Week 1 of Cold Lunches

Week one went better than expected with my cold lunch experiment. My oldest was embarrassed to have to take a cold lunch to middle school. But by Tuesday at lunch her friends were asking about it. They asked her if she was trying to eat healthier. Now, she is just a little wisp of a thing as it is, so she told them she was eating healthier so that she would stay in shape. She told them that Wednesday she was having a peanut butter sandwich and a salad, so they wanted to bring cold lunch the next day too. All her friends at her table brought a salad the next day too. Now that she realizes that it is not an embarrassment to bring cold lunch, she is embracing it and trying to help her friends eat healthier in the process.

Here is what we had for the week:

Monday:
Ham & Cheese Pasta Salad (click for recipe I used)
Yogurt
Popcorn (left over from the weekend)
Chocolate Chip Cookie (won at the church cake walk the day before)

Tuesday:
Ham Salad Sandwich (recipe below)
Cheesestick
Applesause
Pickle
Cookies (7 nilla wafers)

Wednesday:
Peanut butter sandwich
Salad with cucumbers (organic spring mix $3.99)
Babybel Cheese
Pears (kids) Apple (adults)

Thursday:
Two pizza slices (left over Little Ceasers from dinner)
Apple
Carrots & ranch dip

Friday:
Hot lunch

With each of the meals, the kids had a choice of milk, 100% juice or water with their lunches. They picked those the morning of, depending on their mood. I made the lunches up the night before, so when my husband got them on the bus all he had to do was their beverage of choice and add an ice pack to their bags. He thought it was easy, and with my menu posted on the side of the fridge, everybody knew what they were having the whole week. I think week 1 was a success! Got to go, working on my Week 2 menu right now. What a way to plan ahead and use up what I already have in the house.


Ham Salad recipe:

1 pound pre-cooked ham (I used turkey ham this time)
1 cup mayo
4 pickles
2 small white onions

I have an attachment on my stand mixer that is a grinder, my mother uses an old fashioned cast iron hand grinder. Both work well, you just want a good grinder to get the right consistency.

Grind up ham, onion and pickles into a large bowl. Add in mayo, and stir completely. Add a little more mayo if it seems to dry still. Refrigerate covered for up to one week.

You can add different flavors to your families liking. I have added different mustards, sweet pickles, and spices to make it a little different each time. But the plain recipe above is still my families favorite. It lasts for at least a week in the fridge, but you may have to stir it up before each use. Great on sandwiches, Ritz crackers and toasted bagels. Plus I have caught my husband eating it with just a spoon right out of the bowl :)

The School Lunch Box Experiment

Have you ever looked at what your kids are eating at school? Those school hot lunches are not the most nutritious lunches, not to mention they don't even have any color to them. Lots of bland browns. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we are putting a change to that in my family.

This school year my family is trying a new experiment. I have bought all the kids, myself and husband cool new lunch boxes from The Container Store for $10 each. I am going to make homemade lunches for us all Monday thru Thursday. I will let the kids have hot lunches on Fridays as a treat. We also decided that if they stick to this for the whole month, they will be able to get an extra "ala cart" treat at the end of the month on Friday also.

I will be keeping up every week here to let you know our recipes and results of the meals, hopefully taking pictures along the way too.

My family will be starting this experiment on September 13th. I will be weighing in every family member so that we can see if there is a weight loss involved in eating better foods. I am hoping that with the weight loss there will be more energy and therefore more exercise.

So feel free to follow up with us here to see our progress.

PS we are also going to instill one day a week as "no electronics" day too. I need to get all the kids final sports schedule to find a day of the week where we will all be home together to start preparing for that. We will be doing craft projects, board games and cooking dinner together. Keep posted for that to start also!

Have a great new school year!