Quick N' Easy "HOT" Lunch Box Meal

Today was the second day of school for my kiddos and sent their favorite- Hamburger Rice Hot Dish.  It is very simple to make, freezes well, and is delicious!

Here is the recipe:
4 c. Brown Rice (cooked)
2 c.  GF Chicken Broth
1 T. Organic Corn Starch
2 lb.  Grass Fed Ground Beef
2 c. Diced Celery
6 T. GF Soy Sauce (I use Tamari)

Dice celery.  Cook rice.  Cook burger.  Warm chicken broth, mix 1 T. corn starch with about 1/4 c. water and pour into hot chicken broth- allow to thicken.  IN a roaster or a 9X13 glass pan:  dump in rice, burger, chicken broth, celery and soy suace.  Stir well and cook about 45 minute or so in a 350 degree oven until celery is tender!

*LUNCH BOX TIP:  Use a good thermos, fill it with boiling hot water for 10 minutes prior to filling it with your hot food.  This helps to keep the food hot longer!

The Schulte's Go To School

Well, school is right around the corner and the rush is on to get new clothes, school supplies, tennis shoes, and make it to open house on time!  For the past four years I have home schooled my children and this year we were lead to send them to a school about 20 minutes away from our home.  They are all so excited (except the girls are not so excited about the uniforms)!  So, we got our school supplies, our uniforms and we even did make it to open house on time last week, miraculous I know!  But, then I thought about LUNCH!  For the last four years they have had a wonderful lunch as they have been home, and lunch was easy.  Now I had to think about how in the world to make lunch portable with variety and nutrition!

I began by making an extensive menu!  I planned out breakfast, school snack, lunch, and after school snack.  Then I created a shopping list that has every ingredient I need to make every breakfast, snacks, and lunch on my menu.  I photo copied that list.  I then highlighted everything that I was out of and off to the store I went.  I purchased all I needed for breakfast, lunch, school snack and after school snack.  On Sunday I will be making the "snacks" I need for the week, as my kids begin school on Monday.  Today I am taking some time to get all my recipes printed off and put in a binder....I know that seems ancient in our times of technology but it is still easier for me to pull out my binder and flip to my recipe than to open up my computer and find all the documents.  So, I have a binder that have my menu, shopping list, and recipes in it.  It is on my counter ready for quick reference.  The menu, recipes, and shopping list are in plastic page protectors so if I accidently slop on them when baking/cooking they wipe clean!

Here is an example of one of the breakfasts on my menu.  (In each breakfast I try to pack it with good fat and protein to keep them filled up and prepared for their morning, it keeps them full and going strong until lunch!)

Egg McMuffin- Hold the McDonalds!
Ingredients:

Goat Cheese Slices (I used Trader Joes Goat Gouda)
Canadian Bacon or Sausage Patties (Make sure they come from a good quality meat source and are nitrate free)
Organic Eggs
1 Mason Jar Lid
Spray Cooking Oil (or oil sides with coconut oil)
GF Kinnickinick Bakery English Muffins (Cut in thirds, or they are too thick, and toasted)

I took a toasted Kinnickinic Bakery English Muffin

 for the top and bottom. I then greased a mason jar rim and put it on my frying pan, broke an organic egg into it and broke the yolk. Once the egg turned white I popped the rim off with a forkand it took form (egg mcmuffin form), I flipped it and heated up the canadian bacon (nitrate free). I then layered the english muffin (gf), egg, goat cheese, canadian bacon, and english muffin. Cut in half and served with fresh organic raspberries. Looking at the egg packed with protein and 1 slice of the goat gouda having 25% of daily calcium that is a pretty good start to the day!  I served it with a helping of fresh oraganic raspberries for an antioxidant punch!  This will keep them full and full of energy until lunch!  That is they way to start off a school day.  A great alternative to the sugary carbs of the typical American Breakfast, and very quick and easy to make.

Grow Your Own and Save!

A tip I love to share with people is grow your own.  Many people tell me how they live in urban areas or that they have small yards and have no room for a garden.  Well, I am living proof that small gardens can bear a great deal of fresh, organic, and cost effective veggies!  Above is our first harvest after the kale.  We have 1 yellow summer squash plant, 1 zuchinni plant, 3 pepper plants, and lots of tomato plants.  So, this is our first harvest of the season.  I planted late so we are just getting our produce.  We picked this all a few weeks ago, now the plants are really producing!

It is so cool how a pack of seed for $.99 or $1.99 give you many, many vegetables!  Sow 1 seed reap a multiplication of produce!  So, for my $1.99 pack of zuchinni seeds I have made a ton of "zuchinni" bread, muffins, roasted veggies, pizza boats, and pasta (to name a few)!

We took out the two flower gardens in our backyard and filled them with veggies!  I am shocked at how much produce these two little plots are producing!  We also stated a berry/fruit patch with blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and ruhbarb on the side of our house!  So, get creative.  When you are trapped inside this winter, get out some paper and start sketching out a garden plan.  Start small and you will be surpirsed how much produce you get.

Some other ideas to small area/urban solutions are:  container gardening or find a community garden and rent a plot for the summer.  A great place to get a lot in the Burnsville area is through Woodhill Urban Agriculture!  Check them out on facebook  www.facebook.com/WoodhillUrbanAg

We took these veggies and made a breakfast stir fry, it was so nummy with all the fresh veggies.  Below is a photo of the breakfast we had.  I must admit I did not make this creation, my hubby did it all on his own!  Way to go!

Corn on the cob, to eat or not to eat!

A sure sign of summer here in Minnesota is corn on the cob.  But there are a few things you should know before you run out and buy it at your local grocery store or farmers market and get your load of corn!

The first thing that you need to know is that corn is actually classified as a starch.  It does not have a great deal of nutritional value, so it should be viewed as a summer treat not a vegetable!  So, when I serve corn at our BBQ's it is in addition to a full meal of meat, potato, and a veggie or two.  There are 7 people in our family so I purchase 7 pieces of corn.  I then break each one in half, makes them think they are getting more than they actually are!  We then enjoy our summer sweet corn, as a treat with in our meal.  We do this a couple times through out the summer, it is not a regular at our table, but oh what a treat it is when is shows up!

The second thing you should know is that if corn is conventional (not organic) it is genetically modified.  Which means the actual corn plant contains harmful pesticides/hebicides.  An example of how this works is....if a bug comes up to a GMO corn plant and takes a nibble of the corn or plant it gets a jolt of pesticide from inside the plant and it "fries" the nervous system of the bug!  If we eat this kind of corn then we too ingest this same chemical, our bodies are much larger than a bugs, but as these GMOs are getting more and more popular, we are ingesting more and more of these chemicals, that does become an issue!  So, how do you avoid GMO corn, buy it organic!  It has been running about $.99 per ear at the co-op, not bad if you only eat it a few times through out the summer as a treat!

So, go ahead and enjoy that summer sweet corn.  But remember to buy it ORGANIC and use it as a treat because it doesn't contain much nutrient value.

Healthy Kids, Happy Moms Class!

Teaching today at 12:00-1:30, Heathy Kids, Happy Moms, at Mazopiya Natural Foods in Prior Lake, MN. Come and learn what to feed your children to keep them healthy, how natural health and supplements can help, along with quick and easy tips to make it all happen in your home! To register call 952-233-9140. (there are a few spots left, and the class is free) Hope to see you there!