This photo gives you a bird’s eye view of our area at the height of Fall. Photo courtesy of www.mountainharvestfestival.com
Last week our small town observed the Mountain Harvest Festival a time where we locals celebrate not only the harvest, but locally produced food of all kinds, with music, workshops, concerts, farmer’s markets, kids activities, farm tours, a chili cook-off, crafts and provide elementary school student lunches with organic and locally produced meats and produce for the entire week!
Local farms and benefactors provided the high quality locally produced foods for the K-8 grades lunch program for all elementary students! Students taking school lunch, instead of brown bagging jumped by 50% for the week!
While I don’t want to get into the politics of what’s right and wrong about school lunches and why today, I think most busy parents need and want to get more involved in providing their children higher quality natural foods (not boxed or prepared), and teaching food preparation and food choices that include Real Foods. This will definitely be an ongoing subject for this blogger.
Chef and Author Ann Cooper spoke on this subject on the Early Show on CBS offering parents some ideas and tools for improving lunchtime.
Here are some of her suggestions from Lunch Lessons which include:
- corn soup
- pasta with greens and feta
- spinach and black bean burrito
- vegetarian chili
- turkey meatloaf
More information about her ideas and her book it is at the CBS website.
Mary’s Lunches
So far, I have been packing Mary’s lunch each day using dinner leftovers such as chicken stir-fry, barbecued chicken, potato kale & sausage stew, homemade soup along with fresh local fruit and occasionally a salad. She hasn’t asked to eat lunch at school once.
I admit I’m not too creative at lunchtime, so I would love to know what you pack for your kids lunches. Be sure to post your ideas here at my blog or at Facebook and Twitter.
Teaching Real Food Nutrition to Teens and Mature Junior High Aged Children (Moms too)
- If you have been hunting for a way to teach Real Food Nutrition for Teens (Moms too.) Download free pages and watch a free video now.
Follow me at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/urbanhomemakerFollow me at Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TheUrbanHome
I have been using the bento type lunchboxes this year, and besides sending my children with leftovers from the night before if it packs well, I’ve been taking a few extra minutes to “pretty” up a simple lunch of sandwiches and fruit. My kids get an extra kick out of having a decorated lunch, while still being whole and healthy. I used your wheat bread recipe to make pizza sticks to freeze and use for quick lunches. I brushed on seasoned tomato sauce and put some cheese on them and baked them for about 15 minutes. I also made up some pockets with the dough and left over roasted chicken. That was a big hit as well.
Thanks Denise for sharing your creativity and encouragement with my readers.
You are very welcome! I’m going to be using your recipes to make items for our FRG bake sale next week. I feel confident that it’ll be a success!