Lunch

We are working on eating healthier and by that I mean cleaner and more natural food. As it is sometimes termed whole food. We have done away with many processed foods and snacks. My goal is to totally rid of children's systems of processed sugar but this is challenging when the school they are attending provides them with a ridiculous about a sugary treats. I have control over breakfast, lunch and dinner for now. I have been concentrating a lot on making their lunches packed full of good foods. I would love any suggests of easily packable lunch items that I can add to what we have right now. I think having a rotation makes things interesting and fun. I also want to expose my children to many different foods so they will be aware of what God has provided for us.
These are the lunch containers I am using right now and their lunches for today:

Ladybug: Carrot stick, Prune, String Cheese, Freeze dried snap peas, peanuts and raisins.

Butterfly: Sweet Potato fries (baked with honey and cinnamon), prune, String cheese, potato wedges and tomatoes.

PF: Homemade granola bars, prune, string cheese, freeze dried snap peas and carrot sticks.

Lunch

Monday: PBJ, carrots, and tomatoes

Tuesday: Green Pirate Pasta and apples

Wednesday: Chick-fil-A

Thursday: Green Pirate Pasta and apple-strawberry sauce

Friday: Cheeseburgers, green beans, and mandarin oranges.


Green Pirate Pasta was inspired by two people: My zoo friend and my sister-in-law. My zoo friend gave me the recipe for the green sauce which is

10oz of spinach

1/2c chicken broth (I am sure veggie broth would work too)

1/2c milk

1/2c parm cheese

1/4c butter

Put in a blender and process.

My sister-in-law told me about Kroger's line of disney products because her boys really liked some of the products. Now every time I am in GA, I stock up Disney products because they make for a "special" treat.

Lunch

*Monday: PB&J, chips, raisins, and carrots
*Tuesday: Chili Mac & Cheese and smoothies
*Wednesday: Split Pea soup
*Thursday: Homemade Bagel bites (with carrots and sweet potatoes in the sauce), Garlic fries, green beans and Chocolate muffins (with spinach and blueberries).
*Friday: Dino Chicken nuggets, Mac and Cheese, green beans and fruit cocktail.

When you are home everyday for lunch it can be easy to make the same thing for lunch everyday. I try to change somethings up from day to day so our days don't blend together. Lunch is one way to really change things up. Although our time for lunch stays pretty consistent at 11am.
This week we had a treat on Thursday because we went to a friend's house to celebrate a birthday. My friend and I have both looked through the Sneaky Chef book and she used some of the recipes for lunch on Thursday. We had bagel bites with orange puree and chocolate muffins with purple puree. The orange puree has sweet potatoes and carrots in it which you mix right into the tomato sauce. The purple puree has spinach and blueberries which are mixed right into the batter. The muffins had a slight blueberry taste but the bagel bites tasted better than the ones in the store. Actually I preferred both the recipes from sneaky chef than the basic less nutritious versions.
My children don't have a problem eating veggies or fruits. I simply like the recipes because it makes what I cook even more healthy. As a side note: I made baked ziti when my niece was visiting with the orange puree and she loved it....just thought her Mama would like to know.