently. It was delicious, but the sauce was so dang sweet!
Easy prep. Granted, I grew up with a guy who fed us kids sleeve of saltines as a dinner because he couldn’t be fucked to do more. Better than nothing but in hindsight, I think I can do better for my kids than fucking lunchables.