By 100 Days of Real Food, on August 22nd, 2011 As I mentioned in a “school lunch” post last year, my daughter’s elementary school is peanut/tree nut-free. Not only are peanuts and tree nuts not allowed, but foods made in factories that handle nuts are not allowed either. As a result, the school sends out a “safe snack” list so parents know what store-bought snacks are “safe” and approved.
When I first got a hold of this list last year my eyes just about bugged out of my head. Fresh off our original “100 Days of Real Food” pledge, I felt compelled to sit down and count how many snack suggestions I would consider to be “real food approved.” Out of the 200 or so safe snack suggestions only 17 items, approximately 7%, were “real” whole foods. The rest were highly processed including suggestions like Wendy’s Frosties, Skittles, Oreos, Fritos, Airheads, Cheese Puffs, Twizzlers, Chips Ahoy, and Gummy Bears (for a morning snack for little kids!!). I knew I couldn’t just sit around and complain. I had to get involved and try to change things.
So I met with the principal and assistant principal last spring and as soon as I said the word “food” they of course thought I wanted to address the food in the cafeteria. They don’t have control over what is served for breakfast or lunch, but I told them that was just fine because I actually had a long list of other things I wanted to address first including… Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on August 19th, 2011 Last week’s “real food” school lunch tips were so popular I thought I’d stay on that bandwagon for at least one more week. Whether you want to spend one Sunday afternoon cooking up a storm or make a double-batch of something new every few days…planning ahead is key when it comes to making “real food” school lunches easy! Last year I struggled almost every night to come up with a balanced, fun, and somewhat creative lunch for my daughter. I now realize it’s because my options were rather limited. Aside from a few exceptions, I could only pull from our pantry or fridge and that got a little boring after a while. If by chance I had some leftover boiled whole-wheat noodles I could throw into the mix it was like my lucky day.
So rather than making last minute lunches again this year I am going to start planning ahead because I know this will make things so much easier in the long run. And even if “cooking up a storm” sounds like an undertaking, I am excited to finally have a plan. I don’t know about you, but once I have the next day’s lunch figured out and packed it’s such a big weight off my shoulders (and also one less thing standing in the way of me and my bedtime)!
 Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Frozen in Individual Serving Sizes
Cook Weeks Ahead….
- Jar Storage (pictured): Eight-ounce jelly jars are the perfect size for freezing individual portions of soups, leftovers, and other one-dish meals. Pictured are five servings of homemade chicken noodle soup that will each fit perfectly into my daughter’s Thermos container. All I have to do is take one out to thaw the night before, heat it up in the morning, and then add it to her thermos before school.
Ideas for jars: Chicken noodle soup with veggies, tomato bisque, chili, corn chowder, tortilla soup, jambalaya, peanut squash soup, matzo ball soup, spaghetti sauce, and gumbo
Hint: Don’t fill jars all the way because liquids expand when they freeze. Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on August 12th, 2011 This is the first post in my new “100 Days of Real Food Tips” series. Enjoy!
Think Beyond the Sandwich Bread…
- Pinwheels (pictured)
Rolled up whole-wheat tortillas filled with:
- Cream cheese*, thin cucumber slices, and dill
- Goat cheese* and roasted red bell peppers (sold as pimentos)
- Peanut butter* and banana slices
- Sunflower butter* and all-fruit spread (similar to jelly)
- Egg salad
- Hummus, cheese, and grated carrots
*Easiest to spread when the tortilla is warm…don’t forget the fun toothpicks!
- Apple Sandwiches (pictured)
I got this idea from Williams-Sonoma and all you have to do is slice the apple*, cut out the core with a small round cookie cutter, knife or corer, and fill with: Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on July 27th, 2011 To be honest, I never really liked lunch meat that much anyway so it was very easy for me to stop buying it. The main reason we gave it up was because (especially after watching Food, Inc.) we made a decision to only eat locally raised meats. And have you ever seen someone slicing off pieces of deli meat at your local farmers’ market? Shortly after writing off all lunch meat I soon realized other good benefits would come from this decision as well. Like helping us to reduce our overall meat consumption, which is better for our health and environment anyway. So this is the reason I haven’t bought a pack of deli meat in over a year (or even missed it one bit), and as you can see it was quite a simple decision for us!
 Grilled Caprese Sandwich with Balsamic Vinegar With that being said, this change opened up a whole new window of opportunity when it came to sandwiches. But with anything, I can sometimes get in a rut. So I recently asked my wonderful facebook community to share their most favorite sandwich combinations, which helped inspire this fresh list of sandwich ideas below. Please also feel free to leave your ideas in the comments at the bottom! Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on July 7th, 2011 You may be on board with cutting out processed food, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your family fully supports the idea. This can certainly lead to some challenges, but for those who truly care about the health of their family members it is hard to simply look the other way. We initially cut out highly processed food and refined ingredients because we thought it was the right thing to do, but  the unexpected improvements to our health that followed were almost a little scary. I had no clue that giving up white flour, sugar, and other processed junk would cause my daughter’s asthma and constipation to disappear as well as result in a 50% increase in my HDL (a.k.a. “good”) cholesterol! And here I already thought we were a fairly “healthy” family, which has a lot to do with why I spend my time trying to convince others (including your family members) to make the switch to real food.
I used to be absolutely clueless about the food we were eating and then one day I read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food and watched Food, Inc. That was enough to give me a huge wake up call and while these resources are a great start for anyone who needs some convincing, it might take more than that to convert the most close-minded of spouses. My husband happens to be on board already (or I could never do all of this!) so I reached out to my wonderful 100 Days of Real Food facebook community for their advice and following are the results. If you have any additional suggestions please leave them in the comments below. Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on June 6th, 2011 There’s no reason a “real food” diet should stop anyone from havi ng a fabulous backyard BBQ, cookout, camping trip, or picnic this summer. Sure, preparing lots of “real food” from scratch can be more work than the store-bought junk, but the satisfaction of knowing you just fed the neighborhood kids an approved “100 Days of Real Food” meal unbeknownst to them is very much worth it. We hosted an annual street-wide event in our backyard over the weekend, and I loved watching my girls have tons of fun with their little friends while at the same time knowing we didn’t have to succumb to the usual party junk food (store-bought pizza and cake) to have such a good time.
Here’s what we served:
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