Packing Healthy School Lunches

These were pictures from the newspaper interview and my son would not eat everything in this picture. 

Packing your kids a healthy lunch is not hard but here are a few tips and tricks to make it more  fun for you while packing and more fun for your child when they open up their lunch boxes.  For me packing a lunch is a must since my son has food allergies, but I really want to know what he is eating, so even without the diet limits I would be packing a daily lunch.

Recently a friend of mine and I did an interview about school lunches for our local newspaper, some of the information in the article is not completely accurate so I wanted to share some more information and tips here. You can see part of the newspaper article HERE.

Tips to help with Mama (or  Daddy) guilt... 
* If you don't' have the want or time to pack a lunch IT IS FINE DON'T STRESS about it.
* Lunch is only ONE MEAL A DAY.
* A healthful breakfast and after school snack is the BEST way to help your child have a great day.
* Don't spend the time and money packing stuff they WON'T EAT. 
* Be willing to comprimise, which may mean finding a "better" option for your child's favorite treats.

When I asked my son what was the MOST important thing to him for his school lunch and his answer was "cool lunch box containers"  and I will list some of our favorites at the bottom of this post.  So here are a few our lunch box goodies.

There are ALL KINDS of accessories  to make the lunch more fun you can search amazon for Bento lunches and you will see ALL KINDS of things. But I keep an eye out at the dollar store and the dollar rack at target for cocktail forks and pick etc. 

Things to work HARD on keeping OUT of your child's lunch and diet in general -- these things are not good for anyone but also have been linked to behavior issues with children and who needs that while trying to work at school?
* MSG
* High Fructose Corn Syrup
*NITRATES in lunch meat, bacon etc.
* artificial food colorings

Here are some Nitrate Free lunch meats that are easy on the budget 

The red circles are Baby Bell Cheese with some of the wax cut off. 

Kids LOVE to dip so I send homemade salsa, Hummus, and  Homemade Ranch Dressing, to dip whole grain chips and veggies in.

Half of  EVERY meal should be fruits and vegetables so lunch is no different so don't for those goodies in the lunch box either but remember send stuff they will actually eat. My son like raw spinach but he won't touch peppers or cauliflower. We use Juice Plus to help bridge the gap in all the fruits and veggies we should eat and what we actually get in daily since getting 7-13 servings a day is a feat for anyone.

Dried fruits, trail mix, and nuts (if allowed at your school) are also great to have on hand to fill in  with for lunches.

Healthy lunches can include "convenience" foods, fruit leathers, yogurt, apple sauces, real fruit snacks etc can make easy fill ins for the lunch as well. Just  try to buy items without loads of sugar, MSG, food colorings, etc.

A cocktail pick or toothpick and can wonders to make the lunch more fun. Fruits, veggies, cheese, chicken, shrimp, or lunch meat all go on very easy.

And you can pack a few lunches at a time so your not doing it daily.

salsa, and chips, fruit, and leftover grilled chicken and cheese with a little ranch dressing in a lettuce leaf. 

chicken & cheese, fresh fruit, hummus (in the what box) fresh veggies, dried fruit, a 100% juice box, and fruit snack. 

applesauce banana, shrimp & cherry tomatoes, carrots, pepper & Hummus.

Cheese stick wrapped in nitrate free turkey, trail mix, corn chips, sliced apple held together with a rubber band, and a few chocolate chips. 

cheese, veggies, chips, chicken, figs, fresh fruit, and hard boiled egg. 

   

Strawberry Picking

Last week we headed to the strawberry patch with some friends. We came home with lots of berries and even went back again over Mother's Day weekend. We LOVE strawberries and I am glad I found a good local source to pick them. And I LOVE that Harrison enjoys learning about where our food comes from too. 

Healthy meal

a couple of weeks ago at snack time Harrison said he wanted to fix a "healthy meal" all  by himself and this is what he did ( I did peel the carrot).   An orange, almonds, chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, carrot, ham, and a banana, blueberry, spinach smoothie.

Heathly Snacks for kids

 For those of you that know Harrison know he is an EATER, so I have snacks ready to go at his level so he can grab a snack through out the day. I Keep freeze dried fruit, raisins, dried cranberries, pistachios (aka green nuts at our house), cocoa almonds,  and pumpkin and/or sunflower seeds.

 I keep these snacks on the bottom shelf in the pantry and keeps serving size bowls ready to grab. Harrison also LOVE prunes so I keep them ready to go too (the individual wrapped ones) This also makes it easy to grab a snack on our way out the door so we are not buying and eating junk from the gas station or drive thur.

 This little tote has fruit leather and freeze dried fruit (FUNKY MONKEY aka crunchy fruit)

 I the fridge on the bottom shelf is a box of snacks too. There is usually apple sauces, bread, grapes in here too but running low. So today there is mainly yogurt and cheese. He also has juice boxes (which I don't always have them out) probiotics smoothies, and little water bottles (they are more fun than a glass of water you know)

Lunch

What's for lunch at your house this a typical day at our house for a little boy that is gluten free.

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I am in love

I found these at Trader Joes this week and they are wonderful. Just sweet enough with a little tart fruit middle. 3 or 4 will get ride of a sweet tooth

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Fast GF meal

Harrison loves "chinese noddles". I get this package of rice noodles, small package like ramen noodles toss in some frozen peas or broccoli and a little gluten free soy sauce and he is a yummy meal that took 5 mins to make and he loves it

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Just Saying

This is the BEST store bought salsa!!!! I LOVE THIS I like it even better than my salsa but mine is a bit cheaper :)

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Cleaning out the Pantry and Frezzer

It is getting closer and closer to garden time so  I am working on getting the pantry and frezzer cleaned out a bit this week.

Today for lunch
Baked spaghetti (sauce, from the fezzer and Hamburger using up before we get more beef from Dad next month)

Tonight for dinner
Pork Chops from frezzer
Corn from frezzer
garden bean beans canned from last year
Apple dip

We will see what else I can come up with. Harrison has school tomorrow and I will be working so we won't do lunch at home and leftovers will happening for dinner tomorrow.

Dangerous Food Additivies

 Do you know what are eating and what it could be doing for your health? Click on the link for a little information.

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/06/04/05/12-dangerous-food-additives-the-dirty-dozen-food-additives-you-really-need-to-be-aware-of.htm

a few fun Ideas

cup cakes

http://thecurvycarrot.com/2010/09/20/candy-corn-cupcakes/

Fun with Googly Eyes

http://www.livinglocurto.com/2010/10/5-crafts-to-make-with-googly-eyes/

Halloween Paint Cans

http://www.controllingmychaos.com/2010/10/halloween-paint-can-inserts.html

Frank Pops

http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/2010/10/craft-o-maniac-monday-link-party-with.html

Candy Skewers

http://redcouchrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-candy-skewers.html

Marshmellow Ice Cream

This is a new Favorite for Harrison. I found this HUGE marshmallows at Big Lots a few weeks ago and we put them in a gluten free ice cream cone and Harrison has a treat he LOVES and it is not near as messy as real ice cream which I LOVE

Veggies & Soup

This year has not be a great year for my garden but I have been trying to put up what I can . Above is bag of frozen veggies for soup this winter. I start the bags in the spring with peas put a few in the bag and freeze. Then as things come in I add them to the bag and put back in the freezer. So now I have peas, cor, carrots, and green beans all ready for big pot of veggie soup. We have also been bring in the sun flowers in to save for the birds this winter, since once again Harrison has to feed all things outside.

Here are a few helpful links

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2010/09/preserving-summers-bounty-considering-the-savings.html

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2010/08/preserving-summers-bounty-recipes-and-tutorials-to-keep-you-busy-until-thanksgiving.html

http://www.simplycanning.com/

Blue Plate Food Tours

Yesterday I went to Lexington and took a walking food tour, Blue Plate Tour. We went to 7 restaurants downtown and had a blast if you are close or going to be in town during the next month you should try it out.
First we started out at Alfalfa's for Blueberry buckwheat pancakes with raspberry syrup.

They were super yummy and they had some very interesting things on the menu that I would love to go back and try.

Next stop was Sam's Hot Dog Stand.

Where we did not try a hot dog or shake (it was 10 am) but had a yummy Kentucky Ale-8

Then it was on to Gratz Park Inn

Where we ate at Jonathan's

And had curry deviled eggs, friend black eye peas, and fried green tomatoes.

Next stop was Cheapside (which I did not get a pic of the front) and we had black bean soup, and corn cakes.

Next stop was DeShae's

Where we had Rum Bread Pudding. I don't like bread pudding and this was AWESOME!!! the best stop on the tour.

Then a stop at the GREAT farmer's market at the Lexington Pasta tent for some fresh pasta. And I had to bring some home with me too.

And the last stop was Belini's

For a yellow tomato polenta Patti with shrimp and pickled shallots.

It was ALL SO YUMMY. The tour is going to start an afternoon tour as well with different stops. you should check it out.