Unjunk Your Kid's Lunch Box: FREE eBook!

Hey friends! It's almost halfway through October: does that scare anyone else? (Scare... Halloween... no pun intended.)

For the parents of school-aged kids out there you're probably already on the edge of lunch packing boredom/psychosis. My little ones are only 2 yrs old & 6 month in-utero, and I already feel the lunch packing blues just from myself and the occasional lending of help to my husband.

The fact is: healthy school lunches are really important. Just ask Jamie Oliver. No really: I don't even want to give you more information about his passion - you should look it up yourself. He's an inspiration.

If you have the time (and desire to save money) to pack your children's lunches instead of having them buy them - you rock! And their nutrition will be better for it! Packed lunches are a better choice... most of the time.

We all know if school lunches are filled with packaged foods, loaded with garbage chemicals, they aren't much healthier than meat-surprise and slop in a caf. So here's an amazing resource to make your lunch packing skills healthy & top notch.

The amazing people (Andrea Donsky and Lisa Tsakos) at Naturally Savvy who brought you Unjunk your Junk Food (read my review here) now have a FREE eBook all about packing healthy school lunches. It's called Label Lessons: How to Unjunk your Kid's Lunch Box. From what ingredients to avoid on labels to which bread you should buy for sandwiches - it has it all!

Best of all: everytime someone reads it, $1 will be donated to the Holistic Moms Network which generates awareness, education and support for holistic/green parenting! Sweet!

Not to mention the book is full of printable coupons for the very foods you're learning about in it. Love that - just need new ink in my printer.

I totally suggest going to this link today and reading the book/ getting the coupons/ supporting an amazing cause.

Healthy Eating on Vacation

Vacation is a good time to kick back and relax, but no one's going to have a good time if you're lethargic and bloated from making bad food choices. There are easy ways to eat well while on vacation, even if you're on a budget or dealing with limited options.

While in Los Angeles the past ten days I kept a record of some meals I ate. I hope they help!

Breakfasts

We had access to a loaded breakfast bar every morning at our hotel. I would go early with Oliver (6:30 or 7am) then back again with Calvin and his brother before it closed (9am). The key was creativity.

• Mexi breakfast sandwich - load salsa and scrambled eggs on a toasted whole wheat english muffin
• Spa water - let sliced oranges steep in cool water and enjoy
• Iced chai latte - brew chai tea double strength with a packet of honey, fill another mug with ice and pour the tea over, add milk or cream if desired
• Toasted cinnamon-raisin bagel with peanut butter and sliced banana
• Apple pie oatmeal - Add a packet of maple oatmeal, the recommended hot water and 1 sliced granny smith apple to a bowl. Top with cream or milk if desired. (Instant oatmeal trick: for less sugar, tap the package on the table, then use the length of your 1st and 2nd finger to "clip" the bottom centimetre from coming out when you pour it. This will get the oats out and keep the sugar in.)

Lunch

We purchased groceries for lunches and used the suite's kitchenette to make/pack food for the day's travels. We used a cooler bag for transporting it. 

• Chinese chicken salad with edamame, and shrimp sushi with wasabi (premade from the front cooler of the grocery store)
• Grande mint (no classic syrup) light-ice green tea lemonade (Starbucks)
• Sliced avocado sandwich
• California almond valley granola bar made with agave and pepitas
• TLT (turkey, lettuce, tomato) on wheat bread, or a turkey-granny smith apply sandwich
• Baby carrots, banana, sliced red pepper
• Date-cashew bar (Kitt's Organic)
• Spinach-artichoke hummus
• Mixed nuts
• Honey iced coffee - sweeten a 3/4 cup of dark coffee with a packet of honey from the jam/butter section of the breakfast bar, pour over ice and add milk or cream if desired

Dinner

We went out for dinner. Despite a laundry list of food preferences, aversions, allergies and restrictions we did find some cool places.

• Brie and wild mushroom pizza with truffle oil (thin crust) at Sammy's Italian Bistro (Okay, so it's not the healthiest choice but keep in mind I'm a self-proclaimed foodie so if something has truffle oil I've gotta try it!)
• Grilled sausage & pepper bowl with Olive Garden's classic garden salad and a white peach iced tea cooler
• Crab-cakes and smoked salmon chowder (A little naughty but this place, Tony's, was incredible - I sat 2 feet from the Pacific Ocean, about 10 minutes down a long pier. I had to sample their seafood classics.)
• Greek yogurt for dessert
• New guacamole-spinach vegetarian sub on 12-grain from Subway
• Craft beer and mixed alt-chips (instead of potatoes they were beets, daikon, taro, cassava, etc.) at the hotel for social night
• Fish tacos at Wahoo's - spicy white fish on a corn tortilla with cabbage and cilantro dressing, with a side of brown rice and black beans, and all-natural unsweetened mango iced tea
• Butternut squash soup and curried chicken salad with toasted pecans on micro greens with fresh nut-grain bread at Wolfgang Puck's

It wasn't hard to avoid the cheeseburgers, nachos and chocolate cake by exploring other options and keeping an open mind.

By the way, Southern California was a wonderful time and I can recommend some great places if you place to visit it in the future.