School Lunch - What are your kids throwing away?

DISCLAIMER: I am not a nutritionist. These are my suggestions. If you are a nutritionist, then stop reading now.

Without you realizing it, your child has a lot of control over what they eat for lunch at school.  Whether you pack a lunch for them, or they bring the tray from the cafeteria what stays in front of them and what ends up in the trash is truly their decision.  I used to think that cafeteria lunches were the easiest option (for me) until I went for lunch with my son in elementary school.

What I saw on the tray was not the most appetizing meal, sure it had some nutritional value (the pizza was on whole wheat crust) but I was appalled watching almost every single one of the children throw away the fruit on their tray.  Why?  Because served with today's lunch was an orange.

Not cut, not peeled, just an orange.

What is an elementary school child to do with this?  I watched some bite into it, grimacing at the sour taste, while others just rolled it on the table in front of them.  So I decided, I had to make something they would actually eat.  How do you determine what a child will eat at lunch?

1.  It has to be easy. Lunch time for children is a socialization time.  Their mind is not focused on their food, it is free talking with their buddies!  Make sure everything in the lunch box is a no brainer, easy to open, something they don't have to look at and wonder what it is.

2.  Make it edible.  If you are adding an apple, take a minute at home cutting it up.  This makes it easier during lunch time, most children do not have the attention span of eating an entire apple.  I usually cut half for the lunchbox, half for me.  That way the entire apple is eaten. Melons should be cut into bitesize chunks, packing the silverware does not mean they will use it, smaller chunks keep chins and such from getting sticky when biting into a larger piece of fruit.

3.  Crusts or to not crust the sandwich.  There was a 2002 study stating that the cancer fighting antioxidants baked into bread were 8 times greater in the crust, then there was my mother saying "If I ate the crust my hair would turn curly."  Just remember, if your child does not like the crust, leaving it on means they will take two to three bites of the INSIDE of the sandwich leaving the rest, cutting the crust means the entire sandwich is eaten. Or, if there isn't a crust debate in your home, don't even start one, leave the crust on.

4. Watch your sugar. Most times, the largest amount of sugar in the lunchbox is in the drink.  Many schools do not allow soft drinks in lunches, but watch the sugars of non carbonated drinks.  Remember that some energy drinks contain caffeine and sugar, meant to be used during or after a workout, not when sitting and eating lunch. One of the easiest things to get down my children is the flavored water, the best would be just water, but we're still working on that battle. One of the benefits of the cafeteria is fresh milk daily, another great choice for your child.

5. Make it fun. I've seen to the completely off the board healthy lunches, where every child is looking in the box saying, "What is that?" Don't single your child out with an over the top lunch, they may not eat it because of the ribbing from friends.  I'm not saying to not have fun. My one son loves sushi, so one morning I tossed that in his lunch! He came home from school laughing at all his friends "ewwing" that he was eating fish!

6. Add in the tradable.  Some schools do not allow trading items from lunch boxes but if yours does, I always add in the small sweet "tradable" treat. If you have the time, make those chocolate chip cookies at home with your child, if you can't add in something small and sweet - gummies, cookies, cake. This is a fun time of lunch when everyone evaluates what the other has and in some cases, trades around.

7. Your thermos is your lifeline. Most children will eat sandwiches, but consider the benefit of investing in a nice thermos. Anything left over from dinner can be lunch the next day.  Monday is my soup making day, I'll make two types of soups and put them in the thermos during the week  Sometimes if I have nothing in the house, I can heat up a frozen meal (my children like chicken fried rice) and throw that in the thermos.  The only problem I have with thermoses is when they are forgotten at school for a week and of course I'm in charge of the hazmat material.

Finally, if you want, leave them that note of encouragement.  Most elementary school children love finding a note in their lunch box, Middle and High School they say they don't, but I beg to differ.  I misspelled a word on a joke I wrote on a note and my High Schooler called me on it!

Remember, lunch is the middle refueling of your child's airplane, make good choices and they will fly through the second half of their day with a full tank!

For The Love of Food

In the Melang household we have two very different types of cooks.  We have the gourmet cook and the Mom cook.

My husband is the gourmet cook.  His masterpieces are slow and steady cooking, finding unusual ingredients, and fantastic.  He loves homemade food, with the arrival of a meat slicer for Christmas is now into homemade lunch meats.  Sometimes this has its drawbacks.

He hung 5 pieces of filet mignon from our dining room chandelier for one week, drying the meat out in a South African Biltong type of way.  I lost a few friends when they came to visit, walking through the kitchen door to me standing with a butcher knife in hand and raw meat hanging to dry.  Of course, they left before I could explain.

Curing his own bacon from pork belly was another chandelier experiment.  Once explaining to my friends that I was not a serial killer, I invited them back again.  This time they came through the door to my husband slicing beef on his slicer with raw pork hanging from the chandelier, never saw them again.

He sometimes gets caught up in his cooking.  I remember once watching him massage spices into a piece of meat and actually getting a little jealous.

He gets hyper focused on what he is cooking.  Meaning dinner is handmade pork belly.  That's it.  If we have company (those that still come to the house) I have to prepare the sides.

You can sense a love of the process in his cooking.  It is his way to relax on the weekends.  I can't complain because not only do a get a break, but I get great food in the process.  Though my pants have been a little tight lately.

My cooking is Mom cooking, translating into 30 minutes or less, 3-4 ingredients and as few dirty dishes as possible.  I developed this type of cooking when my children were born, because keeping a toddler from trashing your kitchen and trying to cook a gourmet meal did not work well together.  Dinner had to be fast and pretty simple.  Explaining to a 10 year old that I worked on the Gohbi Aloo for several hours and the garam
Masala is a great taste is a guaranteed push the plate away move.  Their rule of thumb is if they cannot pronounce it, then they will not eat it.  However, making your own spaghetti sauce in 30 minutes for the pasta is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, I of course plan the nutritional meal, actually adding the salad, and, of course, the dessert.

Anytime you come to visit the Melang house, you should expect a great meal.  Sometimes things may take a little time, but short or long it is always worth it.

If you like food as much as I do, check out The Hundred Foot Journey by Dreamworks, staring Helen Mirren, a great story of a love of food, with beautiful scenery and cooking scenes that will make your mouth water. Not only does it make me want to visit the countryside of France, not just for the good food, but the beautiful outdoor markets.   Currently the hubby is looking into the possibility of making Indian food.  Someone told me this could take days.

Here is a link to the movie.  The Hundred Foot Journey

WTF - Spotted Dick?

Best way to go on a diet is to change the way you eat.

I was a at dinner party where the talk went around English food.  We had a wonderful Yorkshire Pudding for the first time, delicious with it's onion sauce and gravy.

Then they asked if I've ever had Spotted Dick.

Conversation stopped.

I tried to remember that time when Jeff caught that strange flu in Mexico when we were on a cruise.  He had a temperature and spots all over his body.  Oh wait, he was sick if I remember, was not in the mood.

"No, I've never had spotted dick," I replied looking around the room, "Have you?"

His wife perked up, "Why I love spotted dick especially when it is covered in custard."

I close my mouth, first in sympathy for her, then second what if I catch something from her?

"I like the one that comes in a can," her husband adds.

"Comes in a can," I squeak out.

"Yes, it's especially spongy with a few surprises in there," he says.

"Yes, and the more custard the better, especially if it is room temperature," his wife adds.

"It's easy to make a Spotted Dick," He says.

"First you have to grease everything up.

Then you whip it hard

Add in some flavorings

And let things heat up.

Just as it is about to go, dial it down a notch to keep things simmering.

Finally, when it done, take the custard whip it until smooth and pour it over it."

His wife sighs, "I like my Spotted Dick in a can.  That way I can microwave it."

Just as I am about to say that I'm on a diet and cannot eat anymore, they say:

"But we have Blackberry Cobbler, would you like some?"

PS.  I went ahead and googled Spotted Dick on Amazon and not only is it available for purchase, but those that purchased Spotted Dick also purchased:

Grace Cock Flavored Soup
Super Dickmans that go well with Spotted Dick.
And of course, my favorite

Megapussi

Hungry yet?

Amazing myself....

What happened to me last night?  I felt the urge to cook....


So here's my masterpieces of the evening:

Kels Kickin It Potato Salad

Potatoes
Crisp Bacon
Onions
Hard Boiled eggs
Mayo
Montreal Steak Seasoning.

Cook the bacon and onion together while potatoes are boiling.  Toss everything together and serve warm.

Apples My Way

Chopped Apples
Brown Sugar
Butter
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Caramel sauce
Graham Crackers

Carmelize the butter with the brown sugar in a skillet, add the apples and spice and cook through.  Toss mixture with caramel and crumbled graham crackers.


Finally.....

Mellow Mushrooms

Mushrooms
Butter
Red Wine
Garlic

Saute the garlic and butter, add mushrooms and saute until half their size, add splash of red wine and cook off alcohol.

Enjoy these recipes - or enjoy all my leftovers, either way I amazed myself!

Today I blew it....

And frankly was glad about it.

I ate Cookie Crisp for breakfast

Washed it down with a big glass of orange juice.

Finishing it with a handful of goldfish while packing school lunches.

I gave myself the opportunity to re-read my favorite parts of a book

while stuffing my face with Fishers Caramel Popcorn.

I tried my hand at writing something different

Then didn't think twice about throwing it away.

I read through all the blogs I've been saving,

Posted comments to a few.

Then went back as someone else 

And had a little fun.

I did all the things I wasn't supposed to do

Eat junk, drink wine, read romance

Because one affects the hips, another the head, the last the heart.

I figured that one day wouldn't hurt.

But I felt guilty so the last ten minutes

Before I went to sleep,

I drank several glasses of water,

Pulled out my nonfiction book,

and cut up a piece of fruit.

Sigh

If you could cheat for a day, what would you do?

How to REALLY look at those 100 calorie packs!

I’m having one of those moments when I have a nice long conversation with myself. I’ve already had 6 of the cookies in the pack and according to the nutrition label, I’ve had one serving. Who determines one serving? Do they have normal women like myself sitting around eating cookies waiting until the button on the front of their pants pops off then say, “There we go, that’s one serving.”


Cookie, cake, and now candy companies are making it easier for us with 100 calorie packs. I open my favorite cookie company’s 100 calorie pack happy I’m not staring at an open package. Inside there are two cookies. What? You’ve got to be kidding me? A serving? My husband laughs and says, “Man what a rip off. At least you’ll know that you’ve eaten 500 calories when you finish off the rest of the packages.”

I try to forget what constitutes a serving as I get disgusted with myself and hide the open package of cookies where I can’t find it. Fifteen minutes later and I find it (Hmmm) and eat another for good luck. Another hour will pass and I finally convince myself that if I just eat the rest of the package and vow never to buy cookies again, that’s the best way to control my weight.

What’s your take on the 100 calorie packs, fact for fiction?

How to cut some edges off that grocery bill

Many don't like running around town to save money, so with one stop to the grocery store and one stop after that you can cut close to 20% off your grocery using two very small steps.

First when shopping at the grocery store, remember the easiest it is to make the worse it is for along with the expense you pay.  Think outside the box, literally!  These types of foods are not only expensive but also full of ingredients and items that are bad for you.  Stay on the outside aisles, the produce, the meats, the dairy and find everything to make healthful dinners for a fraction of the cost!  There are many websites out there with recipes for dinner that are full of fresh ingredients and run 30 minutes and under in preparation.  Prepare an extra large batch, freeze or save and you've got healthful meals for the week!

The second place to consider is Big Lots, many think of Big Lots for thrift in home items, decorations and toys but the food section of Big Lots has LOTS (get it) of deals on food that can shave off more precious money from your grocery bill.  They buy oversales of gourmet items from stores then sell them for sometimes 70% off!  I've found Kona coffee at Big Lots for $5 a pound ($10 at grocery store), Paula Deen muffin mix for $1 and cans of soup $1 to $1.50 off grocery store price!  The best part of Big Lots is when it comes to filling up the lunch boxes or snacking, they carry a great variety of lunch snacks at 70% off and cereal back to the swallowable price of $2.50 a box rather than $4.95 now.

With grocery store prices rising, there are alternatives to lower your bill, create healthful meals AND find some discounts.  Here's one of my favorite healthful recipes!

Spaghetti and Meatball Soup
1 lb Ground Turkey
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
1 tsp Garlic Salt
1/4 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 egg

Combine all and roll into mini meatballs.  Gently fry these in a plan with 3 tsp of olive oil until the outsides are brown.  You don't need to cook all the way.  Remove meatballs add 6 cups of vegetable stock or chicken stock (make your own and save more money) scraping the bottom of the pan.  When the stock comes to boil, add 1 cup chopped carrots, 1 cup chopped celery, 1 cup chopped onion - 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp garlic, salt, pepper and bay leaf.  Finally add 2 tbsp of tomato paste and bring the moisture to boil, then simmer for 15 minutes to blend flavors.  Add pasta of choice, or navy beans with almost cooked meat balls and cook another 15 until pasta is done.  Spoon out and add grated parmesan and serve.

Enjoy!  What are your tips for saving on YOUR grocery bills?