Jif To Go
So yesterday I was flipping through my latest Reader's Digest (a family Christmas gift tradition - I think my mother has gotten me a subscription every year since I moved out of the house 15 years ago) and saw today's dumbest thing. What is today's dumbest thing? Jif To Go.
In case you didn't feel like going to that link - which I completely support since really I don't think Jif needs the attention - Jif To Go is kinda like those individual pudding/jello/fruit cups, but it's peanut butter. The idea is that you can take it with you and dip your celery (ha) or your crackers. Or your bananas, according to the site ... a challenge, if you ask me - banana vs peanut butter seems like a losing battle for the mushy fruit, but hey, can't argue with the wisdom of the Jif site, right?
Anyhoo, these cups are THE dumbest thing. What is so hard about transferring peanut butter from a jar to a small container for a lunch box? How much time is being saved by purchasing these pre-portioned little bits of peanut butter? Don't know? I'll tell you how much time is saved - NONE. Not when you consider that the price per portion - and keep in mind before you eat up that these cups are actually TWO regular peanut butter portions according to the serving size on jar peanut butter, so you're getting T-H-I-R-T-Y T-W-O grams of fat in each little cup bomb - is easily going to be more than what you'd pay for the same size portion in a big jar, so you trade that time savings in lunch preparation for more time at the office to pay for the cups.
Here's the sane alternative: Buy yourself a few small reusable containers at the store. Use them for peanut butter so your kids can dip their celery (ha). They'll bring home the containers after school and you will put them in the dishwasher. The next day, you will have a clean container that you can put more peanut butter in if you'd like. Or - and here's what I did tonight in approximately 60 seconds - you can mix two cups of milk with some instant pudding and use those cups to make individual pudding portions for lunches for a couple of days. This amazing technique even works with jello, although I will admit that jello takes a little bit longer to prepare.
What other little tricks work for lunches? Well, juice boxes. Instead of actual juice "boxes," you can buy juice box sized containers with lids. Make some juice, fill about one third of the container, and stick it in the freezer. The next morning, fill the container the rest of the way with juice and you have a beverage that will still be cold at lunch and can help keep the other items in the lunchbox chilled.
Use plastic reusable containers for sandwiches.
Choose fruits that have their own containers - clementines are great because they're easy to peel. Bananas ... not so much. Apples are good, of course. My kids like plums.
Perhaps this isn't important. What does it matter if you buy a package of these, right? You're just one person. Well, imagine your child's school - let's say 250 kids. Now let's assume that half of them bring their lunch and half buy. 125 kids throwing away one plastic sandwich bag, one baggie of celery (ha), one Jif peanut butter cup, one pudding cup or bag of chips, and one juice box every day - every single day, in one smallish school in one town. Now imagine that scene playing out in every single school across the country.
What kind of lessons are we teaching our kids when we give them easily tossable foods? Complete and utter disregard for conservation and frugality, that's what.
Gah, this stuff just pisses me off. Come on.
In case you didn't feel like going to that link - which I completely support since really I don't think Jif needs the attention - Jif To Go is kinda like those individual pudding/jello/fruit cups, but it's peanut butter. The idea is that you can take it with you and dip your celery (ha) or your crackers. Or your bananas, according to the site ... a challenge, if you ask me - banana vs peanut butter seems like a losing battle for the mushy fruit, but hey, can't argue with the wisdom of the Jif site, right?
Anyhoo, these cups are THE dumbest thing. What is so hard about transferring peanut butter from a jar to a small container for a lunch box? How much time is being saved by purchasing these pre-portioned little bits of peanut butter? Don't know? I'll tell you how much time is saved - NONE. Not when you consider that the price per portion - and keep in mind before you eat up that these cups are actually TWO regular peanut butter portions according to the serving size on jar peanut butter, so you're getting T-H-I-R-T-Y T-W-O grams of fat in each little cup bomb - is easily going to be more than what you'd pay for the same size portion in a big jar, so you trade that time savings in lunch preparation for more time at the office to pay for the cups.
Here's the sane alternative: Buy yourself a few small reusable containers at the store. Use them for peanut butter so your kids can dip their celery (ha). They'll bring home the containers after school and you will put them in the dishwasher. The next day, you will have a clean container that you can put more peanut butter in if you'd like. Or - and here's what I did tonight in approximately 60 seconds - you can mix two cups of milk with some instant pudding and use those cups to make individual pudding portions for lunches for a couple of days. This amazing technique even works with jello, although I will admit that jello takes a little bit longer to prepare.
What other little tricks work for lunches? Well, juice boxes. Instead of actual juice "boxes," you can buy juice box sized containers with lids. Make some juice, fill about one third of the container, and stick it in the freezer. The next morning, fill the container the rest of the way with juice and you have a beverage that will still be cold at lunch and can help keep the other items in the lunchbox chilled.
Use plastic reusable containers for sandwiches.
Choose fruits that have their own containers - clementines are great because they're easy to peel. Bananas ... not so much. Apples are good, of course. My kids like plums.
Perhaps this isn't important. What does it matter if you buy a package of these, right? You're just one person. Well, imagine your child's school - let's say 250 kids. Now let's assume that half of them bring their lunch and half buy. 125 kids throwing away one plastic sandwich bag, one baggie of celery (ha), one Jif peanut butter cup, one pudding cup or bag of chips, and one juice box every day - every single day, in one smallish school in one town. Now imagine that scene playing out in every single school across the country.
What kind of lessons are we teaching our kids when we give them easily tossable foods? Complete and utter disregard for conservation and frugality, that's what.
Gah, this stuff just pisses me off. Come on.
posted by Quiddity at 10:33 AM
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