Enter the terrifying world of whole food lunchbox lunches

Now, I whole heartedly approve of the new school lunch regulations in the US. I think is brilliant that our nation's kiddos are being fed food that is better for their little bodies and little brains. I have seen the menu at our children's school. It has improved a great deal from when I was a kid. They even have fresh, local fruits and veggies!

However, school lunches still definitely don't meet my food guidelines. Plus, I hate to push it when it comes to my kid's weird food allergies. They have something on the menu almost every day that my son is allergic to, and at five years old, sometimes he chooses what looks good without considering the potential for an anaphylactic reaction.

And now to reiterate the title of this post: enter the terrifying world of whole food lunchbox lunches. If you think trying to scrape together a nice lunch for the office without using processed food is difficult, try making one for a picky kid without the ability to heat up their lunch and about 15 minutes to actually eat it. All without being wasteful, as I hate the packaging waste involved in most lunches from home.

My first step was to invest in some more containers. Reusable baggies, little sandwich boxes, itty bitty plastic containers, thermoses, nice sturdy water bottles, BPA-free plastic silverware that I intend to reuse but won't cry if it doesn't make it home, and good quality lunch boxes were the first things I rounded up to make sure I'd be able to pack my kiddos lunches without wasting 16 plastic bags a day. Seriously, having handy places to stick all the fresh, good stuff makes for much easier lunch packing.

Next, I had to come up with some ideas that are portable and easy enough to pack for lunch every day. I knew that making their lunch prep as quick and painless as possible was going to be necessary if I was ever going to actually accomplish it. My grand plan? Fill up their lunches with fresh, raw fruits and veggies, a little protein, and a very small, but yummy dessert to keep up morale during the long school day.

And now some ideas for each of these things-

Veggies: Celery, baby carrots, broccoli, snap peas, baked sweet potato chips, bell pepper strips, cucumber slices, side salad

Fruits: grapes, apple slices misted with lemon juice so they don't brown, orange sections, fresh peaches and other stone fruit, bananas, bing cherries, pomegranate

Protein: yogurt, cheese slices, chicken or turkey salad, peanut butter for dipping, almond butter and honey sandwiches (on homemade bread, of course), mixed nuts, hummus, chicken and vegetable soup, lettuce wraps filled with shredded turkey and dilly Greek yogurt

Dessert: no bake chocolate peanut butter bars , zucchini or pumpkin bread, oatmeal pumpkin cookies , a square of dark chocolate, homemade trail mix with chocolate, or your family's favorite homemade dessert in a little bitty portion (I would feel awful for my kiddo's teachers if I pumped them full of sugar at lunch, since now that we eat a lot less of it, they get really nutty while under it's sticky influence.)

Water makes for a perfectly acceptable drink at lunch, and since my kiddos take a water bottle to school anyhow, they just grab it for lunch, too. If your school allows water bottles from home, I highly suggest taking them up on the offer. Remember how many kids put their mouth on the water fountain when you were little?? Yuck..just yuck.

Our first REAL meal- Steel cut oatmeal

This morning, I made oatmeal. Doesn't seem like a big deal? For us, it is. This was our first meal made with whole food, made from scratch. Okay, the peanut butter we added to the oatmeal was store bought, but it was organic and without additives.

We're transitioning. We are striving towards eating whole foods that are unprocessed, with no preservatives, no artificial dyes or flavors, no chemicals that you need a masters in chemistry to figure out just what they are.

Switching to whole grain versions of foods you already eat is a great way to make a healthy change in your diet. We used to use instant microwave oatmeal. If I could find a box of name brand instant oatmeal packets (about a pound) on sale, I could snag them for $2.50. At the local food co-op, I found bulk organic steel cut oats for $1.05/lb. I bought just over 3 lbs for under $3.50. I used one cup of the oats for our breakfast, which fed all three kids and me with oats to spare (which I saved for leftovers). Can you say CHEAP?!

To cook the oats, I boiled four cups of water, then added one cup of oats. I turned the heat down to medium low and let it simmer for 25 minutes. Be sure to stir often!

I added a little bit of local clover honey and let the kids pick out some dried fruit to throw in for added flavor and texture. Then we stirred in a spoonful of peanut butter. It was delicious, had great texture, and I stayed full all morning. Plus, I feel energized already (though that could just be enthusiasm and my new outlook on food).

There are lots of whole grain products out there. We will be making the switch from white flours and processed grains to whole, more hearty counterparts. Trade white rice for brown rice. Ditch the all-purpose white flour for whole grain versions. These are not exceptionally expensive changes. Whole grains bought in bulk can even come much cheaper, plus they eliminate a lot of packaging waste.

On a side note, do you know how many kinds of flour you can get? A fabulous organic, health conscious company called Bob's Red Mill has managed to make flour out of just about everything you can think of. Their products are available at your local health food store and on Amazon.

Your local natural food grocer can be an incredibly inspiring place. If you've got one around and have never visited before, just make a little time to go in and explore. The employees at ours were incredibly helpful, and didn't even mock us for being total (and obvious) newbs to the real food thing. If you don't normally bring your own bags to the store, I'd suggest picking up a few reusable bags, or better yet, sewing some. Hop on over to flakymomcrafts.blogspot.com (my craft blog) where I'll put up a tutorial soon.

My next post will focus on starting our organic gardening adventures. I'm so looking forward to growing our own produce! The idea of literally working directly for our food appeals to me, as does the idea of knowing exactly what went into fertilizing and protecting our food from pests.

Resolve to eat real food..not for a month, but for life.

It is time to make a change in our household. It is no huge revelation that we (we being my three children ages 7, 4, and 3, my husband, and myself) aren't eating the best possible diet. Toaster pastries, frozen chicken nuggets, potato chips, and diet soda are commonly found in our fridge or pantry.

Are foods like that present in your kitchen? If so, go pull a few out and check out the labels. What did you see? Were you able to recognize all the ingredients? Probably not (unless of course you are a chemist).

The human body isn't made to process artificial dyes, flavors, and sweeteners. Sure, being omnivores, we muddle through okay. Food goes in and goes out and we still seem relatively unscathed for all the junk we typically consume. We are all still standing. We all feel okay.

I for one am tired of feeling okay, though. Regular fatigue, headaches, joint and muscle pain are everyday occurrences. That's okay, right? I trudge through. It's not like I'm dying or something.

But it's really NOT okay! I want to feel good. I want to feel healthy and vital and energetic. I want my kids to have the oomph to do well in school and at play. I don't want them to make the food choices we are making right now when they are adults.

And so a plan has been hatched.

What is our plan, you ask?

The first phase was research and development. I pulled out some of the more questionable items in the fridge and pantry. I checked for weird, chemical-y sounding names among the ingredients and I Googled until I had a better idea of what I was actually feeding my family. The results of my search were surprising at best and nauseating at worst.

For example, I found TBHQ in the list of ingredients on the microwave popcorn box, and had no idea what it was. It turns out it is a form of butane, as in butane lighter. Yikes! I won't even get in to the great aspartame debate; I'll simply say I decided I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Much of the food on supermarket shelves seems to contain ingredients that are non-nutritive, non-natural, or altered in some way. I don't know what you all think of that, but it makes me nervous. Though the FDA stands by these products, I've decided that they aren't the right choice for my family.

That decision made, it's time to execute a plan to phase out store bought processed, non-organic food. That means no more convenience foods, no more store bought baked goods, no more tubes of meat. It means baking our own bread and delicious treats.

It also meant a trip to a local food cooperative. I had never even been there before, as it's about 30 miles from our home. They had an amazing selection of local products, which really appeals to me (plus they advertise the distance the product traveled to get to the store). We bought non-homogenized milk, cage-free eggs, raw honey, organic yogurt, and lots of other good, real food produced right here in our state. Plus I found a great grass-fed beef and poultry farm just ten miles from our doorstep.

From here on out, we will only purchase REAL food. Since it's cold around here, we're kind of stuck with store-bought vegetables, but we will be growing as much of our own produce as possible when the time comes. I'll dedicate a post to beginning our organic gardening adventures in the very near future.

Now, I'm not trying to preach to anyone here. Everyone is entitled to make their own decisions about the food that they eat. Eating real, chemical free food is mine. I hope to inspire. I hope that I can show people that if I can forego the convenience of processed food, they can too. We aren't rich, we don't own a farm or live in a commune. We're a busy family with three picky children (plus my picky husband, who calls potato chips a food group) to feed. I'm going to share the ways I'm managing to make this work for our family, and just maybe they'll work for your family, too.