School Lunches | Table for Five

September 5, 2009 By Elizabeth

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School starts next Tuesday for my boys, which means I have 3 days to figure out what the heck to pack in their lunches every day. Disney FamilyFun contacted me about posting these tips for bumping up the nutritional value of a packed lunch while still including foods kids love. I’d love for you to leave a comment with recipes or suggestions for brown bag lunches, especially if you are feeding a teenage boy like I am. I’m not sure one lunchbox is going to be enough food for him to be full! Here are five healthy tips:

• Use A Bento Box: Japanese-style bento boxes and their nesting compartments are perfect for kid-size nibbles. Best of all, when your child pops the lid, the entire spread is at her fingertips, which puts the carrots on par with the PB&J and grapes for super-easy grazing. note: I found a Laptop Lunch system, new in the bag on eBay for $27.99 two days ago!
• Sneak In Extra Veggies: If the produce in your kid’s lunch is making the return trip home, consider hiding it. Add finely grated carrots to tuna and chicken salad, swap lettuce for nutrient-dense baby spinach, or try Horizon’s new Little Blends yogurts, which offer surprisingly tasty fruits and vegetable combos, such as Strawberry-Carrot and Banana-Sweet Potato. note: I know it’s not environmentally friendly, but when you send yogurt in a cup, send a disposable spoon. I lost a lot of silverware when Ryan was in kindergarten before I gave in and bought plastic
• Add (More) Whole Grains: Pack whole wheat pretzels instead of other salty snacks. Or take a cue from nutritionist Barbara Storper, author of Janey Junkfood’s Fresh Adventure!, and make a checkerboard sandwich. Use one slice of whole wheat bread and one of white, then cut the sandwich into quarters and rearrange the squares to create the checkerboard pattern. note: whole grain Triscuits and Wheat Thins are a great alternative to chips!
• Offer Nutritious Snacks: Apples not making the grade? Try freeze-dried fruit, such as Brothers-All-Natural or Crispy Green. Another option from chef and school-lunch reformer Ann Cooper: homemade gorp. Kids can choose the ingredients, then mix up their own combinations each night before school. note: I reviewed Funky Monkey Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks and Today’s Farm Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks on my food blog MomCooks.
• Serve Low-Sugar Drinks: In lieu of traditional juice boxes, pack a juice-and-water blend, such as R.W. Knudsen Family Organic Sensible Sippers, or fill a thermos with flavored water (make your own or try a store-bought variety – just be on the lookout for artificial sweeteners). note: my kids like the Capri Sun 25% less sugar juice boxes.

Check out Disney FamilyFun’s Back to School A+ Lunches & Snacks page for recipes for sandwiches, sides, snacks, and more. And please leave tips, recipes, suggestions and links of your own in your comment! I can use all the help I can get

7 Back-to-School Lunch Tips (momcooks.net)
The Lunch Box (chefann.com)
Back to School with Lunchables and Their Better-for-You Lunch Combinations (susanheim.blogspot.com)
[Community Post] Help With Allergy Free Lunch Ideas (diet-blog.com)

Looney Tunes Eating Right Kids – Week 1

August 31, 2009 By Elizabeth

Eating Right Kids

While I was at BlogHer, I spent a very pleasant evening in the company of some of my fellow Team Mom bloggers, and in addition to being treated to a wonderful dinner, we were also introduced to a new line of better-for-you food products from Safeway Food Stores, in partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products. I’ve now been hired by Warner Bros. to join a group of bloggers presenting five weeks of discussions and tips on healthy eating both at home and at school. I was supposed to start on Aug. 24th, so I’m catching up on Week One’s info before posting Week Two. This is the basic info on the partnership:

Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Safeway, Inc. have teamed up to create a better-for-you line of food products for children, uniting flavor and nutrition with the iconic Looney Tunes characters. The line includes categories such as breakfast foods, portable meals, dairy, snacks and beverages. Each product will feature such world-renowned Looney Tunes characters as Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Taz, Sylvester, Wile E. Coyote, Roadrunner, Marvin the Martian and Daffy Duck, who serve as ‘Mother’s Helper,’ making it easy for moms to spot better-for-you food and beverage items for their kids that taste great.

Why create a special line of food products aimed just at kids? Because the fact is, our country’s children are facing greater risks of obesity than ever. Some statistics:

According to a 2009 study, almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese – that’s more than half a million 4-year-olds.

The number of overweight and obese children (10 to 17 years old) is at or above 30 percent in 30 states.

Research has also shown that overweight and obese children generally go on to become obese adults, with all the chronic, weight-related health issues that involves, such as heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Safeway’s Eating Right Kids line of food products includes applesauce, high fiber cereal with no high fructose corn syrup, frozen entrees that come with veggie side dishes, and fruit packaged in easy-snacking packages. More about the program:

The Eating Right Kids food and beverage line is an offshoot of Safeway’s Eating Right line for adults. Warner Bros. Consumer Products’ and Safeway’s Eating Right Kids initiative was highlighted by the Federal Trade Commission for its ability to have a positive impact on childhood obesity.

The Eating Right Kids Food Line featuring the Looney Tunes Characters offer more than 60 items across 18 categories including breakfast foods, produce, portable meals, dairy, snacks, beverages and frozen entrees. The line is available at more than 1700 Safeway locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The Eating Right Kids line featuring the Looney Tunes Characters available at Safeway stores has been formulated to standards based on the most recent dietary recommendations and regulations from several federal and state agencies.

Unfortunately for me and my kids, there are no Safeway stores in Michigan, so now that we’ve finished up the granola bars and 100% juice bottles I brought home from BlogHer, we can’t go buy them. Hopefully Safeway will expand and come to Michigan, because I will totally buy products from the Eating Right Kids line if I get the chance. Don’t these look like they would be great to have in the fridge or to take in the car for when the munchies strike while you’re out running errands?

Eating Right products

For more information on packing healthy school lunches, visit MomLogic. They have a whole page, called Healthy Back to School Eating Habits from MomLogic, brought to you by Looney Tunes Eating Right. There you will find articles written by nutritionist Haylie Pomroy, including a back to school lunch shopping list and suggested menus and recipes.

My boys go back to school next week, and I’ve already decided that I’d like them to have a homemade lunch as often as possible. Sure, it’s easier to just put money in their lunch account and have them buy the hot lunch, and our school contracts with a good lunch provider, fruit and vegetables are available every day- but something just makes me feel like I want more control over what they eat. MomLogic has a weekly suggested lunch menu that gave me some good ideas for variety.

In upcoming weeks I’ll have more information about how to teach your kids to eat healthy, and I’ll also be running a giveaway for a basket filled with Looney Tunes products like DVDs, plush toys, green shopping bags and non-perishable Eating Right products. I really appreciate this opportunity to work with Warner Bros. and Safeway to spread the word about Eating Right Kids. I have a question for all of you to answer in a comment-

What is your biggest challenge in getting your kids to eat healthy?