Well, as you can probably tell from the lack of blog entries in the past few days things have been pretty chaotic around here. This is easily the busiest time of year for me with my job so finding a quiet time to blog here on This Lunch Rox gets a little challenging. I know a lot of you can relate so I've made an effort to photograph the lunches I've thrown together over the past few days for anyone who needs some quick and easy ideas for those busy mornings. Before we get to the lunches, I thought I'd share a few helpful hints for pulling together lunches in a pinch:

• Rinse & pre-cut fruits and veggies when you bring them home from the farmer's market or grocery store


• Keep a variety of sandwich staples on hand (pita pockets, lavash roll-ups, bread, etc...)


• Put leftovers in a thermos for lunch


• Make ahead deserts or treats, store them in the freezer and pull them out as needed

It's about this time every year that my boys start getting antsy to get outside with their guns. Let me tell you...this "gun" issue is something I've dreaded since I discovered we were having boys. I'm married to an avid and thankfully VERY responsible hunter so I knew my boys would likely be exposed to guns at some point in their lives. When it came time to buy a BB gun for our oldest son I nearly had a panic attack thinking of all the "what-ifs". If you've ever seen the movie, "A Christmas Story", just know that I was very much like the mom who envisioned her son shooting his eye out with the gun. Nevertheless, my son is now the proud owner of a BB gun. Now that we have it and they've had a chance to go out and do some target shooting, I've been pleasantly surprised at how my boys respect the gun and all the rules that go along with it. My husband is using this BB gun as a way to teach the boys everything they need to know about gun and hunting safety which will serve them well when they are old enough to hunt. This is something I appreciate especially as my oldest son is getting oh, so close to legal hunting age. Only a few more years until he's sitting in his hunter's safety course!

The boys spent some time over the weekend doing some target shooting and they were so excited as they both hit a bullseye. They brought their target home to prove it and asked me if we could keep it on the refrigerator for a while...ahhh, life with boys!

Today's lunch includes: nitrite free turkey sandwich, homemade fruit roll up rings, plum, celery and peanut butter (if nut allergies are a concern you might consider using Sunbutter), Trader Joe's sugar-free chocolate almonds,chewy chocolate granola bar

In today's monday morning post I'm going to address the topic of chocolate milk. This sweet, sugary concoction is served on a daily basis at many schools around the country...ours included. It was easily my son's drink of choice before we made the transition to healthy eating. It's no wonder when you consider chocolate milk has a whopping 3 teaspoons of added sugar per 8 oz drink! Who wouldn't love it?

During my reading on this topic I was shocked to learn that chocolate milk has 3.1 grams of sugar per ounce... pretty close to soda which has 3.3 grams of sugar per ounce. WOW! When all is said and done a carton of chocolate milk has as much sugar as a Snicker's candy bar. This concerns me especially when you consider the alarming increase in type II diabetes diagnoses (1 in 3 children born after the year 2000 will be diagnosed with Type II diabetes by the time they are 50 years old) and the continued rise in obesity rates among children. Ann Cooper, the author of the Renegade Lunch Lady blog, estimates "that the extra calories from chocolate milk as much as 40 or 60 calories on top of a typical 110 calorie 8-ounce serving of white milk could add up to 5 pounds of weight gain over the 180-day school year."

Many argue that by sweetening milk kids are more likely to drink it and gain essentials nutrients like calcium and Vitamin D. Ann Cooper says, The argument is like this: If our kids dont like applesbut do like apple piethen lets just feed them apple pie in school, Cooper said. It just doesnt make any sense. The fact of the matter is that there are an abundance of foods out there that provide kids with calcium and Vitamin D; cheese, unsweetened yogurt, leafy greens, green beans, celery, beans, oranges, almonds, eggs, etc...

Knowing what I do now about chocolate milk I wanted to find a healthier alternative for my boys. It's taken some trial and error but I've finally come up with something they love just as much if not more than regular chocolate milk. The good news is that it's naturally sugar free (no artificial sweeteners), full of protein, contains 30% of our recommended daily value of calcium and 25% of Vitamin D and 50% of Vitamin E.

Chocolate milk:

• 8 oz. unsweetened vanilla almond milk (you could use regular milk or another milk alternative if allergies are a concern)


• 3/4 c. ice


• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder (I use Jay Robb because it doesn't contain artificial sweeteners)

When I want to send homemade chocolate milk to school with my son I use this thermoswhich is the only one I've found that keeps it cold through lunch.

Over the past year I've done a fair amount of reading on school lunch programs. While I've focused most of my research on food and the health statistics among school age children, another topic that captured my attention was food waste. The amount of waste associated with elementary school lunches is astounding. Statistics show that the average elementary student wastes 25% of their lunch.Two independent research groups audited lunchroom waste and their findings were staggering. The first group audited a school in Loveland, Colorado and found the amount of fruit that ended up in the trash topped 40% while 32-44% of the vegetables were thrown out. Ethan Bergman, a professor in the Dept. of Health and Human Performance at Central Washington University who studies school nutrition says this, On the days theyre serving broccoli or cauliflower, you look in the garbage and its all green or white. Seven Generations Ahead, a non-profit group, conducted another study in Chicago and found that in one school alone students were discarding 334 lbs. of food in a single day! It is estimated that this kind of food waste costs taxpayers $2 billion dollars through the National School Lunch Program.

In this article, the author writes, "We live in a culture of excess, and food is no exception. The average American wastes more than half a pound of food per day. " The same article also outlines some interesting statistics about food waste in America:

• 40% of the food produced in America is never consumed


• 29 million TONS of food is wasted in America every year


• 17% of landfills are made up of food scraps


• 25% of the food that enters the home is never consumed

All in all...food waste has reached epic proportions in this country. Combine the statistics mentioned above with the fact that typical American school aged child generates 67 pounds of discarded school lunch packaging waste per school year (that's more than 18,000 pounds of waste per year at the average-sized elementary school) and you'll see that school lunches alone generate A LOT of waste.

This information has made me much more mindful of how I handle excess food in our home. As you may have noticed, I tend to cut a lot of my kids foods into shapes. Studies show that consumption of fruits and vegetables greatly increases if they are served in cut format. This has certainly proved to be the case with my kids which makes it well worth the effort. Obviously when I cut shapes out of food for lunches there are scraps leftover and VERY rarely do I throw any of those scraps away (by throwing away, I mean putting them in our compost pile). So, today I thought I'd take some time today to share some tips and tricks for using lunch scraps.

Below you can see how I created lunches for all of my boys (husband included) yesterday and used every ounce of excess so as to not waste the food. I'm happy to report that the boys came home with all but a few bites of food gone. My youngest son left a grand total of 2 uneaten cucumber stars in his lunch box and my oldest left 3 cheese curds and 4 almonds uneaten. That's a far cry from the amount of food I continue to see kids throw away when I join my boys for lunch at school.

First, I do my best to find cookie cutters that take up as much of the bread as possible. Separate the meat, cheese and bread. Cut leftover bread into strips and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Now cut the scraps of meat and cheese into chunks and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

When I cut shapes out of fruits or vegetables I typically divide the pieces between my two boys. As you can see below, I made a stack of "solid" star cucumbers for one of my boys and another stack of star "outline" cucumbers for the other. If you have more than one child this is a great way to utilize scraps of fruits and veggies.

Sources:

Today's "Monday Mornings" post features one of my boys' all-time favorite breakfast foods...WAFFLES! Oh, how my boys love waffles. Prior to our transition to healthier eating I stocked my freezer full of frozen waffles. I loved that on busy mornings I could pull them out, pop them in the toaster, lather them in a syrup and the boys gobbled them up in no time at all. In all honesty, one of the things I was afraid of as we transitioned away from our old eating habits is that I would have to give up convenience breakfasts such as waffles. This had always been my g0-to breakfast and without frozen waffles I thought surely I would go crazy. However, as I began to read about exactly what was in those waffles the easier it was to give them up! You can read a detailed account here, but long story short...they contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and TBHQ to extend their shelf life. While many argue that in small doses these foods are safe to consume, I much prefer to look for healthier options for my family.

I found this recipeand discovered I could have the best of both worlds. I usually double or triple the recipe and freeze the waffles so we still have the convenience of pulling out frozen waffles in the morning, but these waffles are filled with protein and are void of the chemicals found in most store-bought varieties.

Below is the recipe for Maria's waffles (posted with permission)
1 cupalmond flour
1 cupwhey protein (Jay Robb)
1/2 tspCeltic sea salt
1 TBSaluminum free baking powder
1cup vanilla almond milk
2 eggs
4 TBS butter orcoconut oil,melted

Preheat waffle iorn to high. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl. Slowly add the wet ingredients into the dry. Let sit for 5 minutes. Bake according to your waffle iron directions (I spray my waffle iron with THIS coconut oil spray). Enjoy! Makes 5 servings.

10 years ago today I stood before a room filled with students in my 9th grade American History class when another teacher entered my room and quietly told me that a plane just flew into the World Trade Center. Immediately I remembered back to when terrorists bombed the WTC in 1993 and couldn't help but wonder if this was yet another terrorist incident. I prepped the students with a few words before turning on the news and within one minute of doing so we watched the 2nd plane slam into the South Tower live. It took several seconds for the reality of what was going on to sink in and I remember looking out into a classroom of students sitting eerily quiet in their chairs. My mind was racing as I felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility to help the students understand that the United States was under attack, yet I felt such a deep sense of helplessness all at the same time. I remember turning off the TV for a brief moment and standing up muttering something about how "America as we have known it will never be the same..." I then joined the students on the floor of my classroom and remained there for most of the day as we watched the horror of the day unfold. It was the most significant moment in American History that any of us had ever experienced and I know without a doubt that I'll never forget the looks on the kids faces and their undeniable fear of what else might happen as the day wore on. Although it's been 10 years I still recall the details of that day as if it were yesterday. Even after all these years I can still see the faces of the students that filled my classroom that day. It was a sad, horrifying, yet hopeful day as we watched firefighters, police, and military personnel put their lives on the line to rescue people in the war zone. Before my students left that afternoon we spent some time reflecting on the events of the day and the overwhelming consensus was that America definitely is the "Land of the free and the home of the brave".

So, on this day, 10 years later I made a special "Patriot's Day" breakfast for my boys. This one is dedicated to all the men and women who serve our country faithfully to keep us safe and to preserve the freedom we all enjoy each and every day. Thank you all for your service!

If you've been following the blog for awhile you know that my boys are huge Green Bay Packer fans. They were so excited to watch their team play in their first official game of the regular season last night that we let them stay up well past their bedtime. I knew we would likely all sleep in this morning so I actually made this lunch up last night and kept it in the refrigerator so it would be ready to go....it's a good thing as we all did, in fact, sleep in! This was my first time using thePlanet Boxand I have to say that I'm really impressed with this case! The compartments hold just the right serving sizes without being as deep as some of the other boxes. It also comes with two circular containers that are great for dips, sandwiches, salads, etc...

Today's lunch includes: peanut butter roll-up on Joseph's Lavash Bread (if nut allergies are a concern try Sunbutter), orange peppers and ranch dip, strawberries/blueberries, almonds, almond flour cookie

What a week it's been for us! The start of the school year, settling into our routines, adjusting to having BOTH boys gone all day...it's been a process to say the least! The house is so quiet during the day and not having my youngest around to share lunch with sure is strange, but knowing just how much he is loving Kindergarten makes it all a little easier to deal with. Every morning he wakes up with a huge smile on his face and reminds me that he has to go to get ready to go to school. Then when he gets home he recounts the day with as many details as his little memory can hold. As much as he loves it, I know there is a small part of him that misses home while he's at school. Before he walks out the door he always does a double take of his bag to make sure his stuffed puppy and little blanket are tucked safely in his backpack. Today I wanted to send him a little mid-day message to let him know I was thinking of him. I used a cookie cutter in the shape of "I Love You" in American Sign Language. My son knows this symbol well as we've been using it with him since before he could talk.

Today's lunch includes: ham & cheese sandwich (click HERE to find the cookie cutter), ham and string cheese, almonds, 1/4 of a Quest bar cut into small bites (the reason I like this bar is that it's made without Agave Syrup and/or artificial sweeteners), cucumbers w/ ranch dip, oranges & blueberries, almond flour chocolate chip cookie

Well, today was the BIG day for my baby boy. He's been anticipating the first day of school for quite some time as year after year he would watch his brother get on the bus and drive away without him. Throughout the summer he's been keeping track of how many sleeps until he got to ride to school on the bus. Needless to say, when he woke up this morning he was beyond excited that the day had FINALLY come. He watched out the window waiting oh, so patiently for the big yellow bus to drive up our street. When it did, he hopped on the bus with one of the the biggest smiles I've ever seen on his face. I made it to the school just in time to see him walk off the bus still grinning ear to ear. This will surely be one of the highlights of his first day of Kindergarten.

A bus themed lunch in honor of this very special day...ham/cheese lavash bread sandwich with pepperoni wheels and white American cheese accents, carrots/ranch, grapes, sugar-free choclate "chalkboard" with white American cheese letters, homemade fruit roll up(you can click on the underlined word to get the recipe):