You Can Take it with You
With obesity in both adults and children on the rise, it might be a good time to take a look at what you are eating for lunch. Salads from fast food chains can have the same and sometimes more calories than the burgers they serve. Take a moment to see what it is you are actually consuming. Some of the fast food chains have taken notice of people that have chosen to eat healthier, and reduced the amount of calories and fat in their products. Yet, we should not only be worried about those two things. It's what goes into your food that matters. Our bodies have evolved over millions of years to digest and use what is naturally available to us. But science has leaped far ahead of this process and introduced processed foods and man-made additives to our diets. Our bodies do not know how to deal with this, and end up storing it away, turning into fat. We also tend to ingest our highest calorie amounts at dinner time. Unfortunately all those calories have no where to go, we burn very little tossing and turning in bed, and wake up with our hips slightly plumper. Breakfast should be your biggest meal of the day, followed by a medium sized lunch and small dinner.
We need to move away from the fast food and vending machine lunches. There is a whole world out there with healthy, delicious, and easy to prepare recipes for the sack lunch, for both the adult and child. If you are a parent, you have an idea of what your child is willing to eat. Introducing new foods can be a struggle. My children will fight
over who gets the blue foods. Find out your child's favorite color and add it to the lunch menu by making your own sandwich bread, pita or pasta. Add the food coloring to the wet ingredients, and two drops will usually be enough. Also adding food coloring to a bottle of water and freezing it the night before is a great way to get your children to
drink more water. Fruit juice is good for you, but not in excess. The best lunch time drink is water.
Making a vegetable not look like a vegetable is a hard trick. Thinly sliced vegetables hidden under the cheese for a pizza are the easiest. But you can also use thinly sliced or chopped vegetables in pita. Chop up your child's favorite lunch meat and mix them all together with a reduced fat cream cheese. Allow your child to help with the preparation. It builds pride and they will be more likely to eat the sack lunch. Replace white breads, with wheat breads or pita. There are some store bought varieties that are festive, adding fruits to the mix. Giving your child choices is also a way to get them to eat the packed lunch. Just be aware of the child's age and give only a few things to choose from. You don't want to ask a five-year-old what do they want for lunch, and leave it completely up
to them. Instead ask if they would prefer to eat worms or frog eyes. This will get an eeewww gross, and a giggle, then they will be happy to help cook. Kids that help prepare their own meals improve their reading skills, math skills, and creativity. Talk to them about what is good for you; and why it is good.
Children will also eat many things cold that we as adults would never imagine. Fish sticks, chicken nuggets, pastas, and kabob are some favorites. And remember to make your own lunch at the same time. Eating the same thing as your child will teach them good eating habits. It's all right for you to show up at work with a bunny-shaped sandwich. Use cookie cutters to create a more appealing sandwich for your child. Here's a hint for salads, keep the crunchy items separate from the juicy items and dressing. Allow them to mix them before eating. This will insure that the lettuce carrots and radishes will not get soggy.
No children? That's fine. Many of these recipes are wonderful for work. You might also try cooking lunches on the weekend, freezing a week worth in individual lunch sizes, and heating them up in a microwave during the week. Don't forget some of these creative ideas to include fruit in your meals.
Remember that your packed lunch should include all the food groups. It should be a medium sized meal so that you have enough calories to help you through your day. And don't push aside your sweet tooth. A bit of chocolate or other favored treat is great, as long as you don't over indulge.
Carrot and Raisin Salad
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1 pound carrots (5 to 6) peeled and shredded
½ cup raisins
1 carton (8 oz) low fat vanilla yogurt
4 to 6 iceberg lettuce leaves
Mix carrots, raisins and yogurt together. Cover and place in fridge. Pour over lettuce before eating.
Frog eyed salad
1 box pasta shapes
1 large can of pineapple (drained)
3 large cans of mandarin oranges (drained)
1 large container of low fat whipped topping
1 bag of colored marshmallows
The night before, boil pasta as per package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Toss with pineapple, mandarin oranges, and refrigerate. Mix in the whipped topping in the morning. Top with marshmallows.
Chinese egg roll salad
1 bag of coleslaw mix with carrots (or make your own coleslaw)
1 cup of leftover cooked meat, either chicken pork or beef
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs Teriyaki sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
10 large egg roll wrappers cut into long strips
1 green onion
Sweet and sour sauce, or duck sauce
4 Tbs vegetable oil
Heat oil in a large frying pan, slowly drop the egg roll wrappers and fry until crispy. Drain on paper towel. Place coleslaw into frying pan and add meat, soy sauce, and garlic powder and teriyaki sauce. Stir until thoroughly warmed. Place coleslaw mix into serving bowl. Topped with crispy egg roll wrappers and chopped green onion before eating. Serve warm by reheating before school, keeping the salad in a small thermos. Add some Sweet and Sour sauce or duck sauce to taste.
Mandarin orange salad with almonds
Romaine lettuce
One single-serve package of mandarin orange segments
almond slivers
Poppy seed dressing
Mix all the ingredients.
Strawberry-spinach salad
Baby spinach
Sliced strawberries
Almond slivers
Wine vinegar salad dressing
Mix all the ingredients.
Worms pasta salad
Follow your own pasta recipe adding 2 drops of orange food coloring to wet ingredients. Cook, drain, and pat dry. Add 2 Tbs olive oil, for moisture. Sprinkle on Parmesan cheese and chopped roasted almonds to your taste
Muffin pizza
English muffins (½ muffin is a good serving size)
pizza sauce
shredded cheese (try goat cheese)
pizza toppings.
Split English muffins in half and cover with pizza sauce and shredded cheese. Use pepperoni, sliced olives, mushrooms, green peppers or other veggie toppings to make a silly face. Bake on a cookie sheet at 375° F for 5-10 minutes, until cheese melts. Children will eat this cold, or preheat in morning and keep in a stay hot bowl.
Fish sticks
Makes about 20 fish sticks.
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
4 tsp water
1 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1 lb cod fish filets, skin removes, cut 3 ½ x 1 inch (9 x 2.5 cm)
2 Tbsp. hard butter
Pour flour into bowl and set aside. Beat eggs with water in separate small bowl. Place bread crumbs, paprika, salt and pepper in separate small bowl. Dip each fish piece into the flour to coat, then dip into egg mixture, and then into bread crumbs. Place the battered fish sticks on a large plate. Melt butter in a non-stick frying pan... Brown both sides of the fish sticks until medium to medium-dark and flakes easily when tested with fork
Sesame chicken nuggets
These can be eaten as finger foods, placed in pita, or used with kabobs.
1 whole chicken breast, skinned and cut into cubes
Brown paper bag
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
½ cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sesame seeds
Black pepper to taste
Garlic salt to taste
1 cup vegetable oil
Place chicken cubes in the brown bag with the seasonings and shake. Heat the oil in a pan; fry the chicken until golden brown. Drain well on absorbent paper and store in the refrigerator. Reheat in a microwave. Wrap them in foil before packing in a lunch box or in a stay hot container. Send some honey for dipping.
Shake-it-up chicken nuggets
Servings: 4; 4 nuggets per serving
1-3/4 cups herb-seasoned crumb stuffing mix
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
two good shakes of curry
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (approximately 1 pound)
Preheat oven to 450° F.
Measure stuffing; mix into a sealable plastic bag. Close the bag and place on a flat surface. Crush the bread crumbs by rolling and pressing a rolling pin over the bag. Add Parmesan cheese and reseal bag, shaking to mix thoroughly.
Melt butter. Put the melted butter, buttermilk, pepper and curry into a medium shallow bowl. Stir well and set aside.
Rinse off the chicken breasts, pat dry with paper towels. Cut chicken into 16 chunks of the same size. Then dip each chicken chunk into the buttermilk mix, coating all sides. Allow the extra buttermilk to drip off. Place 3 dipped chunks at a time into the bag of crumbs. Close the bag tightly then shake until the chicken is evenly coated with the crumbs.
Set the coated nuggets down on an un-greased baking sheet. Finish the other pieces of chicken.
Bake nuggets for 4 minutes, flip them over and allow baking another 4-5 minutes, or until golden in color.
Children will eat these cold, or reheat in microwave in the morning, placing them in a stay hot container. Send along their favorite dipping sauce.
Fruit kabob
grapes;
melon;
strawberries;
bananas;
apples;
straw
Prepare fruit by washing and cutting into bite size pieces. Thread fruit with plastic straw. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until time to eat. Send along Chocolate or vanilla dipping sauce.
Chocolate Snake
½ cup Peanut butter
½ cup Dry milk
½ cup Honey
1 Tbs cocoa
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup Chopped nuts
½ cup Raisins
2 Tbs coconut
Mix together peanut butter and dry milk until blended. One at a time, stir in honey, cocoa, vanilla, nuts, raisins, and coconut Dump the mix onto wax paper then roll into a thick snake shape. Wrap it in the wax paper and chill. Cut into slices the next morning, re-wrapping in the wax paper.
Worm in the apple
peanut butter
jelly or jam
a package of gummy worm’s apples
Remove core from apple, leaving the bottom of each apple intact. If you mistakenly puncture an apple all the way through, plug the hole with a small piece of core. Use 1 cup of peanut butter and 1 cup of jam, combine them in a bowl. Fill the now hollow center of each apple with the peanut butter mix. Place apples in a cupcake or muffin pan, and set the pan in a larger pan that is half full of water. Bake at 350° F for about 30 minutes, or until tender. Cool, and then insert a gummy worm halfway into the hole, leaving half to dangle out.
