Panera
Various locations
www.panerabread.com
New bite: Panera has recently augmented its menu of breads, pastries, sandwiches, salads and drinks to include Panera Kids, a healthy children’s menu featuring natural, whole grain and organic ingredients.
The offerings: Panera’s PB&J, grilled cheese and cold-cut sandwich meals are made with all-natural peanut butter, Horizon organic American cheese, Horizon organic low-fat milk, Horizon reduced-fat chocolate milk or organic apple juice. Dessert is Horizon organic squeezable yogurt. They make no such virtuous claims about the sandwich meats or jelly, but Panera’sefforts extend beyond most fast-food joints.
Mom’s view: These are really simple sandwiches that I easily could have–and would have– made at home but with maybe a grainier bread than the soft, whitish whole grain that Panera uses. The ham sandwich was simply two slices of ham between two slices of bread. The gushy-generous PB&J and the tasty grilled cheese sandwich were equally straightforward. With the Horizon milk boxes and yogurt are available in supermarkets and warehouse clubs, why was I paying someone else to make this for $4.47 a lunch?
The kids’ call: Although my son asked for a cinnamon roll and hungrily eyeballed a bag of potato chips while we waited in line, he ate his whole Panera Kids lunch with zest and pronounced it “delicious.”
“But was it better than my lunches?” I asked him.
“Yep, because they use better ham and better bread,” Joe said.
I don’t agree, but in this increasingly commercial consumer culture, my son finds fast food with its ads more appealing than mom’s cooking. And if a Panera kid’s meal will get him to eat a healthy lunch this summer while he’s on summer outings, at day camp or on a road trip, I’ll take that as a blessing.
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My 3-year-old daughter happily, if messily, devoured her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and washed it down with a box of organic white milk.
Both kids slurped down their yogurt, though Joe announced it was a “little bit sour.”
The wrap: I would feel better if they would use only one sheet of paper to wrap them.
Delivery: Yes, with $100 minimum orders.
The bill: $14.68 for three meals.
Last bite: You could easily make these kids’ meals at home, but with so many kids’ options at fast-food restaurants, this is one of the few that moms and children can feel good about. And my kids did eat them.
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