EASY SCHOOL LUNCHES

WE WANT EASY, WE WANT QUICK, WE WANT HEALTHY

You can make quick, easy, healthy school lunches for your kids in no time flat!

Prep ahead of time. Here are some ideas we use:

1. Prebake muffins. Freeze them. Take one out per day and throw it in the lunch for snacktime.
2. Cut up a melon and store it in the fridge (a big watermelon can last all week!)
3. Dried fruit. It doesn't go bad, it's sweet like candy, it can fill any small spot in a lunch container.
4. Baby carrots. Kids love em, they do not need cutting, they may be the only vegetable some kids eat.
5. Grapes. No prep work. Even pulling them off the vine is optional.

A couple of videos showing these tips in action. We post school lunch videos all the time on our youtube channel - OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - keep updated by subscribing.

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NHL WORKSHEETS LEARN CANADIAN PROVINCES

Follow the Stanley Cup as it travels across Canada

Canada is a big country. It's hard for little minds to relate to the far away province of British Columbia when they live a thousand kilometres away (or more likely two thousand kilometres away). Let's put some context with the giant space, let's connect the provinces with something tangible (like the Stanley cup!)...okay maybe not literally tangible, but, something the mind of an eight year old boy can imagine holding up.

There is a tradition of NHL hockey players taking the Stanley Cup back to their hometown. Great, let's use that to our advantage and get our little students to match up the hometowns of their favourite hockey stars with the provinces on the map.

Luckily, Canada is full of great hockey stars, so I easily found a few who have won the Stanley Cup and taken it home. I just listed the player, their hometown, and asked the kids to colour in the province of their hometown in a certain colour.

KEEPING CONNECTED TO THE WORLD

INTERNATIONAL NEWS IS A PRIORITY

For the last six months I have slowly been isolating myself from the world, not in a bad mental health way, but, by not keeping up on what is happening around the globe. It happened gradually, a change in job and routine meant I stopped listening to podcasts. A faster commute to work meant I missed the World News on the radio. Summer - well, you are forced to disconnect with the rest of the world when you are off camping. 
I didn't think much about it, I mean listening to the news and keeping up with world events was kind of a hobby, a luxury...but, I'm too busy now and it doesn't fit into my life. 

So what?

Well, I realized the other day that I'm becoming ignorant. 

A few small things happened to make me realize that the path I'm leading is probably not that great. I just happen to be was watching (no judging please) the Duggers (that 25 kids and counting even more show) and one of the boys was on a honeymoon in Greece. The thing that struck : how obvious it was that they knew nothing about Greece, the people, the cities, the history, the politics, how hard the financial crisis of ten years ago hit them (and they are still paying for it), the immigration problems...nothing. They knew nothing! Which makes sense b/c their family completely isolates themselves from the world. Fine for them, but, I don't want to be like that. And, I certainly don't want my kids to start their life like that.

What American's think of Europe.

Then I managed to hear about the terrible bridge collapse in Italy, and someone questioned how that could happen. And, I actually had an opinion - from the years of listening to world news I've learned a few things about how Italy runs (and it doesn't seem to have the most efficient public service sector) and I recall hearing concerns over infrastructure in Italy years ago. It made sense to me. I felt informed. 

That made me realize how important taking some time to keep up on international news. It's one of those things where you take in tiny clips everyday and over the years you develop a wide knowledge base that you can call upon to make sense of the world. It kind of helps see through fake news...

Long term exposure to news lets you see the real picture

What I am doing to accomplish this you ask?

Making time to listen to my favourite (and most trusted) update - CBC World at Six. I listen to the podcast the next day b/c I'm usually busy at six taking the kids to sports, or making dinner, or just living life.

Getting out of North American, figuratively of course. It seems the North American news bubble is so focused on itself that it rarely notices there are places like Europe, Africa, Asia, where interesting things happen too.
Which is why I make the trip to BBC World Service - Making a point to visit this site where there are interesting shows and articles from the entire world. And, the 'news' is not the typical negative-fear inducing-headline worthy kind of news that we are used to. There are positive stories about small accomplishments that give you a real idea of how life works in different parts of the world.

I am going to make an effort to share tidbits of what is going on in the world with the kids. Have those mind blowing conversations around the dinner table where I explain the intricacies of how the European Union is dealing with immigration...or maybe keep the topic simple. 

FIRST DAY SCHOOL LUNCHES

LUNCHES ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

The first day back to school is always full of excitement. The night before we are getting lunches packed up - a little rusty from the long summer months of non-school, but, always eager to get back into the swing of it. This is the time I get all sentimental and look back at old videos...

I love looking back at what we did over the years. I fondly look back at the container systems,  snippets of the kids when they were little...I also love rediscovering meals, tips, snacks, that I've forgotten about.

First Day 2015 - We had BUILT lunchbags back then. The soft bag we could pile all of our containers into. Man, they worked great. I wonder where they are now? 

Items to note: 

• Homemade corndogs (in muffin shape). The kids loved those things. 
• Blueberry flax muffins. Healthy, delicious, and heavy (as in filling).
• Burrito cups. Like a taco cup but with refried beans instead of taco meat. 

First Day 2016 - I was very concerned about bread getting soggy. The kids kept asking for the same meals over and over...repeating chicken burgers, repeating pitas! 

Reminder to myself:

• Homemade frozen burritos. Cheap, easy, delicious, and can be made ahead of time and frozen.
• Make making lunches a festive event with music - www.radionomy.com/80sthrowbackparty

First Day 2017 - We had fancy new lunch boxes. Go Green Lunchboxes. This was also the first day of kindergarten for Oskie. I love that we went over what he should eat (not the cookies first!). 

Note to self: 

• Remember spoons. 
• Pumpkin muffins.

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MAKING A GREAT SCHOOL LUNCH - TACO CUPS

A KID FRIENDLY SCHOOL LUNCH - TACO CUPS

Do your kids like tacos? I'm willing to bet they do. It seems to me that 95% of kids LOVE tacos. So, let's send tacos in their lunch.

To make a tasty taco meal that travels in lunchboxes here is a recipe we call Taco Cups. It works best, and saves time, if you have tacos for dinner the night before.

1) Use those very small tortillas and press them into a muffin pan to form a cup shape.
If you only have big tortillas just cut out a circle - about the size of a mason jar lid - you can even use a mason jar lid. I have.

2) Throw the muffin pan in the oven at 350 for 10 mins.
The tortilla will crisp up and keep its cup shape. This is essential since it will hold in the yummy taco filling!

3) Fill the cup with leftover taco meat and add a sprinkle of cheese.

4) You can send a dollop of sour cream or some avocado in a small container on the side. 

Here are a couple of our school lunch video showing The Taco Cup:

The long "How-To" video:

A very quick tutorial (sans narrative) on how to make Taco Cups:

In this video I show how great it is to throw Taco Cups into the bento boxes / lunch boxes. 

Taco Cups is a favourite with my kids. They ask for it all the time. Every other parent I know that has tried the taco cups have all said the same thing, 'they love them'.

I hope this helps you pack up some great school lunches this year. It's a hard task doing it day in and day out, but, keep truckin'.

I find it very interesting to see what other parents pack in their children's lunch boxes. I've spent far too much time watching Youtube videos of other lunch packers putting everything from organic-vegan-wraps to extreme-processed-packaged filled lunches and still find myself interested in the next video. Here are a few in case you are interested...

Here is a cute healthy lunch featuring food with google eyes. I think the accessories you can add to food make lunches look so fun.

Don't be intimidated there are plenty of good solid lunches like this next one, showing simple foods, a packaged food or two, all in an inexpensive ziplock container system.

Then there is this parody I made - it is Tasty with a capital T ... and all the other lunch buzz words like Bento-Box, Organical, Protein Friendly, Glutton Free. I cut up a mango too!

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A PLAYLIST OF THE BEST YOUTUBERS WHO MAKE SCHOOL LUNCHES