Packing a Lunch

So when I signed up for this mommy thing, there were a few things about it I knew I'd have a hard time with. I'm not a big fan of menial tasks, and I knew that a huge chunk of my time was to be spent doing just those sorts of activities.

We love getting out and doing things, but it means I have to pack us lunches. I think that's probably my least favorite thing about being a mom. Does it get any more monotonous than packing a lunch?

When I pack a lunch, there are several factors I have to keep in mind. (1) I don't want to spend a ton of time putting lunches together when I'm trying to get out the door. (2) I don't want to deal with messes at lunchtime and I don't want to be any more involved than I need to be when I'm trying to feed myself or socialize. (3) My kids want to eat what everyone else is eating, and this isn't the time to have a battle over food. (4) 70% of the time (and especially at Disneyland) my kids are way more interested in the activity of the day than eating.

Balancing these things is hard, but I've found that there are lots of ways to do this without compromising too much on my principles. I don't mind compromising here and there, but since we're often out at lunch I'm not willing to do that with every time. Today's Disneyland lunch is a good example of what I'll pack for them.
Popcorn is a beautiful thing. What kid doesn't love popcorn? I use extra-virgin olive oil in my popcorn popper and pop about a cup at a time. I sometimes add a little sea salt, or I can leave it plain. My boy gobbles it up either way. It's super easy and healthy, too. I just keep it on the shelf in a freezer Ziploc and it keeps for quite a while. This is a great option because the kids love it enough to be totally okay that the kid next to him is eating fruit snacks.

Yup, right there below the popcorn are my juice blocks. =)

I always have plain yogurt and frozen fruit on hand. I stick some fruit (today it was mangoes) in their with the yogurt. The fruit keeps the yogurt cold and defrosts by the time lunch comes around. I have to help them a little bit with the yogurt, but it's worth it to me. They like it, eat it well, and they get their protein in. I'll sometimes do a different finger-protein instead, but the nice thing about fruit and yogurt is that I never have to guess whether I'm going to have to fight with them to eat it, which has been known to happen with chicken or cheese.

In the snack cup are Annie's Whole Wheat Bunnies. These are the compromise, but it could be much much worse. I chose these because they didn't have any soy, trans fats, or refined flour. The vegetable oil is questionable, but it is expeller pressed. The only real problem is that whenever my son has these, he asks for them every snack and meal time for about a week following. He loves them, which makes them great for packing a lunch. I just have to keep them hidden the rest of the time or he'll be mowing through them (and our grocery budget) constantly!

Also on the pricey side is the freeze dried pears. The ingredients list: pears. I love that! They're sweet and yummy, and I find I sometimes have to pack me some, too, or else I'll accidentally eat them all! They're about fifty cents a pack at Costco, so this again is something reserved just for lunches. Or when Daddy is in charge of a meal. =)

Oh and the glorious banana. Nature's best snack food. No crumbs, easy to transport, and it comes in it's own wrapper. Love, love, love. What else can I say?

What about you? What are your favorite things to put in your kids' lunches? I'd love to know!

Gelatin Juice Blocks

We don't do juice in our home. Our pediatrician was adamantly against introducing juice, which was further backed up by the counseling I took for the gestational diabetes I had throughout my second pregnancy. I finally asked my counselor: "Hey, what's the big deal if it's just fruit?" She explained that juicing fruit takes all the fiber out of the equation and leaves your body processing it the same way it would regular sugar. Furthermore, when you drink a glass of OJ, you're probably drinking more like 4-5 oranges instead of sitting down to just 1, which would cause your blood sugar to spike anyway. Basically, you're better off eating a cookie. Fruit's great, but in moderation, because it does have sugar. All I needed to hear. If my kids are going to have a sugar-rush, I just assume they enjoy a cookie or cake or something really worth it on the rare occasions that's okay, ya know?

Juice blocks are my only exception. And since I make an exception, I make sure I'm making it worth my time. I get this juice at Trader Joe's, because it has things like spinach, broccoli, and spirulina listed on the ingredients. Sure, it's listed far below the apple and pineapple juice, but I'll take it. And, ugly as it is, my kids enjoy every last bit of it!

This is really, REALLY easy. So if you've never made gelatin blocks from scratch before, let me show you. There's simply no reason to go for the boxed Jell-O after you see how easy it is.

As far as gelatin goes, I bought this stuff here on Amazon. It was a great price for gelatin, cheaper than Knox packets from the grocery store, and I know it comes from beef. Knox doesn't disclose on the package where their gelatin comes from, so I've got no clue. Gelatin is great because it helps your body be more efficient at processing protein. Since grass-fed beef is expensive, we don't eat it too often. My kids aren't huge meat-eaters anyway. So gelatin is an important part of our diet, allowing us to get the most we can out of the meat we do eat.

It's just 1 Tablespoon of gelatin for every 1 cup of juice. If you're using Knox packets, there's 1 Tablespoon in each packet. (If you want to make regular gelatin you'd eat with a spoon, it's half that.) I use 4 cups of juice in my 9x13 baking dish.

Measure out 1 cup of juice and pour into your 9x13 dish. Then measure out 3 more cups into a pot. Turn the heat on. Once the juice is well on it's way to boiling, sprinkle your gelatin over the cold juice in your dish and let it sit for 1 minute. Here it is, just gelin':

After a minute, add the boiling juice to the dish and stir for about 5 minutes until the gelatin is dissolved.Cover and put in the fridge for about 3 hours. You can speed up the process by putting it in the freezer for the first 1/2 hour.

Cut 'em and scoop 'em, and that's it!