Frugal, easy and healthy school lunch ideas

Packing a healthy child lunch your children will enjoy day in and day out certainly isn’t an easy task.

It’s hard to keep coming up with fresh ideas for packed lunches for the 20 or so school days there are in a month. No wonder we often rely on the same old lunch recipe favorites.

Here are a few kid lunch box ideas. I’m sure you’ve heard some of them before but I’m hoping you’ll find a few new ideas to inspire you.

Change the bread
For a change from everyday sandwich use soft tortillas for wraps, bagels, English muffins, pita pockets or fresh baked rolls. Frugal tip: Hit your local bread store. You can get a ton of different types of bread for really cheap!

Create your own snack mix
Use a selection of small flavorful crackers, cereal, dried fruit or pretzels. Just about anything goes. For an occasional treat toss in a few M & Ms or yogurt or chocolate covered raisins. Experiment with different mixes and pre-package in individual zip lock bags. Do it once a week to save a ton of time and you won't be running out to buy the prepackaged ones.

Try different sandwich fillings
Alter the sandwich fillings. Consider combinations like diced chicken and corn, ham and avocado, grated carrot and cheddar cheese, or jam and cream cheese.

Quesadillas
Place on soft tortilla in a hot frying pan. Spread with tomato sauce or pizza sauce. Sprinkle grated cheese on top and other fillings like ham, bacon, peppers, onions and tomatoes. Place another tortilla on top and heat until cheese melts. Cut into pizza triangles.

Don't forget veggies
To ensure your child gets her daily requirement of vegetables cut up a selection of carrot sticks and celery sticks. Consider also other veggies like cucumber, ears of baby corn, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini. Pack a small container of dip.

Fruit cubes
Cut up different pieces of fruit and package in a plastic container. Use fruit or vanilla yogurt as a tasty dip. This is much cheaper than $2.00 plus that it cost for those fruit bowls.

Fruit & cheese bites
Cheese cubes and grapes make a nice snack or lunch dessert. Pineapple and apple slices dipped in lemon juice also go nice with cheese.

Mini muffins
Kids love things that come in small packages. So think ‘mini’ – small muffins and bagels. Vary flavors to avoid boredom.

Sandwich shapes
Remove crusts from bread and cut out different shaped sandwiches using cookie cutters.

Pack a note
Occasionally pack something extra special in your child’s lunch like a note saying I love you or even a simple smiley face. Be creative and come up with something like a funny cartoon or saying that you know will put a smile on your child’s face.

Beyond sandwiches
If your child is tired of bread in any form consider crackers. What about packing a few crackers in your child’s lunch along with a side of cheese and ham slices? Kind of like a homemade lunch able only healthier. You can even cut the ham and cheese slices into fun shapes using cookie cutters. Be sure to package the crackers, cheese and meat separately.

For more fun and creative lunch ideas and recipes visit http://www.school-lunch-ideas.com

How meal planning makes your life easy

Are you ready to save some time, feed your family healthier meals and save some money along the way? These are just some of the benefits of family meal planning. Let’s look at all of them in a little more detail.

Eat Healthier
Planning your family meals will cut down on your trips to your favorite fast food restaurant and the amount of pizza you have delivered to your door. Food you prepare at home tends to be much healthier than hamburgers with fries, fried chicken or pizza. When you plan your meals include some lean protein like chicken breast, as well as some salads and vegetables. Your entire family will benefit from the healthier meals.

Save Time
How much time are you spending now running to the grocery store a few times a week. I used to run to the store at least 3 times a week to buy something to fix for dinner. Planning your meals out for a week at a time and then putting together a grocery list with everything you need to cook those meals will cut your trips to the store down to one a week. This alone will save you a few hours each week. Plus you won’t be standing in front of your fridge and pantry every night trying to come up with something you can fix with what you have at hand.

Save Money
All that eating out and having food delivered can quickly add up. By preparing more meals at home you will save quite a few dollars each week. In addition, you will save on your monthly grocery bill, since you will be making a list of everything you need for the week and won’t end up buying extras that just go to waste. I used to throw out food almost every week before I started meal planning.

Less Stress
You know the routine. It’s 6 pm, everyone in the family is starving and you have no idea what’s for dinner. Trying to come up with something to cook from what you have in the kitchen while your kids are tired, hungry and screaming isn’t one of the most fun family activities. You will be much more relaxed about dinner, when you know exactly what you are going to cook ahead of time and known you have everything you need in the house.

Quality Time Together
Meal Planning also encourages everyone to gather around the dinner table each day. Who could resist the delicious smells coming out of the kitchen? Dinnertime has always been a great time for families to gather and share news and experiences of the day. Parents and children can pay each other undivided attention. Cook some dinner, set the table and don’t forget to turn off the TV. Make dinner a daily family tradition again.

I encourage you to give meal planning a try. I am sure you and your family will see the benefits within less than a week. Don’t have the time or patience to plan your family meals? Let us do it for you!


Christine Steendahl runs Dine Without Whine - A Family Friendly Weekly Menu Planner Sign up today.

Healthy Snacks for Kids

With school out (or almost out for summer) many kids, will be asking for snacks during during.


Now days, more than ever children should be eating healthier. For millions of children in America consuming junk food and increased inactivity has led to obesity and an increasing number of children being above ideal weight. Not only is it important to teach your child which snacks they should eat, but educating them during the early, formidable years may help them sidestep obesity and becoming overweight in the future when they are adults. Here are some tricks on tasty healthy snacks for children.

One way for your children to eat healthy snacks is to get them started on naturally sweet foods. Since most kids crave sweets for snacks, naturally sweet foods such as fruits are ideal. Encourage them to enjoy a banana, orange, apple, cherries, strawberries and other berries whenever they have a sweet tooth. You can mix in yogurt or even make a fruit smoothie for them with some milk and a drop of chocolate or other natural flavors.

Another great way for your little ones to enjoy healthy snacks is to give them fresh nuts. Kids love peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, almonds, etc. One of the things to recognize about children is that if they try enough types of natural and healthy snacks, they will find one that they love. The problem is that many times parents give up trying to find the snacks that their kids enjoy and settle for popular junk foods instead.

When deciding on a healthy snack, what you want to avoid are products with boatloads of sugars, unwanted preservatives and empty calories. While most kids will fight you tooth and nail if they have to eat wheat germ and tofu, most children will be more than happy to eat snacks if they have a sweet taste and are presented in the right way.

Other healthy snacks that many children like are dry cereals. For example, there are many breakfast cereals that are derived from corn, wheat, bran and include nuts and honey. These cereals when consumed at breakfast usually include milk; however, you can easily serve them without milk to your children. One of the most popular dry cereals which are healthy and nutritious for your little one at almost any age is Cheerios. Cheerios are lightly sweetened and tasty either moistened with milk or dry. If your little one craves a delicious snack for lunch or to take along for camp or little league, dry cereal is not only nutritious, but delicious.

For those children that are terribly picky and only want junk food, one strategy to use in order to get your child to eat nutritious snacks is to buy premade natural snacks. Today, there are tons of prepackaged snacks that might look like junk food, but are actually healthy and nutritious for your little one. They include certain fruit roll ups, string cheese and granola bars. Many of these snacks look like junk food, but are actually made from natural ingredients and include relatively little sugar and empty calories. If you are looking for a great way for your child to remain healthy, check out the above mentioned tricks on healthy snacks for little ones.

Dine Without Whine -is a great menu planning service for active families

Healthy eating on a budget- Part 3

Sometimes you see stories "Mom pays $29.46 for over $300 in groceries" who knows if that is true or not. However using coupons wisely can help decrease your food bill.

1. Matching coupons to weekly sales.
Every week the web site www.thegrocerygame.com tips you off to the best sales at your local grocery store and how to maximize those sales with coupons you get from the paper. The site organizes grocery stores' best sales in a spreadsheet and tells you how much you'll save by using your coupons on top of that. A double whammy that can cut your bill in half or better. There is a $5.00 per month cost.

Another resource that is free is http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com. While not as great; it does highlight the "Screaming Deals" state by state.

2. Coupon Trains
Coupon trains are simply a way of exchanging coupons by snail mail. It all starts out with a group of people. Members clip coupons, even ones they might not need. They pack them up and mail them to the next person on the list. That person takes the coupons they need and replaces them with new ones. They ship the stack off to the next person in the group and the cycle repeats.
Looking for coupon train
There are yahoo groups with coupons trains as well as several frugal and saving money message boards have active trains. Check out Coupon train FAQS

Bottom Line: The key to saving with coupons is to only purchase the items you would normally use anyway. You will also find that the store brand may still be the better bargain.

Healthy eating on a budget- Part 2

Frozen dinners, Hamburger helper are staples of many households now these days. Convieience food isn't always good for the waist line as well your food budget

Here are some tips for Cooking From Scratch or atleast not from a a box!

1. Use your freezer! Sometimes you will hear this called Freezer cooking, once a month cooking. Otherwords cooking multiple entrees in a single session banks home-cooked meals--and precious family time--for busy moms. I don't do "once a month cooking" but more bulk cooking. If I am going to make a lasganna, I make two. The same with meatloaf. Friendly Freezer is a great resource to see what freezes well, get menu suggestions etc.

2. Use a crockpot! I use my crockpot atleast once a week. Nothing is easier than throwing in some chicken, sauce and some veggies for a great filling dinner.

3. Be creative Homemade hamburger helper mixes are a great way to make a good filling meal.

Make sure you add veggies to every meal!

Healthy eating on a budget- Part 1

Healthy eating and eating on a budget do not have to be separate thoughts. Many families including mine try to each healthy and frugally at the same time.

Plan your meals around the sale!

Plan your weeks menus around the sales flyer for the store where you frequently shop for groceries. If there's a great buy on ground beef, plan to have spaghetti, chili, meatloaf, or some other ground beef dishes. The same applies if chicken is on sale. You can have two or three meals planned around the meat special for this week. If you do meatless, you can try meatless meals that consist of beans or other vegetable proteins.


A pricebook can be made out of a small three-ring notepad or an excel spreadsheet. In my price book I write down an item, its regular price at a certain store, and the current sales price. After keeping a price book for a little while, I can keep up with how much things typically cost. There are certain items of which I am really comfortable about prices on. I know to stock up chicken breasts when they are less than two dollars a pound. However , there are other items that I don't buy as often and so I am not so confident. Sometimes it is hard to tell if an advertised price is a good deal or not unless I keep track of the prices in my book.

Many grocery stores publish their flyers online these days. Here is a listing of most of the major grocery stores

Grocery stores weekly sales