Week 8 – School Lunches and Girlfriends Podcast!

Hello November!  The month in which I can finally start to open the windows around here for a little while and get some fresh air. So lately my favorite thing to do while cleaning these days is to listen to the Girlfriends podcast by Danielle Bean.  What a great podcast. If you haven’t listen to it before I suggest you go check it our right now!  You can find it on iTunes here.  Talk about empowering women!  Women need to really empower each other and not compete with one another. Danielle interviews someone new each week on her podcast and she covers everything from health and fitness, parenting, work, motherhood, time management, spirituality, etc.  I have shed tears and heart felt laughs listening to her podcast.   I really can’t say enough good things about this podcast. I can truly relate to what she talks about, and I love the weekly challenges. So what are you waiting for, go take a listen for yourself!

Now on to this weeks lunches in our Yumbox!

Monday: Strawberries and Blueberries. Carrots. Stonyfield organic vanilla yogurt. Lettuce leaves. Grilled chicken. 

Tuesday: Cheesestick. Oranges. Broccoli Slaw. Ham, guac, and cheese rolls. Plantain chips.

Wednesday: Strawberries. Mozzarella Cheese. Broccoli Slaw. Lettuce Leaves. Wallace Farms Nick-Sticks ( you can buy them here).

Thursday: Mac’s Original Chicharrones (fried pork fat with attached skin and salt). Chicharrones are delicious! Strawberries. Broccoli Slaw. The Paleo Mom-plantain pancakes. You can find her recipe here. I served these with sunbutter and honey.

Friday: Pickles. Dried Apricots. Carrots. Gluten-Free pizza casserole ( you can find my recipe here). Plantain Chips.

An that is a wrap of this weeks healthy school lunches! Enjoy.

Week 6 – School Lunches

Happy Saturday as we approach the end of October! That means Halloween weekend is coming up! When we moved to Arizona over a year ago now it was weird to finally trick-or-treat actually on Halloween. It is great here to see all the homes decorated and people outside. With the usually nice weather, people are sitting out front to great the trick-or-treaters. In Iowa we had a designated beggers night and time in which the kiddos would go trick-or-treating. I like the change and really look forward to going all out once we buy our own home here! For now I will enjoy decorated the inside of the home and putting up a few lights outside. My oldest boy really wants one of those big blow up halloween creatures out in the front yard. I tell him that will be the first thing he can go and purchase with dad when we find our new home!

I hope you are enjoying my weekly school lunch post. I enjoy sharing what we have for lunches and how easy it is to pack a lunch! It is also great if your kiddos are old enough to help and pack them the night before or that morning. So here you go another week of healthy and delicious lunches in our Yumbox.

Monday: Cheesestick, celery, and cherries. Grilled hamburger. Lettuce leaves. Dark Chocolate Honey Mint that I get from Trader Joe’s. Those mints are so so so good! Even better in melted in your hot chocolate. Will be sharing my recipe for that soon, so stay tune!

Tuesday: Turkey Taco Salad with Goat Gouda cheese. Plantain chips. Mango Salsa ( you can find my recipe here).

Wednesday: Sunbutter and Honey wraps using Rudis wrap. Blueberries and Strawberries. Celery. Mix Kale salad ( I get from Costco, but I do not use the salad dressing in it.) Pepitas and Cranberries. Nick-Sticks ( you can buy them here). I love Wallace Farms Nick-Sticks they are a great protein made from grass-fed cows. I love to add them to lunches. They also make a good snack, keep in my purse on the go, or even after a workout!

Thursday: Bulgarian Yogurt with Raw Honey and Enjoy Life Foods mini chocolate chips. Blueberries and Strawberries. Uncured all beef hotdogs. Plantain chips. Carrots.

Friday: Lettuce Leaves and grilled chicken. Blueberries and cheesestick.

Another week in the books. Some days I struggle and don’t feel like making lunches, but then I remind myself how much my kiddos look forward to their lunch I pack them. Also I then know they are getting the fuel they need throughout the day to keep them going. I can say it was amazing not having to wash lunch boxes during fall break!!

Enjoy!

School Lunches – Week 4

Another week in the books for school lunches. For me, school lunches are a great way to finish up leftovers. Makes menu planning and prepping a breeze. It is also a way to have your kiddos help out if they are old enough. I keep my weekly menu board up in the pantry. Olivia, my daughter, loves helping out in the kitchen. When she is done getting ready for school she will step in and see what needs to be done for school snacks and lunches while I am making breakfast. She can look at the board and start going to town putting everything together. It helps me out, and gets them excited to help pack lunches and snack bags.

Week 4 meals were kind of a mixture of odds and ends left in the fridge. I have emergency protein on hand if we go through more of dinner than what I had planned. One of my favorite things to have on hand is Wallace Farms Nick Sticks. They make great snacks, after workout protein, and easy to cut up and throw into lunches! Here is a break down of what my kiddos enjoyed eating this week!

Monday: Hard Boiled Egg, buffalo chicken, lettuce wedges, mango, and cheese stick.

Tuesday: Hard Boiled Egg, Jello, Pickles, mango, and Lettuce Wrap Ham Rolls. Ham roll: guac, goad gouda cheese, carrot slices, and uncured ham slices.

Wednesday: Pulled Pork with Frank’s Red Hot, Lettuce wedges, Celery and Sunbutter, White Mountain Bulgarian Yogurt with Raw Honey and Strawberries, and Green Beans.

Thursday: Plantain Chips, Uncured Hotdogs, White Mountain Bulgarian Yogurt with Raw Honey, Grapes, Carrots, and Pickle.

Friday: Wallace Farm Nick Sticks, Carrots, Plantain Chips, Apple Slices, and Cheese Stick.

Another great week of healthy, wholesome school lunches. Providing nutritious food for growing bodies. Living life one day at a time!

 

Enjoy 🙂

School Lunches – Week 3

Week 3 into my weekly school lunch theme.  I hope you all are finding these useful. At least for me, it gives me a place to come back to when I am in a pinch for ideas. You know when you meal plan and trying to decide what to have. A lot of times I look through pictures I have taken or old blog photos for meals to revisit.  Take a look at Week 3 school lunches in our YumBox lunch boxes.

Week 3- Healthy School Lunches:

Monday: Tuna cake, kale salad with raisins and grilled chicken, pickles, blueberries and strawberries, and sunbutter ball.

Tuesday: Carrots, kale salad with cranberries and pepitas, pickle, ham and cheese wrap, and blueberries.

Wednesday: Carrots, kale salad, hardboiled egg, steak, cherries, and mini banana muffin.

Thursday: Pickles, ham/carrot/cheese wrap, jello, celery with sunbutter, and strawberries.

Friday: Carrots, grilled chicken, green beans, pickle, chocolate avocado pudding, pineapple and blueberries, and sunbutter ball.

Another week has gone by with another week of freshly made school lunches. Keeping my kiddos fueled with healthy and nutritious lunches! Living with purpose on this journey called LIFE.  Enjoy!

School Lunches – Week 2

Happy Saturday and it is time for another week of school lunches in our YumBox lunch boxes.  This week I made some of Against All Grains Jello using Trader Joe’s Cherry Cider.  Let me tell you, it was delicious. I love cherry and so do my kiddos. Typically I do unfitted apple juice or Newmans Grape juice, but I was in the mood for some cherry. As I was pouring the warm jello into the glass container, it totally reminded me of when my mom would make me warm jello when I was sick. Oh the memories… Now lets get to what we had this week for school lunches!

Week 2- School Lunches

Monday: Carrots and green beans, grilled chicken, Stoneyfield yogurt, kind bar, and orange.

Tuesday: Stoneyfield yogurt, G-F pancakes with sunbutter and raw honey, Nick-Sticks, Jello, Carrots, and half banana.

Wednesday: Carrots, jello, uncured hotdogs, cheesestick, and apple slices.

Thursday: Pickles, romain lettuce with grilled hamburger, strawberries, cheesestick, and jello.

Friday: Carrots, strawberries, jello, cheesestick, and beef roast.

So there you have it, another week of healthy prepared school lunches. Simple, filling, and nutritious. Have a great weekend y’all!

Weekly School Lunch- 1

So I decided to change things up with my school lunch post. I will be posting my weekly lunches on Saturdays. That way I can compile my weeks worth of lunches all in one spot. This will provide a better snap shot of how I do our lunches during the week, and how you can really utilize dinner leftovers throughout the week!  Oh and I am really liking our YumBox lunch boxes this year.

Week 1 School Lunches:

Monday: Carrots, romain lettuce with raisins, grilled chicken, pineapple, cheesestick, and organic ketchup.

Tuesday: Carrots, romain lettuce with pickle, hardboiled egg, oranges, ham and cheese wrap.

Wednesday: Celery with sunbutter, romain lettuce leaves, grilled chicken, cheesesticks, oranges and raisins.

 

Thursday: Carrots, romain lettuce leaves, grilled chicken with organic ketchup, Siggi’s yogurt tube, and strawberries.

 

Friday: pickle and carrots, Stonyfield  yogurt with raw honey and Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips, romain lettuce, uncured beef hotdog, and strawberries.

So there you have it, my kiddos weekly meals. Some days my kiddos get through all their lunch and some days not. They never waste food at school and I always pack their lunch in a lunch bag with freezer packs. So if they don’t get through their lunch they finish it either on the way home or as soon as they get home with their after school snack. Keep lunches simple and I never worry about repeating protein or veggies as you can see 🙂

Making healthy lunches to fuel their bodies one day at a time!  Happy packing.

Pizza Casserole

I remember one of the greatest most helpful things people did for me when on bedrest and after having the twins was dinners. It really helped me out and made things a little easier on me. One of my kiddos favorite dishes brought over from my older sister was Pizza Casserole. It is easy to make and can be also done as a freezer meal. I had an idea how she made it but called her up to get more specifics. I also was going to make it with rice noodles (bonus she said she has made it that way too and turned out well). With rice noodles you want to be certain not to over cook them. I make mine until they are just about done since it will still go into the oven to finish off. If you like more of saucy pizza you can increase the pizza sauce amount.

We enjoyed this casserole for lunch with a side salad. I used the leftovers today for school lunch. I love that my kiddos are not picky about having certain food being hot or cold! I am sharing how I made the recipe below.

Pizza Casserole

Ingredients

• 16oz bag of rice noodles or Brown Rice and Quinoa Pasta ( I get mine from Trader Joe’s)
• 2-2.5lbs of ground turkey ( can also use beef)
• Pepperoni
• 2- 15oz cans of pizza sauce ( I use this brand)
• Goat Gouda Cheese- or Raw Milk Cheese (I shred myself and get from Trader Joe’s)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Basil
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Garlic powder

Oil a 9×13 pan and set aside. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

* next time I will double the meat and sauce and split into 2 dishes using the same amount of rice noodles. I personally like more meat sauce compared to the noddles.

Grab your meat and noodles.

Cook your pasta until just done. I cooked for approx. 7 minutes.  Drain and rinse.

As the pasta was cooking, I also cooked the ground turkey. Add a little avocado oil to the pan and add the turkey. I sprinkled in the seasonings. You can also use Italian seasoning, but I didn’t have any on hand. Sorry I didn’t measure, just eye balled it.

Once the meat is done cooking add in the pizza sauce to the cooked meat.

Grease the pan and add some sauce mix to the bottom. Then layer noodles, meat mixture, pepperoni, and cheese. Repeat layers. 

Bake in oven at 350 degrees uncovered for 30 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let cool. Dish out onto plates and serve! I served mine also with a side salad.

Kiddos took the leftovers today in their lunchbots for school lunch. Served with strawberries and broccoli slaw. 

Enjoy a great twist on making pizza. Yum!

*I did edit this post 4/2017 to make changes to double the meat and sauce in recipe as I stated above!

Packing a disposable sack lunch

It is only Tuesday and I feel like it has already been a full and busy week! School year winding down, school testing, and field trips are in full force. Life is keeping me busy and makes the days go by fast. Seriously, how do other busy parents do it?!? I just pick and choose what I am going to do for the day and what is going to get done. I figured before I know it my younger ones will be off to school and then I will have all the time in the world to do household chores. So I will just stick with that, and enjoy my time during the day with my kiddos.

With school field trips we have to send a disposable lunch. I can send their water containers that they can carry and take along which is great! I typically send them in a paper lunch sack, but I ran out. I didn’t want to go a purchase more right now since we are at the end of the school year. My Trader Joe’s bag with a clothes pin concoction worked out just fine. I packed her lunch and then cut off the top of the bag and rolled it down. Clipped a clothes to hold it close. Easy Peasy!

 

This is what we packed today for her lunch:

Jello and oranges. Sunbutter Ball. Banana. Hard Boiled Egg and Hotdog. Wholly Guacamole and Plantain Chips. Carrots. Honest Kids (special occasion only) drink.

I grabbed some freezer bags and filled them with ice. Wrapped them in a plastic bag and then packed up the lunch. Her lunch stayed cold until it was time to eat. 

Quick and easy to put together. She was still able to enjoy a very healthy wholesome lunch.

Cheers to another successful school lunch!

Mastering Hard Boiled Eggs

I enjoy a great hard boiled egg. They are great on salads, in lunches, stuffed with tuna, topped with hot sauce, or even with just himalayan salt. I have tried over the years to make an ideal hard boiled egg. I think I have tried it all, including baking them. I remember when I was in my younger years, if the hard boiled egg wasn’t completely cooked (almost green yolk) I wouldn’t touch it. Wow has my food adventures grown!

Here is my favorite way to cook my Hard Boiled Eggs:

Add a single layer of eggs to a sauce pan. Fill the pan with water until it is about an inch over the eggs.

Bring water to a boil and boil for only 1 minute.

Remove from heat and cover with lid. Set a timer for 9 minutes. Get a bowl and fill with some ice and cold water and set aside.

When the 9 minutes is up transfer the eggs immediately to the cold water ice bath.

Let them cool down. Peel and serve, or store in refrigerator.

Enjoy!

My menu

Busy weekend doing some testing on a new recipe that I haven’t had since I went paleo. Super excited to be sharing it with you all soon. Just have a few more finishing tweaks! So with the restricted amount of time I just put together a quick 5 day meal plan (M-F). Here is what we are having.

Breakfast:

1. Quiona-kiddos & egg and sausage.
2. Paleo waffle sandwiches
3. Egg & sausage hash
4. Egg & sausage hash
5. Paleo Pancakes and Eggs

Kiddos Snacks:

1. Yogurt & banana chips
2. Paleo pumpkin muffins & celery sticks (Sunbutter, coconut flakes)
3. Apples with Sunbutter balls- recipe here.
4. Paleo pumpkin muffins & fruit
5. Crunchy rice rolls with Sunbutter ball & yogurt

School Lunch: * Rob and I usually have a fresh salad or previous nights leftovers.

1. Hard boiled eggs, tuna cakes, salad, pickles, and fruit
2. Monday night leftovers
3. Chicken, veggies, & fruit
4. Paleo coconut flour pancakes sandwiches, fruit, and veggies
5. Thursday night leftovers

After school snack:

1. Paleo Sio Pao & fruit
2. Exploding Apples (Sunbutter, raisins, & shredded coconut flakes)
3. Paleo zucchini muffins & smoothie
4. Candied walnuts & celery
5. Paleo zucchini muffins & smoothies

Dinner:

1. Baked potato bar – Mexican style
2. Cauliflower “fried rice” with chicken
3. Tex-Mex – sweet potato style
4. Buffalo chicken & sweet potatoes
5. Leftover night!

That is it for me this week. Should be an easy meal prep, allows me to be able to prep during the week too!

Enjoy the journey & Keep it simple!