Yesterday, the Special Olympics torch made it's way through our town and the students at my son's elementary school got to see the torch and hear all about the events people participate in at the Special Olympics. My son, being the sports lover that he is, loved the presentation and thought it was so neat that the torch is carried from one spot to another by runners. Just one more reason for him to love running! The torch presentation came at the perfect time as today the students have their annual Track and Field Day followed by an all-school Fun Run! These events mark the unofficial countdown to summer vacation so this is a much anticipated day for many of the kids at school. Something tells me there will be a lot of excitement in the halls today.

Today's lunch includes: ham/cheese sandwich, blueberries/raspberries, cucumbers, almonds, Trader Joe's Ginger Snaps

With all the rain we've had around here we're seeing more and more frogs in our neck of the woods. The boys love chasing them around and I'm just waiting for one of them to bring one in the house asking if we can keep it as a pet. FYI, the answer to that question would most certainly be NO...sorry, boys! Anyway, I thought my son would get a kick out of seeing a little froggy friend in his lunch box today. I made the frog out of a spinach roll up by cutting one big circle for the body, two small circles for the eyes, two tear drop shapes for the legs, and the feet were cut using just one corner of a leaf cookie cutter.

Today's frog-themed includes: turkey, cheese, spinach sandwich on a spinach wrap, oranges, carrots, almond flour cookie (recipe below)

Sidenote: After I snapped the photo, I stuck toothpicks in various spots on the sandwich to hold it together or there was no way my little froggy friend would have survived until lunch! :)

I tucked this little note (found at this little store on Etsy) in with his lunch as a little reminder:

Almond Flour Cookies:

• 2 1/2 cups of blanched almond flour


• 1/4 teaspoon of salt


• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda


• 8 tablespoons of butter; softened but not melted (if you want the cookies a little chewier add 1-2 TBS additional butter)


• 1 tablespoon of vanilla


• 1/2 cup of honey (I use sugar-free honey from Nature's Hollow)


• 1 cup of chocolate chips (I usesugar-free chocolate chips)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.


2. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and blend well.


3. Add the wet ingredients and blend well again.


4. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper, and drop a spoon full of cookie dough on the parchment paper, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart.


5. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until they start to brown on the edges.*I store these in tupperware containers in my freezer and pull them out as needed.

My husband and I have had the pleasure of working with a group of six 2nd graders on an "inquiry circle" project. The project was designed to expose children to the process of researching and presenting information on any given topic. Three days a week over the past five weeks we've worked with the kids on developing their research skills, selecting a topic, sourcing information on their topic and pulling together a presentation. The kids decided to do focus on space...specifically the planets & stars in our galaxy. It's been such a treat to watch the kids work diligently on the project and I've been so impressed by their independence and ability to focus on the given tasks. The past week has been especially fun as the kids FINALLY got to work on the craft project I've been talking about since they decided on a topic...paper mache planets! Trust me when I say that it was a VERY messy project, but it was worth every bit of the mess we made. The kids had a blast and I was very impressed with the facts they were rattling off about their planets and stars as they worked on the craft.

Today is the big day for the kids to share their presentation with the entire 2nd grade class and they are oh, so excited! Our son is one of the six involved in this group and he was up bright and early practicing his part. In honor of the presentation I decided to make a space-themed lunch including: grilled cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, blueberries, nectarine, almond flour cookie, granola bites (see recipe below), pretzels

I've had quite a few people ask what I do with the scraps of food leftover from my lunch box. I do my best to use as much as I can by making a lunch for my youngest son who is still at home with me. Any other scraps (which isn't much) go into our compost pile. Here's the lunch I made for my little man using the excess fro my older son's lunch today:

Granola Bite Recipe (adapted from one I found on Weelicious):
1/2 Cup Natural Peanut Butter
1/2 Cup Sugar Free Honey
1 Cup Brown Rice Crispy Cereal (Kellogg's is launching a Brown Rice Cereal in June 2011, but you can find other brown rice crispy options in the whole foods section of your grocery store)
1 1/2 Granola (I make my own by combining 2/3 c. sugar-free honey, 1 TBS molasses, 1/3 c. coconut oil, 5 c. old-fashioned oats, 1 c. ground flax seeds, 1 tsp cinnamon....heat honey and coconut oil on low heat until melted then mix with all other ingredients and bake at 375 for 15 min stirring a few times throughout the process. You will have enough to make the granola bites, plus have some left over for cereal, etc...)

To make the granola bites:

1. Place the peanut butter and honey in a small saucepan over low to medium heat and warm for several minutes or until it becomes combined and smooth.
2. Place the remaining ingredients in a bowl and stir.
3. Pour the warm peanut butter mixture into the bowl with the granola mixture and stir to combine.
4. Roll into 1 inch balls (I used a mini ice cream scooper to scoop out each portion).
5. Serve or store in an air tight container (I store mine in the freezer and pull them out as needed).

When I launched this blog on Feb. 9th, 2011 I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that I wanted a place to share my thoughts on food and the effect it has on children along with some photos of the lunches I was creating for my son. That was a little over 3 months ago and this past weekend when I logged in to check my web-stats I was shocked to see that this little blog has already had 30,000 unique visits!

Better yet, the visits are coming not just from the U.S. but also from around the world. I can now officially say that this site has now been viewed on 6 out of 7 continents! The boys and I love looking at the web statistics and it's serving as a great geography lesson as we explore the various countries where people are reading the blog. This has been such a fun project for us on so many levels and I'm grateful for all of you who read this blog.

Today's "30k" lunch includes: turkey sandwich on a multi-grain bun, string cheese for cord and mouse wheel, dark chocolate bar, cinnamon almonds, fruit, celery & p.b., Back to Nature mint cookies (I usually like to make my own mint cookies using this recipe, but the pre-made cookies were leftover from baseball practice last night so I wanted to use them up.)

Maybe you've noticed by now that many of the foods I use or make contain flax seeds. Why? Because even though they are tiny, they are a nutritional powerhouse of sorts. Flax seeds are loaded with fiber, antioxidants, B vitamins, magnesium, manganese and most importantlyOmega-3 fatty acids. I talked a lot about Omega-3's last week as part of the brain food post, but I want to expand on this a bit more. There is increasing evidence that Omega-3 fatty acids fight against inflammation in our bodies. Inflammation in our bodies can lead to a variety of conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and even some cancers. All in all these little seeds pack quite a punch and they are low on the glycemic index scale meaning they have a much lower effect on insulin levels than most grains.

I typically buy whole flax seeds and use a blender to grind them so they are fresh when I add them to my recipes (doing this maximizes the nutritional value). However, on occasion I will buy flax meal which are flax seeds ground into a flour like substance just to save some time in the kitchen. Some foods I buy on a regular basis contain flax including the Joseph's lavash bread wraps, Joseph's tortillas, Joseph's pita pockets, Trader Joe's Flax Seed taco chips, etc... I also add ground flax seeds to most of my muffin recipes, waffles, pancakes, smoothies...you name it! Flax seeds are a staple around here because they are so easy to use and they provide a payload of nutrients!

Today's lunch includes: cheese & onion quesadillas on Joseph's flax seed tortillas, salad with ranch dressing, strawberries/kiwi, Trader Joe's flax seed taco chips, brownie

Every Sunday I bake or prepare at least two goods to store in the freezer so I always have something on hand when I'm too busy to cook.Some staple foods I always try to keep stocked include; waffles (I either make the batter from scratch or buy Trader Joe's baking mix and add ground up flax seeds to the mix), pancakes, french toast, cookies, muffins, protein bites, bars...you get the idea. On a busy morning like today I love being able to grab a few things from the freezer and throw together a lunch in a jiffy and it still is every bit as healthy. My son LOVES breakfast so having breakfast for lunch is a real treat!

Today's "breakfast" lunch includes: p.b. and sugar-free honey waffle sandwiches (Trader Joe's mix with ground up flax seeds), cantaloupe, cucumbers, dark chocolate squares, string cheese, peanut butter cookie

*If peanut allergies are a concern you could replace p.b. on the waffles with sunbutter or sweetened cream cheese and fruit slices. Here is a great sunbutter cookie recipe my boys and I love!

I'm thinking there are quite a few moms of boys out there who will be able to relate to a current phase my kids are going through right now...Army guys! For the past few weeks they have been playing army guys, drawing army scenes, building army forts...it's all things Army around here.

I found this camo bag on Etsy and knew it would be a great piece to add to my growing collection of lunch-making supplies. It turned out to be the perfect accompaniment to today's "tank" lunch.

Today's Army tank lunch includes: turkey/cheese tank sandwich with cucumber wheels and top, chocolate almonds, colby cheese, carrots, almond flour/chocolate chip mini cookies (in the green camo bag):

Just before my son walked out the door with his lunch today I had this sinking feeling that perhaps he would get in trouble for having a "gun" in his lunch box so I took the shooting strip off of the sandwich. Better safe than sorry, right?!!

Ever since my son and I ran in our first fun run together last year he has been begging to run in an "official" race. Last year at the fun run we received number bibs, the gun went off at the start line, the whole works... so I thought that little fun run WAS an "official" race. I asked my son what he meant by "official" and he replied that he wanted the announcer to say his name when he crossed the finish line. In his little mind hearing his name would make it a REAL race. So, this past Saturday my son and I ran his first OFFICIAL race together in Eau Claire where my husband was running a 1/2 marathon. We thought this race would be ideal because it takes place in a beautiful park on a relatively easy course.

What we didn't take into account was the weather. One would think by May 1st we'd be enjoying some spring-like temperatures...maybe a little cool, but tolerable. Let me just tell you, when we pulled up to the race site it was not only cold, but it was SNOWING and the wind was almost unbearable. My poor little guy had been looking forward to this event for weeks but he was shivering so hard at the start of the race I didn't think there was any way he could possibly finish. We set off and got about 3/4 of a mile down the road and my son stopped running and gave me a look of complete desperation. Both of us were beyond cold and the thought of running the rest of the race in the wind and snow seemed impossible. I asked my son if he wanted to try to finish and he said yes so off we went...slowly but surely. We stopped every once in a while so I could shield him from the wind just to warm up his face and ears but lo and behold we made it to the end. As we approached the last leg of the race he looked at me and asked if he could sprint to the end. I knew exactly what his motivation was at that point. All he wanted to hear was the announcer call his name as he crossed that finish line. Despite the freezing cold and snow, my determined little boy took off like a bullet and sprinted all the way to the end. Watching him cross the finish line and seeing the look on his face as the announcer called his name was priceless. I really despise cold weather but I would do it again in a heartbeat for my boy.

Today's lunch includes: turkey/cheese sandwich, string cheese, strawberries, cauliflower, fruit leather, chocolate granola bar

It's that time of year again, time for the all-school standardized (a.k.a. MAPS) tests at school. The topic of food and how it affects our body has been intriguing to me since reading Secrets to Controlling Your Weight, Cravings and Mood.I've done a fair amount of reading on this topic over the past few months and I find myself especially interested in the role food plays in our brains ability to function. I've posted this article before, but I thought it was worth linking again as it outlines some great information on the importance of adding protein and fiber to our children's diets. Long story short, studies show that children who eat diets rich in fiber and protein perform better in school than those who consume diets low in protein and high in sugar. Not only does protein and fiber take longer to digest than high sugar foods, but they also supply essential amino acids that combine to form proteins that are essential for managing the neurotransmitters in the brain.One of my goals is to feed my kids food that will sustain their energy levels and keep their blood sugar stable on a daily basis, but it's especially important on days like today.

Here are a few ideas of how we incorporate "brain foods" into our diets. (Brain foods are typically high in amino acids such as; meat, eggs, cheese, peas, nuts, seeds, legumes, etc...)

Breakfast:

• Omelette (Eggs are a great source of protein and they contain choline which boosts memory and concentration)


• Scrambled Eggs


• Whole Wheat Tortilla with eggs/cheese


• Steel cut oats with blueberries (blueberries are rich in antioxidants and high in fiber)


• French toast topped with walnuts and cinnammon

• Hard Boiled Egg


• Turkey sandwich on flax seed wrap high in omega-3's


• Peppers and hummus


• Peanut Butter and whole grain bread/English muffin


• Chicken legs


• Fried Egg Sandwich


• Lots of green veggies

• Apples w/ p.b.


• Flax Seed Muffins


• Protein shake ( 80z. unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 scoop Jay Robb vanilla protein powder, 1/4 c. frozen berries, ice)


• Walnuts, Almonds, etc...


• Almonds, walnuts


• Dark Chocolate


• Strawberries (high infisetin, a flavenoid that improves memory recall)

• Green veggies (celery, spinach salad, broccoli, asparagus)


• Lean Meat (turkey, chicken, grass fed beef , venison)


• Fish