Creative School Lunch Ideas

Creative School Lunch Ideas

Are you looking to liven up your child's lunchbox with creative and tasty new ideas? Are you tired of the same old sandwiches and snacks? Look no further! Today, I will share some fun and inventive school lunch ideas that will have your kids eagerly reaching for their lunch bags each day.

Let's start with a twist on the classic sandwich. Instead of plain old bread, why not use whole-grain wraps or pita pockets? These options not only add a fun twist to the lunch but also provide a good dose of whole grains and other essential nutrients. They are more exciting than traditional sandwiches and can make parents feel confident in their lunch choices.

Another way to switch things up is by making homemade lunchables. It's a convenient and healthier option. Simply pack some whole grain crackers, sliced cheese, and a few slices of deli meat in a reusable container. Add in some cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, and a small treat like a piece of dark chocolate, and you've got a DIY Lunchable that's much healthier and tastier than the store-bought version.

For a hot lunch option, consider sending your child to school with a thermos filled with a comforting soup or stew. This is a great way to sneak in extra servings of veggies and can be a nice change from cold lunches, especially during the colder months. It's a nutritious and comforting option that will make parents feel secure about their child's lunch.

When it comes to sides and snacks, think outside the box. Instead of pre-packaged snacks, try making your trail mix with a variety of nuts, seeds, and dried fruits. Pack a small yogurt container with a drizzle of honey and some granola for a yummy and nutritious treat. The variety in these snacks not only keeps things interesting but also ensures your child gets a diverse range of nutrients.

Incorporating some of these creative school lunch ideas into your child's routine can make lunchtime more exciting and enjoyable for them. Plus, you can rest easy knowing they're getting a healthy and balanced meal to fuel them through the rest of their school day. So get creative and see how much fun packing school lunches can be!

Do you need more back-to-school tips?  Grab my new book, The Complete Back-to-School Guide for Parents and Students.

The Complete Back-to-School Guide for Parents and Students is available here.

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Creative School Lunch Ideas

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Healthy School Lunch Ideas

Healthy School Lunch Ideas

Weekly Meal Planner - Share me on Facebook!

How are you doing with your New Year health goals?  One of our family goals is to eat at home more.  When we eat at home, we eat healthier.  We love food.  We love our local restaurants and we are a busy family so we eat out way too much.  Since we are busy (much too busy sometimes) and I don't particularly love cooking, meal planning is challenging.  Sometimes I buy too little which leaves us unprepared so we grab something on the way home or I buy too much and we end up throwing away wasted food.  Food is expensive.  I cringe at the thought of throwing away all that wasted food.  A few days ago, I sat down to create a weekly meal planner to help me stay organized.  

Weekly Meal Planner

My weekly meal planner includes space for writing down our dinner menu for each night of the week.  For my family, breakfast and lunch aren't a problem for planning.  We all have a pretty well established routine for those meals.  Meal planning for our family dinners is the challenging part for me.  To make meal planning for dinner even more challenging, one of my daughters has decided to go gluten free.  I have a personal goal to eat cleaner, avoiding all those dangerous additives and preservatives as much as possible.  My husband and my younger daughter don't plan to make many changes to their dietary lifestyles.  That leaves me with the daunting task of coming up with meals to suit everyone's tastes.  It's not going to be easy but my weekly meal planner will certainly help.   

Weekly Meal Planner - Share me!

My weekly meal planner includes 4 pages of planning space.  On the left column of each page, there is a colorful note pad image for writing down our dinner menu.  The right column of each page includes space for my grocery list.  After I write down the name of the dish I plan to prepare on the note pad space, I will list all the ingredients in the spaces on the right column.  When I finish all the planning for the week and I've listed all the ingredients, I'll go to my cabinets to check off any ingredients that I already have on hand.  Then, I'll take the planner pages with me to the grocery store to shop for any items not checked off.  I can keep my weekly meal planner clipped to my refrigerator so that my husband and my daughters can keep track of the meals I plan to serve for each night.  

Grab your weekly meal planner here!

I've already tested my planner and it worked out well for us.  I used it to record my planned meals.  I used it to check off my ingredients and then I headed to the grocery store.  Tonight, I'm making a gluten free chicken recipe that I'll share with you in a future post.

In the meantime, grab your copy of my Weekly Meal Planner here and start planning your meals to help you reach your New Year health goals.

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First of all, if you follow this blog, you know that my family enjoys meat - lots of meat. However, have you noticed the price of meat lately? Meat has become more expensive and the price seems to increase almost daily. Maybe you find it challenging to squeeze meaty meals into your food budget or perhaps you need to stop eating meat for health reasons - or any number of reasons, you might enjoy the following suggestions.

If you have been thinking of becoming a vegetarian for a long time, then there are many things that you might want to bear in mind in order to make it as easy as possible. The truth is that being a vegetarian is not too challenging once you get into it, although you might find that the process of changing over your diet can take a while. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the things that can make it a little easier to become a vegetarian. As long as you have thought of the following, you’ll find it’s a much simpler process.

The Easy Way To Become A Vegetarian

Start Slowly

For most people, it can be something of a challenge to suddenly cut out all animal products from your diet. You will probably find that it’s a lot easier and simpler to start slowly and gradually work your way up to eating no meat, so that is something that you are going to want to consider here. Limit yourself to one or two meat meals a week, and then reduce even further if you are comfortable to do so. You’ll soon find that it’s no big deal to go without meat at all.

Gain A Few Core Recipes

Before you start out, it’s wise to have a few core recipes that you can use in order to ensure that you are doing all you can to become a vegetarian more easily. That might include anything that you have always thought must be nice to eat - such as a stir-fry that you know you’ve been meaning to try. On top of that, you might want to try out something new to you too, such as an Indian style cabbage curry. Having these in your toolbelt will help you massively in becoming a vegetarian a lot more easily.

Substitute Meat

One way to approach this too is to simply substitute out meat for vegetables here and there. If you do this, eventually you are going to find that you have many meals that you used to have, which you can now have by simply replacing the meat with vegetables. You might be surprised at how many meals this applies to, and it’s quite simply a great way to ensure that you are making the most of the meals you already have in your repertoire. This is one reason to try things out this way, and why you shouldn’t find going veggie all that hard.

Work On Your Mindset

Finally, bear in mind that most people will probably simply need to change something in the way they think, and that actually this might be one of the most important things you need to do if you are going to try and become a vegetarian. As long as you have worked on your mindset, you should find that you can much more easily become a vegetarian, so make sure that you are doing this as soon as possible. It will really help you out.

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The Easy Way to Become a Vegetarian

How To Take The Stress Out Of Family Cooking

Cooking for a hungry family always seems to be a stressful experience, as it can take an enormous amount of time, energy and money to make enough meals for a growing brood with their own unique preferences. Sometimes this can be totally overwhelming, and more often than not it seems so much easier to grab a take out or order in rather than preparing a homemade meal, but unfortunately these ultra processed foods lack much if any nutritional value. Thankfully, greasy unidentifiable meat burgers and super sweet desserts don't have to be your go-to to feed your large family, as there are many innovative solutions that you can utilize to take back control over your kitchen so that you can create the tastiest yet healthiest dishes without spending hours (and a small fortune) in the process. So, if you're ready to make your family's tummy's sing with satisfaction, then simply read on to find out more!

 

Image Credit:  Pexels

Get The Right Equipment

First and foremost, you need to source the right equipment for your kitchen if you want to take the stress out of cooking. Smashing and crashing around the kitchen trying to find a tool, container or pan is going to add unnecessary time and stress to your cooking endeavours, and it may even end up reflecting on the flavor of your dish. Investing in all of the relevant large-scale cooking equipment that you need to feed your family will make the process so much easier, as you can save an enormous amount of time as a result of your purchase! Use an electric mixer instead of your hands for dough, opt for a speedy vegetable chopper rather than faffing about with a knife and use air fryers for large family meals to cut the fat without forfeiting flavor. Having the right equipment on hand can upgrade your cooking game like never before.

Plan Your Meals 

Planning out your meals is one of the best ways to take the stress out of family cooking, as knowing exactly what you are going to cook on each specific day allows you to prepare both physically and mentally for the task that lays ahead. Knowing what meals you'll be eating for the coming week provides you with the opportunity to head to the grocery store to stock up on all of the ingredients you need - this can save so much time and stress, as you won't need to stare mindlessly into the cupboard trying to create a dish with basic ingredients, nor will you need to rush around at the last minute to buy an essential ingredient that you don't have in the house. Planning meals can also provide you with the chance to complete some meal preparation beforehand, as you can use any spare time to get ingredients ready for cooking to save time later on.

Taking the stress out of family cooking has never been such a simple task when you can utilize some of the excellent ideas that have been carefully described above.

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How to Take the Stress Out of Family Cooking

Seafood Image Credit:  TeJyng - CCO Public Domain Image via Pixabay

Are you looking for a way to improve your health? Then, incorporating seafood into your diet is an excellent choice! This blog post will provide information on the benefits of including seafood in your diet so that you can make informed decisions about what types of fish are best for you.

Photo by Ruslan Khmelevsky from Pexels

4 Health Benefits of Incorporating Seafood into Your Diet

#1 Heart Health

The first benefit of including seafood in your diet is that it can keep your heart healthy. Omega-three fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated fat that has been shown to reduce the risk for coronary artery disease and lower cholesterol levels, protecting you from heart attacks or strokes.

However, there are different types of omega-three fatty acids! The following fish contain large quantities: wild-caught Alaskan salmon, tuna steak (bluefin), herring, sardines, mackerel, and anchovies. These fish all also take care of two other benefits – they're low-calorie and good for your skin! So by eating these types of fish, you'll not only be improving the health of your heart but also that of your skin.

#2 Immunity

If you're looking to improve your immunity, seafood is also a good choice for this! Omega-three fatty acids help boost the immune system and fight off infections. Incorporating omega three-rich fish into your diet will not only provide these benefits, but it'll make sure that you get enough of other essential vitamins as well, such as vitamin D (which helps with calcium absorption) and selenium – all of which contribute towards keeping you healthy.

What types of fish contain high amounts of these ingredients? For example, salmon has been shown to be an excellent source of Vitamin D and Selenium; halibut contains large quantities of both: they are full of protein too, so it can keep you feeling fuller for longer.

#3 Brain Health

Did you know that seafood can also help improve your brain health? Omega-three fatty acids are essential for the development of a baby's brain in utero and continue to be important throughout life. This is because they play an important role in cognitive function, helping with memory, learning, and reducing inflammation.

The best types of fish to eat if you want to improve your brain health are those that are high in omega threes as well as vitamin D – salmon again tops this list, but mackerel and trout are good too. In addition, all three of these fishes contain large amounts of selenium which is also vital for optimal brain health.

#4 Vision Health

The retina is the light-sensitive tissue that lines the back of your eye. Omega-DHA, which can be found in seafood, has been shown to slow macular degeneration and improve vision.

Calcium deficiencies are common among Americans due to an overconsumption of dairy products. Seafood is an excellent source of calcium because it does not cause excess fat gain as other high protein sources do. One serving of fried shrimp contains almost 50% more calcium than one glass of milk!

#5 Other Benefits

Seafood is also a great source of selenium, which has been shown to improve immune function and cancer prevention. There are many more benefits that come from incorporating seafood into your diet! It is an inexpensive way to get important vitamins like vitamin A, B12 & Biotin!

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How much do we love the holidays? Honestly, between Thanksgiving, end-of-year parties, dinner parties at home, and the lead-up to Christmas, we’re blessed with a veritable treasure chest of culinary pursuits, heavily laden tables, and the bliss that comes from breaking bread with family and friends. 

But all of that wonderful food doesn’t come without a cost and we’re not talking financially. At least not in this context, rather we’re talking about that most hated of culinary currencies - the calorie!

So how do we feast our way through December and still start the new year strong? Dear reader, we may have just solved that problem for you.

'Tis the Season for Cooking!

Image by AnonymousTraveller 

FIRST, PLAN YOUR MENUS

The easiest way to navigate your way through healthy eating this December is to plan for it. Knowing what parties you’re hosting, who’ll be attending, and what you intend on doing over Christmas and the new year will help you break down what your shopping list needs to look like, and where you mean to get your supplies from. 

A good menu planner is not just about ingredients, it’s also about the availability of those ingredients. Bertagna Family Farms is a great source because the product high-quality healthy foods and all the ingredients you could want for a delectable, fresh and healthy table spread.

IT’S ALL ABOUT GOING NATURAL

Fresh, naturally and organically produced foods and ingredients don’t have to compromise on taste and presentation. The opposite is actually true, because a table decked with brightly colored fruits and vegetables doesn’t just burst onto the tastebuds, but it also revitalizes the imagination.

Snack on Raw Organic Almonds, yogurt, and honey for something sweet, and roasted vegetables in olive oil and rosemary, sage, and other exotic spices and herbs will leave your visitors craving more, and feeling as if they could actually have more.

SUPPORT LOCAL

When you can, support your local industries and farms. Not only will this mean you have fresher produce but you’ll also be taking part in the economic recovery of local economies in the United States. (Or wherever you might find yourself).

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY (IT’S A THING!)

We’re always so tempted to over-prepare and ensure that our tables are creaking under the weight of giant turkeys, serving bowls overflowing with their contents - and then having to live off leftovers for the next few days.

Planning your meals and preparing them with quality, fresh ingredients go a long way to make sure that tummies are well filled without excess and waste. It is the perfect time of year to celebrate all of God’s goodness while being mindful of everyone who might not be in that same position. Quite literally, food for thought.

INSPIRED COOKING

Do some homework. Search for recipes that will appeal to your family’s palette and still hit your healthy eating goals. Remember, you don’t have to abandon all of your favorites, you just have to make a few smarter choices and over the season, they will lead to big results.

We want you to have a blessed, safe, and prosperous season filled with love and abundance. So happy eating, and happy Christmas!

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