Today's lunch most likely mirrors that of every other American child's lunch this week. We'll let Amanda explain:

Leftover turkey sandwiches! The turkey is topped with shaved brussels sprouts, pancetta salad, and pickled garlic scapes. They also had the added treats of chocolate cookies and vanilla rooibos tea cookies, winner ofYour Best Recipe with Vanilla. 

It's a lunchbox cocktail party for Walker and Addie this week, with crudités, cheese, and olives all ready for the snacking. Here's Amanda with the specifics:

I believe in the occasional snacky lunch. For this one I packed soppressata, Castelvetrano olives, Red Leicester cheese, ricotta salata, and purple carrots. To go with, whole wheat bread, a British cheese cracker, and roasted pumpkin seeds.

(No Grüner Veltliner for this set, but we wouldn't pass on a glass to accompany this meal!)

Here's a lunch we'd happily turn to any day of the week: roasted chicken salad with celery, Dijon, mayo, and tarragon (says Amanda, "chicken and tarragon are besties").

The tiny spoons are just right for 6-year-old hands piling salad on the slices of whole grain bread, and chocolate spice cookies make for a perfect dessert.

Here's Amanda with the latest from Brooklyn's most well-fed first graders -- those tomatoes totally do look like fish scales:

Bacon, lettuce, and semi-green tomatoes, sliced super thin so they lay on the bread like scales on a fish. (I made one big sandwich and split it in two for the kids.) Our nanny made apple pie with Walker and Addie; thought they should take their creation to school.

Today's peek into Amanda's kids' lunch shows a decidedly sophisticated deconstructed salad of roasted chicken, arugula, and baby radishes with mustardy mayonnaise on the side. Cheese crackers provide similarly fancified crunch, and apples from the Hesser-Friend family CSA share are a perfect ending to a fall meal.

It's a cross between summer and Meatless Monday in the twins' lunchboxes today -- although those apples are an omen of fall! We'll let Amanda explain:

There were still peppers and corn in the market so I decided it was time for a stew of them. That was the main course, just glistening sweet pepper stew. On the side, yogurt, and an apple. I figured they could get meat or fish at dinner.

What's in your lunchbox?

Nicholas Day calls them dinner savers. But they're great for lunch, too! Today in the twins' lunches, we have BELA smoked sardines, gherkins, olives, mayonnaise, and Dijon mustard mixed into a rough spread and layered with arugula on country bread. Turkish apricots and cardamom shortbread round out the meal.

Want to eat like Walker and Addie? BELA sardines are now in the Food52 Shop! Pick any six of your favorite flavors and make your own sandwiches -- after all, they're perfect for adults, too.