30 Lunch Ideas

It's hard coming up with lunch ideas for kids everyday... especially those that aren't in school yet. Hopefully this will help!

1. PB&J sushi rolls (or instead of jelly use bananas)

2. Apple slices and peanut butter

3. Mini Pizzas

4. Cheese Crisps

5. Quesadillas

6. Mini sandwiches on rolls

7. Sandwich kabobs

8. Baked Potatoes

9. Cookie Cutter Meat, Cheese and Crackers

10. Tomato Soup and Crackers

11. Grilled Cheese

12. BLT

13. Lettuce Wraps

14. Nachos

15. Tuna

16. Taquitos

17. Burritos

18. Chicken Nuggets

19. Pizza Rolls

20. Macaroni and Cheese

21 Bagel Sandwiches

22. Bean and Cheese Quesadilla

23 Pretzel and Cheese

24. Spaghettios

25. Pigs in a Blanket

26 Soup

27 Chicken Wraps

28. Meat Pies

29. Tomatoes and Cheese on French Bread

30. Left Overs

What are some of your favorite lunches?

Back To School - College Style

I know school has already started for most everyone, but EVERY blog out there has done a back to school post geared for moms with kids so I thought we should have a post for college students. And since you can't have a back to school post without a first day of school picture, here ya go...!

It's technically the 3rd day of school and the hubster didn't want to cooperate and take a picture with his backpack on so this is as good as it gets.

This semester I'm on campus 3 days a week, 4 hours a day so I have to bring along snacks. Otherwise my lucky classmates would get to hear my tummy rumble all through class! Plus I'm one of those lucky ones that needs something in my system every few hours in order to function.

I've made things a little easier on myself this semester. To help save on time and not find myself running late for school in the morning (since I have to leave at 7:30am, yuck!), I've prepared a few snacks ahead of time that I can just grab and go. As soon as I got home from the grocery store I washed and bagged all of the grapes and carrots that I bought by putting them into little snack bags. Now I just grab one of each as I'm heading out the door and I'm good to go.

Grapes, String Cheese, and Carrots

I also took the time to bag up some different crackers and other snacks, because let's face it, although carrots and grapes are delicious and good for you, they're not always filling or quite what you're looking for. It was super easy to bag up everything all at once and now I don't have to worry about it for a while. It was certainly hard to wake up for school these last 2 days and I know as the semester goes on it will only get harder (when I find myself wanting to go less and less), but since I had these snacks already prepared I made it to school in plenty of time and I didn't have to go without eating due to running out of time to grab a snack. The other nice thing is since there are healthy choices prepared it allows me to grab things that are good for me instead of less healthy options that are prepackaged like a candy bar. Win/win!

To my college friends past and present:
What are some things you do to help get out the door on time?
What snacks do you like to take with you?

Yogurt Popsicles

What you need:

 

·         3 different flavors of yogurt (any flavor)

paper cups

popsicle sticks

tin foil

spoons

Directions:

Use one flavor of yogurt and fill the bottom of the cup 1/3^rd full. Repeat this step with the second and third flavors of yogurt until the cup is full. Place aluminum foil over the top of the cup and cut a slit in the center. Slide a Popsicle stick through the slit and half way down the cup of yogurt. Place in the freezer for at least 4 hours (overnight is best). Peel away paper cup and enjoy.

Skin Care

I was reading a friends blog the other day, she posted about skin care and the 8 steps to healthy skin. Yes, you read that right, there are 8 steps to healthy skin. I currently mainly do # 6, 8 and occasionally 1. I'm sure there are many of you out there like me who just thought as long as I wash my face and moisturize I should be good to go... apparently not.
 Here are the steps

1. Cleanse – clean your face with a cleanser. Pretty simple, right?
2. Exfoliate – yes, every day. A very gentle exfoliation though. Avoid it if you have some major pimples so you don’t spread the bacteria everywhere.
3. Tone – apply toner to your face to even your skin’s ph level. 
4. Treat – You can just do this step at night, which would be applying some sort of anti-acne or preventative aging serum.
5. SPF – gotta protect that skin!
6. Moisturize
7. Primer – I honestly didn’t even know about this. If I understand it right, it helps your make-up last all day and prevents it from smudging or coming off.
8. Foundation – putting on whatever make-up you want

I didn't even know half of these existed! I feel like  have been introduced to a whole new world. Now granted I have two children under the age of 2, so the likely hood of me doing all these steps are slim. However, im definitely going to invest in a primer. I didn't even know that existed! I hate that a few hours after I put my make up on its already worn off.

So now im curious, how many of you knew there were so many steps to skin care greatness? Do you follow all these steps? And if so what products do you recommend for those of us that are clueless?

Gone Fishin'

Here's a fun snack for small kids!
*Kids under 2 should be supervised with pretzels due to choking hazard*

What you need:

Pretzel Sticks

Cream Cheese

Goldfish Crackers

Blue Food Coloring

Directions:

In a small dish, mix a few drops of food coloring into some cream cheese. Then take a stick pretzel and dip the end into the blue cream cheese. Now using the cream cheese dipped pretzel, go fishin' for some goldfish. Once a fish is caught eat it!!! And eat the cream cheese and pretzel too. No double dipping!!!

Healthier Alternatives For Kids

Here are some healthy snack options for our growing kids.

Fig Newtons instead of Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fruit Leather instead of Fruit Roll-ups

Cheese and Fruit

Smoothies

Raisins

Dried Fruit instead of Fruit Snacks

Dried Veggies instead of Chips

Frozen Yogurt instead of Popsicles

Nutritious Cereals instead of Sugary ones

Graham crackers dipped in applesauce

Mini Rice Cakes

Ants on a log

What healthy snacks do you give your kids?