Any good lunches for school?

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My Cafeteria lunch sucks, and it's really greasy, and fatning. I have a lot of stairs at my school, and when i eat there food i feel sick sometimes. Any good lunches ideas? Like sandwiches, salads, snacks, cakes.?

Answer
7 Ideas for Easy - and Healthy - School Lunches

1. Pack Produce
The great thing about fruits and vegetables is that they deliver a ton of nutrients and they don't require cooking. They also boost hydration and typically taste great without any added ingredients. Stick with what's in season, and you won't have to pay extra for fruit that's been flown in from Chile.

"Keep raw vegetables washed and cut in the fridge so all you have to do is pack them in the morning," suggests Christina Le Beau, blogger at Spoonfed.

Cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, red peppers, cucumber slices, sugar snap peas, shelled edamame, berries, clementines, apples, pears, and grapes are all perfect on their own and travel well.

2. Keep it Cool, Skip the Sugar
Instead of juice boxes, include a small bottle of frozen water, suggests Kristy Bernardo of The Wicked Noodle. "The ice will keep the rest of the lunch cool, and will melt enough by lunchtime to be drinkable."

3. Think Muffins
Muffins taste great, can be eaten without utensils, and can be customized to fit in small hands (by varying the size of the muffin tin you use). "Best of all, muffins can be cooked in a big batch on Sunday afternoon, then cooled and frozen," says Charity Curley, blogger at Foodlets. When it's time to pack lunch, reach in, grab one, and put it in the lunchbox.

Here are a few easy and delicious recipes to try:

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins and Baked Oatmeal Cups
These mildly sweet muffins - one from Two Blue Lemons, the other from Wicked Noodle - offer lasting fullness thanks to the fiber-rich oatmeal
Italian-Style Pasta and Cheese Cups and Broccoli and Cheese Pasta Cups
Two variations on a savory theme from Foodlets, and what a great theme it is: mac-n-cheese made healthy (using whole wheat pasta, eggs, and pureed beans for more protein and fiber) and they're portable.

4. Plan for Leftovers
Any dinner that doesn't require reheating or cooling can do double-duty as lunch via the miracle of leftovers. "Pack some extra dinner into lunch containers while you're doing the dishes," suggests Sarah Waldman, an integrative nutritionist and blogger at TwoBlueLemons. Cook once, feed twice - what's not to love?

Here are some lunchbox-ready dinners:

Whole Wheat Penne Pasta with Pesto & Beans
Roasted Butternut Squash Quesadillas
Chickpea Salad (sub whatever veggies your kids will eat if peppers don't fly)

5. Try a Waffle-wich.
Another lunch staple you can cook in bulk, freeze, then use on an as-needed basis are waffles. "Every time I make waffles, I do a double batch, then lay the extras on a cookie sheet, slide it in to the freezer, then transfer them to a Ziploc bag once frozen. Then, when I'm packing lunch for my 8-year-old, I toast a waffle or two and spread with almond butter and banana slices," Le Beau says. When the waffles are whole-grain, it's a great way to get some fiber in to your kid's diet, and beat sandwich boredom.

6. Embrace Snacks
This is for all the mothers of grazers out there - it's OK if your kid will only eat snacks, Waldman says. Just follow the USDA guidelines and include tennis-ball sized portions of vegetables and whole grains, golf-ball sized portions of fruit and lean protein, and a ping pong ball of low-fat dairy. Choose from an assortment of their favorite snacks: a few cubes of cheese, dried mango, whole-grain crackers, cut up veggies with humus, and homemade popcorn or granola bar would fit the bill. "It feels better to pack a lunch that I know my son will actually eat, even if it looks more like a combination of snacks than a full meal."

7. Go Reusable While you could load your child's lunchbox up with pre-wrapped individual servings or lots of plastic baggies, there's a greener way. Use reusable containers, flatware, and even napkins, says Alexandra Zissu, author of The Conscious Kitchen and blogger at AlexandraZissu.com. We try for zero waste lunches whenever we can and it's actually pretty easy to succeed." Zissu's favorite lunch container is a tiffin, a stainless steel, stackable container that allows you to store a few different foods separately, while Le Beau likes bento-style lunchboxes, particularly LunchBots and PlanetBox. "My daughter typically goes to school with a cream cheese and jelly sandwich in one tiffin and cut up seasonal produce in another. If she's in a yogurt or applesauce phase, I pour it into a baby food jar with a lid," Zissu says.

Hygine Bag?

Ali

I have a charity where I provide free daycare for parents who can't afford there children to go to a good daycare, plus breakfast, lunch, and sometimes (3 times a week) dinner. It is almost are second year so we wanted to proivide something else. We came up with hygine bags! I'm not sure how to do this, so if you can help me out that would be great. Basically we have 20 mothers (ranging from 18-45), 12 fathers, and 42 children in our care. I'm not sure how to fill the bags up. I don't know if I should have all the supplies out and each person gets a bag to put one of each thing it, or I pre-fill them and label there name on it. I know right now that in every bag (I found these cute tote bags at Walmart and they are $4 a bag) there is a bottle of shampoo, a bottle of conditioner, Aveeno (my favorite) lotion soap, toothbrush, toothpaste and a washcloth. The kids under 2 will get (insead of that) Johnson's baby shampoo, bath gel, cream baby toothbrush, baby toothpaste, and a washcloth....
How do i decide the other stuff adn who gets it?

Answer
I am sure that these people use coupons. so put a few coupons in each bag, talk to your local paper and I am sure they will donate newspapers with coupons. Hair bands are always a plus, razors and deoderant. talk to your local girl scouts and for community service they can get donations of items for you. Good luck!

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what are the best healthy cookbooks specifically for lunch?

wendy!

i am looking for the best cookbooks for a healthy lunch.
no online recipes please.

Answer
I swear by the Brown Bag Lunch Cookbook by Miriam Jacobs. The recipes are adult friendly, and actually quite good. There are creative ideas in here which have inspired me to think of other lunch ideas.

For the kids, I go with The Top 100 Recipes for a Healthy Lunchbox: Easy and Exciting Ideas for Your Child's Lunches by Nicola Graimes. The recipes in this book are interesting and innovative, and most of the recipes are sure to be kid-pleasers.

Five kids, Any mommies with meal ideas?

Magie

Okay..Having 5 kids eat Breakfast, snack, Lunch, snack, Dinner and dessert through out the day is weighing on the wallet, and the food is gone within 3 days lol....Are there any money savvy, food conserving moms out there that can give me some good snack and lunch ideas? So far I've only thought of PB&J's for lunch....I need ideas! Please serious answers only! :) Thanks

Answer
Six kids here.

BREAKFAST:

*Waffles/pancakes--make your own, rather than buying pre-made frozen ones and freeze them and then the kids can heat them up in the toaster. You can have toppings like jam and yogurt that make it more nutritious.

*Make your own Egg McMuffins (egg sandwiches) and freeze them to be heated in the microwave. They are so easy. You cook the eggs in a muffin tin in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 and then add time as needed if they aren't cooked all the way through. Then you put them together with a slice of cheese and any meat and some English muffins, wrap them in plastic wrap, place in freezer bags and then I put a whole bunch in a big freezer bag. We warm them in the microwave for 2-1/2 minutes wrapped in a paper towel and they are delicious and easy. You can add veggies to the eggs before you cook them to make them more healthy too.

*Fruit smoothies--add a little ice, some fruit, and some milk and blend.

*Breakfast burritos: Scramble eggs with cheese, salt and pepper, add to warmed tortillas. You can add veggies to this too. You can make these ahead of time and freeze them as well.

*Breakfast casseroles: Google these for recipes, but most are pretty simple--scrambling some eggs, adding some shredded potatoes or hash browns from the freezer section, and adding some veggies and breakfast meat (sausage, bacon, ham) and then baking in a cake pan. You can also do these in the crock pot.

SNACKS: We have fresh fruit (sliced apples, peaches, strawberries, plums, nectarines, apricots, pineapple, kiwi, oranges, grapes, etc.) or veggies (sugar snap peas, edamame, carrots, cucumber, cauliflower, etc.) or sliced cheese for snacks. Yogurt is also a good one, but I only buy it when I can find it on sale or with coupons because it can get expensive.

You can also do fruit smoothies for a snack. Another favorite of ours is to make fruit smoothie and then freeze it in popsicle molds to make fruit popsicles to have later.

Another cheap snack is home air-popped popcorn. Of course, you have to have an air-popper for this. But once you do, the corn kernels are cheap and last a long time. You pop the corn, then put in a brown paper bag, add melted butter and salt or any other toppings that you like and shake so the popped corn gets coated. I have a friend who used to add jalopeno seasoning to his corn and it gave it a flavorful kick.

LUNCH
*Mini pizzas made on hamburger/hot dog buns. Put sauce, cheese, toppings on the open bun, put on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 for 6 minutes in the oven.

*chicken nuggets--these can be homemade and you can find a ton of recipes online that are easy enough and then freeze them, or you can buy them in the freezer section

*cheese or chicken quesadillas--I like to use pepperjack cheese for a nice flavor, but you can use any kind of cheese you like. You can precook chicken, bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes a bunch of chicken breasts, seasoned to your liking, and then shred the breasts fresh out of the oven in a Bosch mixer or Kitchen Aid and either freeze or refrigerate. Then you put the cheese and chicken on a tortilla, cover with another tortilla and cook over low heat on a griddle or frying pan for a few minutes (til the cheese melts) and flip it over. Cut it into eighths when it's done and serve with salsa and sour cream.

*you can do chicken salad sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, deli sandwiches. You can vary the bread or make wraps with tortillas. No need to limit sandwiches to PB&J.

I always price match when I shop and look through the grocery ads for deals. When I find a good one, like cheap chicken breasts, I buy in bulk and then premake some of the above things. I've taught my kids how to heat up the premade foods so they can get it themselves. We also limit snacking to one snack between breakfast and lunch and one snack between lunch and dinner. It helps them eat more for their bigger, more nutritious meals.

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