Whenever practicable, children should return to their homes for the midday lunch, since under the oversight of a wise mother there will be fewer violations of hygienic laws, and the walk back to the school room will be far more conducive to good digestion than the violent exercise or the sports so often indulged in directly after eating. When this is impracticable, let the lunch be as simple as possible, and not so ample as to tempt the child to overeat. Good whole-wheat or Graham bread of some kind, rolls, crisps, beaten biscuit, sticks, fruit rolls, and wafers, with a cup of canned fruit or a bottle of rich milk as an accompaniment, with plenty of nice, fresh fruits or almonds or a few stalks of celery, is as tempting a lunch as any child need desire. It would be a good plan to arrange for the heating of a portion of the milk to be sipped as a hot drink. In many school rooms the ordinary heating stove will furnish means for this, or a little alcohol stove or a heating lamp may be used for the purpose, under the supervision of the teacher.
Furnish the children with apples, oranges, bananas, pears, grapes, filberts, and almonds in place of rich pie and cake. They are just as cheap as the material used for making the less wholesome sweets, and far easier of digestion. An occasional plain fruit or grain pudding, cup custard, or molded dessert may be substituted for variety. Fruit sandwiches, or a slice of Stewed Fruit Pudding prepared as directed on [page 308] are also suitable for this purpose.
Rice prepared as directed below makes a wholesome and appetizing article for the lunch basket:—
Creamy Rice.—Put a pint of milk, one quarter of a cup of best Carolina rice, a tablespoonful of sugar, and a handful of raisins into an earthen-ware dish, and place on the top of the range where it will heat very slowly to boiling temperature. Stir frequently, so that the rice will not adhere to the bottom of the dish. When boiling, place in the oven, and bake till the rice is tender, which can be ascertained by dipping a spoon into one side and taking out a few grains. Twenty minutes will generally be sufficient.
Much care should be used in putting up the lunch to have it as neat and dainty as possible. A basket of suitable size covered with a clean white napkin is better for use than the conventional dinner pail, in which air-tight receptacle each food is apt to savor of all the others, making the entire contents unappetizing, if not unwholesome.
SABBATH DINNERS.
One of the most needed reforms in domestic life is a change to more simple meals on the Sabbath. In many households the Sabbath is the only day in the week when all the members of the family can dine together, and with an aim to making it the most enjoyable day of all, the good housewife provides the most elaborate dinner of the week, for the preparation of which she must either spend an unusual amount of time and labor the day previous or must encroach upon the sacred rest day to perform the work.
Real enjoyment ought not to be dependent upon feasting and gustatory pleasures. Plain living and high thinking should be the rule at all times, and especially upon the Sabbath day. Nothing could be more conducive to indigestion and dyspepsia than this general custom of feasting on the Sabbath. The extra dishes and especial luxuries tempt to over-indulgence of appetite; while the lack of customary exercise and the gorged condition of the stomach incident upon such hearty meals, fosters headaches and indigestion and renders brain and mind so inactive that the participants feel too dull for meditation and study, too sleepy to keep awake during service, too languid for anything but dozing and lounging, and the day that should have fostered spiritual growth is worse than thrown away. Nor is this all; the evil effects of the indigestion occasioned are apt to be felt for several succeeding days, making the children irritable and cross, and the older members of the family nervous and impatient,—most certainly an opposite result from that which ought to follow a sacred day of rest.
Physiologically such feasting is wrong. The wear and consequent repair incident upon hard labor, calls for an equivalent in food; but when no labor is performed, a very moderate allowance—is all that is necessary, and it should be of easy digestibility. Let the Sabbath meals be simple, and served with abundant good cheer and intelligent thought as an accompaniment.
Let as much as possible of the food be prepared and the necessary work be done the day previous, so that the cook may have ample opportunity with the other members of the family to enjoy all Sabbath privileges. This need by no means necessitate the use of cold food nor entail a great amount of added work in preparation. To illustrate, take the following—