What is that smell?

So as most of you know I am a teacher. Well the last couple days some of my kids have had some MAJOR flatulence issues, to the point of having to move some students away from the teacher's desk. If ya catch my drift (pun intended)

Anyhow, today I decided to pop into to one of the lunch periods and peruse the lunch scene.  We all know school lunches could be better. Just ask Jamie Oliver! But today I was mostly looking into the lunchboxes to see what parents were packing. Most lunch boxes were very similar: luchables, sandwiches (nothing wrong with healthy sandwiches) however most were processed meat or bologna (nitrates, yikes!), chips, and juice.

One lunch box, no joke, was a bologna sandwich, Doritos, a capri sun, and a ding dong! No wonder my room smells like a bathroom! This stuff is not real food! Their little bodies are trying to get it out, hence the smell in my room! Where are the fruits and veggies? How can kids even have a chance at getting their daily servings of REAL food if there isn't any present at a meal?

Now I am not saying I am perfect and I never  give any of this to my child because she does enjoy some chips and juice occasionally, but not on a daily basis in her lunch box. It just all makes me VERY sad because as a working parent who packs my child's lunch box daily, I do know how much convenience comes into play. Although in my experience fruit is very quick and convenient and most kids love it. I only saw 1 lunchbox with fruit in it today.

A lot of irresponsible companies are getting richer and richer at the expense of our kids' health. This makes me SO angry! This is why I wanna be a billionaire and start a company to educate parents/caregivers about how to feed our kids and reforming school lunch! Oh, the Places I Could Go! Right Dr. Seuss?

This whole topic just really gets me going!

Check out some great healthy lunch ideas @ easylunchboxes.com

Do you worry about what your child's school is serving? Do you pack them a lunch? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic!

Smell ya'll later!
~A

Nasty Hair

Last night I rushed through the grocery after a long day at work! Never fun! Here were two highlights from my trip. First food...

Amy's Cheese less pizza! To die for! Even my cheese loving husband loves it! (freezer section Meijer, Kroger, and Target)








Next, Green product...

This stuff smells AMAZING! I saw it featured in my Natural Health Magazine and thought I would give it a try.  My hair thanked me because yesterday morning I stepped into the shower and realized we were out of shampoo. I mean OUT! No hotel samples, nothing! So I did the only thing I could do. I washed my hair with soap! It was the nastiest hair day EVER! So glad to have shampoo back in the house! By the way, this brand is Organix, you can't really see that in the picture. Hope everyone is having a great week!

~A

Juicy Juice

Hello blog friends! Sorry for the delay in posts, the laptop is on the fritz so I am blogging on the little net book. Yesterday I met an amazing person who shares a lot of the same interests as I do. Her name is Brandy Mason and if you are here in Indy, you should go check her out. Her and I had a great conversation about cutting out animal products in your diet and also about the power of juicing. Brandy is a colon hydrotherapist and a living foods nutritional counselor and is very knowledgeable about the digestive system. She taught me a lot yesterday.

Brandy is about to embark on a pretty intense juice fast and asked me to join her. I am considering but feel a bit intimidated. She has done several before and is going to chronicle her fast on her website.

She gave me some books that I can't put down. I am soaking them up like the book nerd that I am. I am LOVING them both and trying to read the juice feast book quickly to decide if I am going to join her. The other book is by Norman Walker. I am eager to start reading his books. This man cured himself of cancer and lived well into his hundreds. Lots to learn from him!

I would love to hear your thoughts: Would you be interested in reading about my juice fast if I did it?

Make juice, not war!
~A

Lunch Box Madness

Hello blog buds! I am so excited to share with you today Sophia's new lunch box system! I have been looking for awhile for something new to pack more of a waste-free lunch (less trash) and was so excited to come across these! Easy Lunch Boxes .com

The way it works is first you purchase an actual lunch bag from them. We chose blue.

I was a little disappointed that they didn't have fun designed bags, but they do have a spot on the side to decorate your bag with fun key chains. We got this little picture frame key chain at the dollar store.
Next you buy a 4 pack of the Easy Lunch Box containers. We ordered 2 sets. They are BPA free!

What I really love about this lunchbox is that after you put the container inside the bag, you still have PLENTY of room to put a thermos or water bottle and an icepack on top! You can actually fit three of these containers inside the bag (family picnic)

So of course I had to try them out immediately! Today I packed all of Sophia's lunches for the week!

Lunch 1 is: a small whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and honey, goldfish crackers, strawberries, and vanilla yogurt with granola on top.

Lunch 2 is: 2 laughing cow cheese and crackers, animal crackers, and mandarin oranges

Lunch 3 is: a Trader Joe's veggie corn dog (it will fit in there once I cook it), an avocado (I will cut it the morning of so it doesn't brown), and grapes and strawberries.
Lunch 4 is: turkey bites & cheese on toothpicks, triscuts, cottage cheese, & mandarin oranges.

Lunch 5 is: a plum, cucumbers & hummus, a Dannon yogurt drink, and left over pasta from one of our dinners this week will go in the empty spot.

I really have to think for lunch ideas for Sophia because there are a lot of typical lunch things that she will not eat like pb&j and deli meat sandwiches. Really the only meat Sophia eats is turkey pepperoni and these little turkey sticks. I'm not complaining though. I like that she naturally just doesn't care for meat. I really try my best to pack her as healthy of a lunch as I can knowing what things she will and will not eat. I definitely make sure she a fruit everyday but we are still working on getting in her veggies. I know that will come with age. ( I hope)

So look how nicely these containers fit in the fridge!

I am So in love with this lunch box system! It is really important to me to make sure Sophia is eating healthy even when she is away from home and also to be buying things in bulk rather than individual packages to create a lunch that does not have many things that need to be thrown away. I teach my kids at school about this too. Here is a great website with more info on waste free lunches.

I was also so excited to find these at the grocery today!

I don't feed Sophia too many things from a can. Most cans contain BPA in their lining which leaches into the food. I am also not a fan of buying fruit that is drenched in heavy syrup or sugar free fruit that is sitting in Splenda (Splenda is NOT healthy) So I was so excited to find this product by Dole that is fruit in 100% fruit juice and is in a GLASS jar! It would be even more exiting if it were organic but you can't be perfect!

I hope this gives you some ideas for own kids' lunches or even for your own! Also, I would love to hear what things you pack for your kiddos to give me some more options too!

Peace, love, and lunch!

~A

3 is a magic number!

This morning I was thinking about how significant this digit is in my life as Sophia asked if she could get on the scale and said "Momma am I still three?" Yes Sophia the scale says you are still three and Momma has far exceed the life expectancy of humans according to the scale! ( I didn't actually say this out loud) I love the innocence of having a 3 year old. I hope I never forget how fun this stage is!

This week I finished my first full week of school where I teach third grade! Third graders are So fun! I am so blessed to have a job that I truly enjoy!

We are a little family of 3 and oh how we are enjoying our days as a threesome!(we need a new family picture, Sophia still has her baby look in this photo)

I have officially entered the BIG 3O (OK 31) and I feel like I am finally coming into myself and really figuring out who I am and what I am passionate about!

I am reading an amazing book Eat, Pray, Love.  3 things that are so important in my life. Anyone else reading this before you go see the movie? My mom actually got me this book 2 Christmases ago and I am just now getting around to reading it! I am actually the third person to read this book because both my mom and my husband read my gift before me! Thank you mom. This is the perfect time in my life to be reading this and I am loving it!

Speaking of 3...Here are 3 things I enjoyed for dinner the other night. A 3 egg omelet, a spinach salad, and a glass of Riesling!

Thank you 3, you are truly a magic number and I am so enjoying you in my life right now!
I will leave you with 3 words as always!

Peace, love, & 3!

~A

I've been looking everywhere for you!

Hello Blog friends! Yesterday after picking up Sophia from school we stopped at a sketchy little grocery that I don't love to frequent. She was starving though and I had no snacks in the car. To my surprise I found these little lovelies on the shelf!

These are 3 of the 4 new flavors by LaraBar! I LOVE the new polka dot packages! The only one missing is carrot cake! But I did find Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Chocolate Chip Brownie, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip. I have been looking everywhere for these bad boys so you can imagine my surprise that the sketchy little grocery had them!

So far I have only tasted the Cookie Dough and it was pretty good, although I must admit I am a big fan of the fruity flavors. I thought these chocolaty flavors would be good  for sticking in your purse when you go see a movie or for when you just need a chocolate fix!

For those of you who have never tried Lara Bars, what makes them different than most "bars" on the market is the very small ingredients list on the back. They only have a handful of ingredients and I promise you will be able to pronounce and recognize them all because they are 100% real food! They make a perfect on the go snack and taste delicious! (I sound like a commercial, I promise they are not paying me)

My favorite flavors are Apple Pie, Coconut, Key Lime Pie, and Lemon and I can't wait to get my hands on the new carrot cake! I usually buy my LaraBars at Meijer or Kroger. Also any health food store will sell them too!

Let me know if try any of these out, and let me know if you see the carrot cake flavor anywhere!

Peace, love, and polka dot packages!

~A

Clean House, Clean Food, Clean Week

Hello blog friends! This weekend has been exhausting, but I did get a lot done. Now it's back to work again! This working stuff is for the birds!  Today was spent prepping for the week. Cleaning the house, grocery shopping, and then prepping food for the week.

Last week was a bit chaotic, so the goal for this week is to stay on top of things and have everything organized including food.  I ordered Sophia the coolest new lunch box system so that we can pack a waste free lunch everyday. I will blog on it when it arrives.

So Saturday morning I had some cleansing to do because of the Taco Bell and drugs I ingested on Friday! So here is how I started my day...a Green Monster! This consisted of 2 cups spinach, handful ice, one cup almond milk, 1 tablespoon chocolate peanut butter, 1 scoop chia seeds,1 banana, 1 scoop Chocolate Amazing Grass! It was just what I needed! So delicious!

I spent most of the day at school getting things ready for this week since I left early Friday. For dinner I made nachos with Trader Joe's Blue Corn Chips, Eden Black Beans, Soy crumbles, avocado, onions, tomatoes, and Annie's Ranch Dressing. Here is the adult version.

And here is the Sophia version.

Here are my "bags of juice" Each bag is what will go into my morning juice. This way all of the produce is washed, cut, and ready, so that all I have to do in the morning is run it through the juicer. And clean the juicer! Blah! Each bag has 1 cucumber, 1 apple, 1 grapefruit, 3 kale leaves, and 3 celery stalks...aka "The Green Greyhound"

I also prepared all of Sophia's lunches, a few salads for me, and these sandwiches for Matt. They are cucumber, tomato, spinach, hummus, and Gouda cheese on rosemary and olive oil flat bread.

I also juiced and froze a bunch of "Green Lemonade" for a mid morning juice each day this week.

This juice is 1 lemon, 1 granny smith, 1 cucumber, 2 stalks of celery, and kale.

The whole middle row is juice! I buy ball jars and plastic lids to freeze my juice in.

I love having a clean house and clean food for the week. It makes me feel so prepared and ready to go!

Now I'm going to rest before that alarm goes off at 5:00 A.M.  YIKES!

~A