Chicken Parmigiana Sandwich “Lunchable”
An delicious alternative to the “Lunchable” which converts easily to a simple weeknight dinner. (more…)
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06/29/2011
Not Your “Mother’s” Oatmeal Cookies
Who doesn’t love cookies? I’m a big fan of the cookie and here’s a cookie that’s been around for almost one hundred years: Mother’s brand Oatmeal Cookies. Well the cookie itself hasn’t been around that long, (though with preservatives these days…) I digress. Mother’s brand cookies have been a staple on supermarket shelves for nearly one hundred years, yet their ingredients are anything but wholesome. (more…)
05/08/2011
Ahoy Mateys! The Healthy Cookie Conundrum.
Cookies are such an easy treat. They can be packed in a lunch box, stuffed in a mouth or held in even the tiniest of hands. But why fill those little hands and mouths with hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup when you can bake an easy, fresh, and delicious treat which, by the way, tastes even better warm with a tall glass of milk!
Packaged cookies are a convenience that I’d guess most (if not all) of us have purchased at one time or another. They must be a viable money maker based on the number of brands and varieties that fill nearly an entire supermarket aisle. Yet, when I compared the ingredients on packaged cookies to those we can make fresh…well, there is no comparison. (more…)
02/13/2011
Granola Bars: Grab-and-Go Chemicals or Nourishment?
Granola bars stir up quite the controversy at our house. My kids want to bring them to school for snack, but a nut-free school means no granola bars with nuts of any sort. That rules out a lot of the granola bars on the market. Then when we look at what’s left and examine what ingredients are actually in the remaining granola bars things really start to get interesting. Let’s just say we’re left with…well, not much. (more…)
01/16/2011
Is Your Popcorn Coated in Lighter Fluid?
As we head into fall, I find that my family starts to crave the cozy goodness of fresh popcorn. It’s a perfect after school snack on a gray afternoon and it makes a delicious accompaniment to a Sunday movie.
I know on the surface it may seem easier to grab a bag of microwave popcorn and throw it in for three to five minutes. But is it three minutes to fresh popped corn or three minutes to a chemical coated health risk? You be the judge… (more…)
11/06/2010
…Jam.
Last week we deconstructed peanut butter. This week we had to top it with a quick, healthy jam! Making jam is a summer routine for my family but it requires a few pieces of special equipment, quite a bit of time, and in my case, a couple of scorching burns (none of which make for a fast Out of the Box Food alternative). But since fresh, homemade jam can be such a treat, I knew we had to explore a quick and easy alternative for Out of the Box Food. (more…)
10/17/2010
Peanut Butter and…
When you think of peanut butter what ingredient first comes to mind? Peanuts? Good. What else needs to be added to make it peanut butter? Was your answer nothing? You’re right! Nothing! But many of the nationally recognized brands of peanut butter contain other ingredients like hydrogenated oil and sugar. I grew up on Skippy Peanut Butter so I automatically bought what I knew (or thought I knew) for my kids. But now that I am looking at labels before buying products, I am steering clear of many of my good ol’ standbys. (more…)
10/10/2010
Breakfast Bars – Amp Up or Fuel Up?
Last week a friend suggested we take a deconstructed look at breakfast bars. As a working mother of two under four, her mornings are busy and rushed yet she wants to provide a healthy start to her kids’ day. One day in a pinch, she picked up a nationally recognized brand bar for the following morning’s breakfast. Ten minutes after eating the bar, her son was bouncing off the walls. That little self-proclaimed “health” bar, had turned a quiet morning into a wild, stress-filled kickoff to the day.
Aren’t school mornings challenging enough? (more…)
09/26/2010
Corn Syrup Roll-up – Where’s the Fruit?
You know ’em, those long, sticky, peel-and-eat rolls of sweet chemicals your kids love? I just can’t bring myself to call them what they do on the package; “fruit” is just too far off what they actually are. Corn Syrup Roll-up could work. Or how about Artificial Color roll-up? To make matters worse, my kids don’t even want regular roll-ups in their lunch boxes anymore, they want the ones that stretch to nearly a foot long! So is it possible to make foot long real fruit roll-ups? You bet. (more…)
09/12/2010
On the Road Again…Healthy Road Trip Snacks
As I was preparing for a summer road trip this past week I caught myself humming the old Willie Nelson classic, “On the Road Again” and realized that before my family starting thinking Out of the Box about our food, “on the road” meant stops at fast food restaurants and mini marts for meals and snacks. But now that we’ve turned a “nu”tritious-leaf, I knew I needed to give some thought to what I would provide for my kids who would inevitably mark the hours with shouts of “Are we there yet?” and “I’m hungry.” Hmmm…gotta be prepared. Snacks.
08/01/2010