Fun containers make life...funner

We are four weeks into the school year, and I'm pleased to announce that school lunch making hasn't broken me yet!

It's probably not a hard guess that I don't let my kids buy school lunch, even though my foray into lunch duty a couple years ago showed me that sometimes school lunches might not be so bad. I don't get crazy with my kids' lunches; I just make sure that their PB&J is made of natural peanut butter and non-high fructose corn syrup jelly on their whole wheat bread, is all. Most of the time it's pretty tame.

Last year, I utilized a wide assortment of plastic ware to fill their lunchboxes with tasty vittles. And at the end of the day, here is what my counter looked like:

Ay yay yay...By the end of the year I just wanted to burn those stupid containers. They wore me out with the washing and the drying and the putting away, over and over and OVER again. ("Why don't you just send plastic bags?" many of you are wondering. My inner hippie won't let me, that's why.)

So this summer I hunted for a new storage solution for lunches, and here is what I found. At Garden Ridge. For five bucks.

So cute! So colorful!

These dumb containers make my day every time I make school lunches. Why? Why does it please me so to fit the little muffin in the side container? With the old containers, I felt stuck in a rut. I made the same lunch over and over.

But these containers make me feel like creating lunch masterpieces! Earlier this week I sent Drew with a turkey breast sandwich (nitrate free, from Zaycon Foods...shameless plug alert: use this link to register at Zaycon to find a meat event in your area. This meat is the bomb-diggety, and I get credits when you register and order some fantastic meat for yourself!) https://www.zayconfoods.com/refer/zf11780

Anyway...The turkey sandwich was on whole wheat rounds, spread with low-fat cream cheese and topped with some homemade cranberry sauce. Holla! It was so awesome I had to make my own for lunch that day.

Up there in the picture you've got turkey wraps on wheat tortillas with grapes, dried apples, pretzels, and a homemade banana pumpkin muffin.

That little lid snaps over the tortilla/sandwich section, then the whole thing folds again and snaps into a box.

When the kids get home they unload their lunch sack and I've got TWO things to wash. That's it.

The other day I was glad to see I'm not the only one who takes delight in random containers and uses it for motivation to eat healthy. My friend Lauren (check out her fabulous blog Salt & Sequins) posted this photo to her Instagram the other day saying that these cute little containers make her more likely to reach for fresh fruit and veggies:

"When I first started my weight loss journey, I was reading a book called 'PUSH' by Chalene Johnson, she had a really great tip, make healthy stuff front and center in your refrigerator. Display it ready to eat, cleaned, in cute bowls. I did have bowls, but they were too high and hid my fruit, so last night, I found these little beauties on sale. And if you know me, my Interior Designer side flipping loves the way this looks in my refrigerator. And yes, my refrigerator is chalk board. It got pretty beat up on the way to Cali, so Tim painted it for me. Best husband award right there."

Lauren, did you know that we also have a chalkboard paint fridge? How come you live in California? You could live in Texas and we could make special trips to IKEA to buy containers and chalk for our refrigerators, then swing by Central Market to ogle and buy overpriced organic produce. It would be fun!

Another mind trick I use for myself and the kids is cute water bottles to promote more water drinking. Spend a few bucks on a water bottle that you think is so cool and you'll probably use it more often.

Try it and see if it works! And send me pictures in case I need to get the same container as you.

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Workout of the Day

Les Mills Combat 30 Minute Kick Start. Oh y'all, this workout is so fun. I almost forgot what it's like to be a super cool fighter chick, but it only took a second of punching with those gloves for me to remember. I pumped up the music and punched and kicked my way to an awesome workout. You should try it. Seriously. www.SmellsLikeFitness.com

Monday Nutrition Tip of the Week

This week's tip is less of a tip and more of a challenge. When you go to the grocery store this week, pick up a vegetable you've never tried before and bring it home. Eat it raw, or hit the Internet to find an appealing way to cook it. (No frying allowed!)

There are so many things I buy regularly now that I never, in a million years, thought I would eat. Here are the top five culinary shockers that now frequent my refrigerator.

1. Acorn, Butternut, and Spaghetti Squash

When I first cooked an acorn squash, I was flabbergasted. Where had these things been all my life? They are sweet, juicy, easier to fix than a baked potato, and loaded with Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Potassium and a bunch of other good stuff. It is my favorite vegetable. I can sit down and eat a whole one...if no one else in my family is fighting me for it (and they usually are).

My positive experience with the acorn squash led me to try the butternut and spaghetti varieties, both of which are also fantastic. Spaghetti squash really does look like noodles after it's cooked!

2. Asparagus

When I was growing up my Mom had a prolific asparagus garden that yielded plenty of fantastic, fresh asparagus every summer. Did I eat my fill every night? No. Wouldn't touch the stuff. What was wrong with me?

As an adult I really like asparagus. My favorite way to fix it is to coat the spears in olive oil, sprinkle with Kosher salt and pepper and roast it in the oven for about 12 minutes. Yum.

3. Edamame

That's ed-ah-mah-may for the uninitiated. Edamame is green soy beans in a shell, and they are my favorite food to eat mindlessly. You know, the way you usually eat chips.

Edamame is low in calories, low in fat, and has plenty of protein and calcium. And oh yeah, they also taste good. You can find them in your freezer section in a steamer bag, although I usually prepare them by boiling them for about four minutes in salty water. Squeezing the pods so the soy beans pop out is pretty fun. Then just toss the shell!

4. Collard Greens

Eat your greens! Eat your greens! I kept reading over and over again. But...but... greens? Really? That sounds so gross. I resisted for quite awhile, but then decided to jump in. I'm glad I did!

I started with this recipe from Whole Foods Market that calls for collard greens, carrots, red onions, brown rice, and feta cheese. Oh, man, that recipe is so good. I was fixing it every week for awhile. And it makes great leftovers, too!

5. Spinach

Up until about two months ago, I was really scared of spinach. I'd bought the frozen variety once or twice for a mushroom spinach manicotti that I make, but I'm embarrassed to admit I'd never bought it fresh.

So a few weeks back I took the plunge, and I'm pleased to admit that spinach is not scary! To me, it's pretty much like any other lettuce, but better for you! It's full of iron, potassium, magnesium, and folic acid. And versatile, too. I put it in omelets, on my turkey sandwich, and in a plain old salad at dinner.

So try something new this week! Maybe you'll find something that will become a regular in the veggie rotation.

Monday Nutrition Tip of the Week

This week's food for thought is:

Count ingredients, not calories.


I've never been good at dieting, and I have never counted calories. Maybe it's my math aversion, but sitting down and calculating the amount of food I ate, and converting that to calories is nothing but a complete drag.

But counting ingredients is like playing golf: the lowest score wins! If you're eating things like eggs, apples, bananas, carrots, acorn squash (my personal favorite), it's easy to keep track of what you're eating.

Are you eating these? They are amazing.

Scott Colby of SC Fitness sat down and calculated what all you would eat if you had three popular food items: Smart Start Cereal, Reduced Fat Wheat Thins, and Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce Lean Cuisine. Here's the laundry list:


RICE, WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT, SUGAR, OAT CLUSTERS (SUGAR, TOASTED OATS [ROLLED OATS, SUGAR, CANOLA OIL WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS, MOLASSES, HONEY, BHT FOR FRESHNESS, SOY LECITHIN], WHEAT FLAKES, CRISP RICE [RICE, SUGAR, MALT, SALT], CORN SYRUP, POLYDEXTROSE, HONEY, CINNAMON, BHT [PRESERVATIVE], ARTIFICIAL VANILLA FLAVOR), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SALT, HONEY, MALT FLAVORING, ALPHA TOCOPHEROL ACETATE (VITAMIN E), NIACINAMIDE, ZINC OXIDE, REDUCED IRON, SODIUM ASCORBATE AND ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, YELLOW #5, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), BHT (PRESERVATIVE), VITAMIN A PALMITATE, FOLIC ACID, BETA CAROTENE (A SOURCE OF VITAMIN A), VITAMIN B12 AND VITAMIN D. WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT FLOUR, UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, SUGAR, CORNSTARCH, MALT SYRUP (FROM BARLEY AND CORN), INVERT SUGAR, MONOGLYCERIDES, SALT, VEGETABLE COLOR (ANNATTO EXTRACT, TURMERIC OLEORESIN). CONTAINS: WHEAT. BHT ADDED TO PACKAGING MATERIAL TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS. Blanched macaroni product (water, semolina, wheat gluten), skim milk, cooked chicken breast with rib pesto glazed smoke flavor added (cooked chicken breast meat with rib meat, water, chicken flavor (dehydrated chicken broth, chicken powder, flavor, salt, modified corn starch, salt, spice, glazed with: water, seasoning (sugar, (dehydrated romano cheese and blue cheese {part skim cow's milk, cheese cultures, pasteurized cow's milk, salt, enzymes}, spices, salt, modified food starch, dehydrated garlic dehydrated onion, citric acid, (dehydrated flavorings {(modified food starch, corn syrup solids, flavor, smoke flavor, partially hydrogenated soybean oil), dehydrated flavor (maltodextrin, citric acid, gum arabic, natural flavor}, extractives of garlic, olive oil), water, red peppers, ywllow peppers, 2% or less of cream, parmesan cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), soybean oil, modified cornstarch, bleached wheat flour, basil, asiago cheese (pasteurizred milk, salt, cheese cultu res, salt, enzymes), water, salt, lactic acid, citric acid), extra virgin olive oil, garlic puree, enzyme modified parmesan cheese (cultured milk, water, salt, enzymes), whey protein concentrate, cheese flavor (cheddar cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), water, salt, enzymes, cultures, phosphoric acid, xanthan gum), dehydrated onions, potassium chloride. 


Scary, right? So keep it simple to keep it healthy!