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 5

How did this weekend already pass me by?!? Kiddos are finishing up on fall break and keeping me busy that is for sure. Enjoying our evenings as a family at the pool winding down the day. Crazy to think of it being Fall, and the weather is still well into the 90s around here.

Since the kiddos are on break I am sharing my lunches I made for them the first week of school. They got to enjoy dinner leftovers of course and a special treat that week! Here is another week of healthy school lunches in our yumbox.

Monday: Scrambled Egg and Shredded Pork in Rudis wrap. Strawberries and Blueberries. Carrots. Lettuce leaves. Special dessert: Goat Cheese Cheesecake. YUM! Seriously taste just like cheesecake!  You can find the recipe here.

Tuesday: Tuna cakes (find my recipe here) Dates. Plantain chips from Trader Joe’s. Broccoli slaw and lettuce leaves. My kiddos are not dressing fans and eat their salads plain.

Wednesday: Chobani yogurt tube, Dried Apricots, Carrots, Veggie fried rice, and shredded pork. Seriously my kiddos are pork fanatics, and I have to cut them off!

Thursday: Cheesestick. Mango Salsa ( you can find my recipe here) Broccoli Slaw that I by from Trader Joe’s. Gluten-Free pancake with sunbutter and honey that was leftover from that mornings breakfast. Uncured all beef hotdogs.

Friday: Blueberries. Celery. Lettuce leaves and grilled chicken. Ginger-Lime Cauliflower Rice ( you can find my recipe here) I love me some cauliflower rice! I buy the organic frozen bags from Trader Joe’s and it makes it for a quick throw together veggie!

So there you have it! Another full week of healthy and nutritious meals for the kiddos. Fuel the body with wholesome food 🙂

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.

Weekly Menu for May 21-27

It is that time again to plan for weekly meals and grocery shop. Right now my meal plans are running Saturday thru Friday with the following Saturday being my grocery shopping day and meal prep. It worked out perfect for me this week!

I have been dedicating myself to a new goal of waking up early (5am) and getting my workout in and daily prayer. So far it has been a great goal for me. I am enjoying my workouts with the hubby as well as some time to spend in prayer before the day gets busy. I love the feeling of accomplishment and the ability to dive into my day. It has helped with my sleep quality too. The weekends are no different. I was up and ready to go. I did my menu planning the day before so I just had to plug in my groceries into my Wunderlist App and away I went. If you haven’t check out this app yet you really should!

I took one of my older daughters with me this morning. She was a great helper. I really enjoy getting my kiddos involved in planning, shopping, preparing of our food. We rocked it; 3 stores in 2 1/2 hours! Really shorter than that since Trader Joes is at about 30 minutes in just driving one way. Van full of great clean, wholesome food! Oh and plus couldn’t forget the Traeger pellets so we can smoke the brisket we picked up.  

We unloaded the van when we got home, grabbed a quick snack and got to work. Here is our menu for the week.

My older girls were in charge of preparing and making all snacks. This menu that included Mini Banana Muffins, Jello (Against All Grain), Sunbutter Balls, and Chocolate Avocado Pudding (Delighted Momma). I included the links for the recipes I use.

There you have it, happy menu planning or feel free to use mine! I am ready to get this week start. Remember keep it simple…Keep it clean.

Review of Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour

One of Rob’s favorite filipino dishes is Sio Pao. We have not enjoyed these in over 4 years. Sio Pao is a filipino dish which means steamed buns. The fillings for Sio Pao can be endless. We like them usually with Pork Adobo, hard boiled egg and onions. I have also made them as a breakfast option with bacon and eggs. One things I learned about myself as I have been testing this recipe round and round is I don’t have the patience of a baker. I love to cook, but baking is a different story! I honestly thought it can’t be that hard. Then again I haven’t baked much since going gluten-free/paleo.

When I was given the opportunity to try out Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour, I knew just what I wanted to bake/steam. You guessed it, Sio Pao! Cassava, or Yuca, is a root vegetable. According to Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour differs from others on the market because

“Otto’s Cassava Flour is thoroughly peeled, dried, and ground into wonderfully consistent, delicious flour that you can count on cup after cup. “

Otto’s Cassava Flour is said to be equivalent to using wheat flour 1:1 in most cases. It is also gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free, and paleo certified. Finally a win for me when baking/cooking kiddos lunches that need to be nut-free. We are a peanut free household since my daughter is allergic to peanuts. Baking with this has brought back many memories of cooking with traditional flours. Even the smell and texture reminds me of traditional baking flours.

When working with this flour, for me, I noticed I needed a little more liquid. That is honestly the only problem I ran into. Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour is seriously a game changer. You will not be disappointed. Sticker price may be a shocker to some. When I  really when I look at it, I spend more money per pound on almond flour then I would on this flour. So if I had to choose, this would be my first pick. I feel I can get more use out of this flour then out of the almond flour.

That being said, I tried some amazing recipes. First one was tortilla wraps from Fork & Beans. You can find the recipe here.

Also Otto’s NY Style Pizza crust by Alana on her website Planks, Love & Guacamole. You can find the recipe here. Paleo, gluten-free pizza never tasted so good! We made ours on the Traeger and it turned out AMAZING.

 

I then made my own Paleo Banana Pancakes using Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour. You can find the recipe on this blog here.

Used the Cassava Flour also in my Chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry. You can find the recipe on my blog here.

Finally our favorite dish Sio Pao was born. This really brought back memories and was delicious as ever. Tasted just like the original Sio Pao I remember! You can find the recipe on my blog here.

I am hooked! So much so that I purchased the 5lb bag they just came out with.

I was also truly impressed with their outstanding customer service and quick deliveries. They also offer free shipping on all domestic orders on there website currently (no code needed). So what are you waiting for? Go grab a bag and get to cooking!

 

Sio Pao-Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour

It has been a busy week of preparing for end of the school year in my household. So I took some time off from blogging these past couple days to take care of some family things. Kids sure are ready for their short summer break to begin, and the older 3 kiddos first kid triathlon to take place! Today I am sharing a family recipe for a traditional Filipino dish called Sio Pao. A family favorite we sure have missed eating.

Sio Pao is a traditional steam bun filled with pork adobo. Although you can choose any number of filling you would like. We have done chicken and also a breakfast bacon/eggs Sio Pao. We haven’t been able to enjoy them for many years since we changed our eating habits to be gluten-free/paleo. Thanks to Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour, we can now enjoy our family’s favorite recipe!

I can say my hubby is one happy man to be able to finally enjoy one of his family’s recipes he had growing up!

I can say this recipe gave me many headaches trying to figure out the right amount of moisture needed when replacing flour with the cassava flour. I can say though it turned out great and taste just like I remember. I am excited to share the recipe with you today!

Sio Pao- Gluten-free/Nut-free/Paleo

Ingredients:

Dough

1. 3/4 cup lukewarm water
2. 1 tbsp raw unfiltered honey
3. 1 tsp dry active yeast
4. 1 1/2 tbsp lard or organic palm shortening
5. 2 1/4 cups Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour
6. 1/4 cup coconut sugar
7. 1 tsp baking powder
8. 1/4 tsp himalayan salt

Pork Adobo

1. 2lbs pork shoulder
2. 4 garlic cloves-minced
3. 1 onion
4. 5 bay leaves
5. 1/2 cup coconut aminos
6. cracked pepper and himalayan salt to taste

Make the dough first.

Whisk honey and lukewarm water until combined. Then add yeast and mix until dissolved. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Whisk 1 egg and set aside.

Combine Cassava flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut lard or palm shortening ( do not use oil it will not work) into flour mixture.

Mix yeast mixture and egg with dry ingredients. 

Knead dough until smooth; about 5-10 minutes.

If dough is still too dry add 1/4 tsp of filtered water at a time and continue to knead. Add a little at a time until  you have smooth texture. (I added in a total of 3/4 tsp water).  Form dough into ball.

Oil a large bowl and and put the ball of dough inside. Cover with cheese cloth and set aside for 1 hour. Dough will slightly rise but not very much.

Divide dough into 12-16 balls. flatten each ball out by hand. Add about 1 tbsp of filling of your choice. If you have kiddos this is a great time to have them help too!

Fold up and pinch off. Cut 2 inch square parchment papers with holes on the bottom. Arrange each Sio Pao on top of a pice of parchment paper.

Arrange Sio Pao with parchment paper in steamer. 

Place cheese cloth over steamer and place lid on top. This will prevent condensation from the lid leaking onto the Sio Pao. Steam for 20-25 minutes. Until dough is “springy”

Arrange on wire rack to let cool. Serve warm. Place extras in fridge and steam again to eat, or place leftovers in freezer until later date.

 

Pork Adobo

You can make the Pork Adobo as the dough is resting for an hour. Cut up pork shoulder into cubes. Place cubed pork shoulder and all remaining ingredients into deep pan. 

Cover and let simmer for approx. 1 hour until pork is fork tender (easily pulls apart with fork).

Let cool and then use as filling for Sio Pao with sliced hard boiled eggs. See how I make my hard boiled eggs here. You can also serve this over cauliflower rice for a complete meal!