Healthy School Lunches

I use to have a pantry full of prepackaged food that was quick and easy for me to whip up a lunch. I thought I was helping my family out because I could be done in a jiffy or they could easily get something when they were hungry. It took a long time for me to realize that I was just throwing away my money, my kids were coming home hungry from school, and I wasn't showing them the benefit of proper eating.

It has now been 2 years since I cleared out our pantry and started fresh. I am not saying there is no junk food in our home...we just made major changes. The shelf that use to have 10 different styles of Doritos chips now has barkTHINS, Snapeas Crisps, and one bag of tortilla chips. Our baskets that use to hold granola bars and gummies now have pretzels, a variety of nuts, and edamames. We use to have an abundance of cereals because I could get them for $0.50-$1, but now we have dwindled them down to a few. Yes, we still have fun kids cereals, but we also have a variety of flavors of Cheerios (Chocolate, Peanut Butter, etc). My baking shelves have gone from prepackaged goodies to ingredients for us to make them from scratch.

We didn't just revamp our pantry we also cleared out the fridge to make room for fruits and vegetables the children like (and the adults). I am slowly trying different fruits and vegetables with them in hopes to find a larger variety they will eat. We branched off to Almond Milk for the 2 younger kids. My daughter I think enjoys it because it is already premade chocolate milk and my son is lactose intolerant. We also purchase one container of carb free milk every 2 weeks for him to be able to enjoy cereal. Our cheese drawer seems to keep multiplying with new flavors (we always have cheddar for the little man).

It may not sound like much, but these small steps have really changed our lives. My kids are healthier, the girls come home from school with full bellies that last until dinner time, they all have more energy (ok sometimes this is a negative for us moms), and the girls have told me countless stories about kids trying to trade them junk food for their healthy food. Who would have thought that children actually enjoy eating properly?

I am so proud of them for joining me in becoming healthier. I know the first week of no chips and gummies was a little traumatizing, but they have not complained since then.

As a family we will continue on our journey to live healthy lives! Yes, we splurge with homemade treats, but they no longer control our lives or our bank account.

Today in our Anna & Elsa and Pink Plaid lunch boxes the girls took peanut butter and honey sandwiches with carrots and celery, apples and grapes, applesauce, Babybel cheese, and a Halo orange. For a snack they took 5 yogurt covered cranberries with cinnamon roasted almonds.