Begin with a plan...lunch

Hard to believe there are only a few weeks left of school!  I was absolutely sure that one of the many joys of the upcoming summer break for my children would be to eat something (anything!) other than a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for lunch.

Surprisingly, when I actually took a poll, I was dead wrong.  On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being "I love pbj sandwiches to death everyday", and 10 being "I'm going to puke if I have to eat another pbj"), the kids ranked themselves 4 or below.  They say it's nice to have a change every once in a while, but overall they're pretty content with their packed lunches. 

I guess I was putting undue pressure on myself to change up our packed lunches.  Nonetheless, just for fun, I peeled off the two lunch idea articles I had cut out and taped to the inside of the lunchbox cupboard a few years ago.  Yes, several years ago. They are tattered despite never having been used.  One is entitled, "Kids love to assemble their own lunches".  Hmm, not so in my house.  Mine are quite happy to leave the packing to me.

 

I slap the pbj sandwich together, toss in a fruit (fresh or fruit cup with no sugar added) and veggie (carrots, celery sticks, or red bell pepper strips), and call it good.  It's expedient, reportedly satisfying, and chalks up two servings on the F&V tracker.  Why fix it if it's not broken?  Finally, I dropped those articles into the trash.

I will, however, try to incorporate a dinner each week that lends for tasty, packable leftovers just for variety.  Packing lunches on those mornings is a breeze!  Some of our favorites are pizza, burrito, and Colorado Calzone . These will make convenient, help-yourself summer lunches, too.

Let's hear what others pack for their own or their kid's lunches.  Simply click on the "No comments" below this post.

For my friends and others whose children are on a gluten-free diet, "100 Gluten Free School Lunch Ideas"  looks like a winning resource for everyone- whether packing or eating at home. 

Questions from readers

Questions from readers

I received a few great questions from readers about information in the Breakfast Maker (see April post):

Question 1:  "How do you get 30 gram of protein in those examples of breakfasts you gave?  5 eggs=30 gm protein (1 egg=6 gm) or 3 cups beans, or a whole bunch of nut butter, or 4+ oz of cheese.  It seems tough to eat all that."   

Answer: Rather than consume 30 gm protein at breakfast, 30 gm at lunch, and 30 gm at dinner, I like to think of it as consuming 30 gm throughout each 1/3 of the day. Taking in 30 gm of protein from the time I rise in the morning up until lunch time is doable but requires careful selection of high quality protein foods so that I don't go overboard on calories and unwanted weight gain.

A few examples:

- Breakfast: 1 egg, a bowl of fruit & walnuts provides ~8 gm protein.

Mid morning snack: 1/2 c cottage cheese with a fresh pear provides ~16 gm protein.
Total ~24 gm protein.

- Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal with fruit, flax seeds, and a scoop of protein powder provides ~ 20-25 gm protein.

These examples do not add up to 30 gm protein.  But I'm headed in the right direction.  If you want to calculate your protein intake, here's a worksheet that's helpful.  For even greater detail with calculating your protein intake, try www.myfitnesspal.com.

The recommendation to consume 30 gm protein at breakfast is based on one set of research and may not be ideal for everyone.  An alternative to counting grams of protein is to use the Breakfast Maker as a rough guide to help you choose all three macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate, and healthy fat) at your breakfast meal.  If you are not eating a good protein source at breakfast, start by adding one.  Any amount of protein is better than none.  See how you feel 2-3 hours after eating breakfast.  If you feel energetic, satisfied, and focused, chances are your breakfast is fueling you well.  On the other hand, if you feel lethargic and foggy-headed, you can experiment with increasing your protein.

Question 2:  "Does the fact that protein powder is processed take away from the nutritional value?" 
 

Answer:  The answer is a very definitive, "it depends".  It depends on how it's processed and what is added.  There are plenty of protein powders on the market that I will not buy, especially those with soy and artificial sweeteners.  Do an internet search on the good and bad of protein powder, and you'll find a war zone akin to hotly debated subjects like religion and politics.  Suffice it to say that although protein powder is processed, it still provides a complete source of high quality protein without packing a lot of extra calories.  If you choose to use it, it should merely be a supplement to a naturally occurring whole foods diet packed with nutrients.

Begin with a plan... Journal of the Breakfast Maker

Journal of the Breakfast Maker

I designed the Breakfast Maker (previous post) to help steer our family toward making a healthy breakfast choice.  Is it working for us?  Yes... when we use it.  A tool is only as effective as it's user.  However, I am discovering that the key ingredient to starting the day with a healthy breakfast in our home has less to do with the food choices and more to do with how we use our time in the morning.

A bit on food choices.....the Breakfast Maker is taped to the kitchen cupboard for our family to see and hopefully use.  I initially made a point to walk the kids through the steps of the Breakfast Maker.  We don't use it everyday.  It comes in most handy for anyone feeling "lost" in the morning, not knowing what to eat for breakfast.  It provides direction, sort of like a compass.  Not everyone needs that direction, but it's there as needed.

For example, one morning, Jennifer (age 10) was at a loss for what to eat for breakfast. I pointed to the Breakfast Maker and asked her to pick one item from each of the three categories (protein, carb, fat).  She selected the Greek yogurt topped with cereal, along with a fish oil supplement.  Done. There is nothing magic about the Breakfast Maker.  It simply allows her the independence to make choices within the framework of healthy eating.

 
The Breakfast Maker doesn't work so well when we have less healthy but appealing foods around such as home-made cookies, graham crackers, Nutella (hazelnut chocolate spread), etc.  It all goes back to "make the healthy choice the easy choice".  If unhealthy options are available, I know what the kids will prefer to eat!

So I experimented with making home-made Nutella which turned out quite tasty (with less sugar and healthier fat than the store bought stuff).  The kids didn't like it as well, but I bet they will eat it if the store bought version isn't in our home.  Also, I wonder...why not make a healthy breakfast cookie?  This "Super Healthy Breakfast (or anytime) Cookie" looks like it is worth a try.  Or make a "Healthy Ice Cream Sandwich" consisting of a healthier graham cracker with Greek yogurt.

Even healthy choices will do us no good, however, if we "don't have time" for eating breakfast.  There are endless reasons for "no time" for breakfast -  alarm clock failure, hitting the snooze button, homework to finish up in the morning, phone calls, things to do, shiny objects that distract us -- even good things like exercise, a shower, or prayer/meditation time.

How we use our time boils down to our priorities.  A favorite saying of mine is "The good is often the enemy of the best".   It applies to balancing how we spend our time in the morning.  I tell myself that fueling my family well before they head out for the day is important to me.  But the reality is, it doesn't always happen.  Making breakfast a priority continues to be a work in progress.