August 2, 2024 • 25 mins
August is here and summer is coming to a close. This week I'm cheering on Team USA and sharing my favorite gold medal worthy lunch ideas for your whole family.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to when you don't know what
to make for dinner. Today's episode ninety two Lunch cheat Sheet.
It has been a wild and wonderful summer that feels
like it's starting to wind down with back to school
just around the corner. It's been a summer of memory
(00:27):
making with kids at camp, family vacations, and more hours
at the beach and pool than I can count. I
certainly won't miss the daily loads of wet pool towels,
but it's been so great, and I genuinely feel energized
with school on the horizon and I'm ready to kind
of implement some new routines. In many ways, I feel
(00:49):
like August is almost a fresh start, and I'm ready
for a change of seasons. So I hope you're feeling
the same way. In Recipe Club this month, we added
an entire roundup of life lunch recipes that are really
made and designed to help you kind of get back
into the habit of that midday meal. Lunch has been
on my mind personally as I think about the daily
(01:11):
task of packing lunch for my kids every day and
that is overwhelming. I'm just going back to thinking about
how burned out I was unpacking lunches at the end
of the school year. So I'm doing my best to
like put a formula in place, think about some hardy
proteins I can put in those lunches to keep them full,
(01:31):
and you know, a nice well balanced lineup. So today
I want to go through that lunch cheat sheet that
I rely on, that formula I follow and have recently
reminded myself of when making lunch for my kids and myself.
But before we really get into that, let's do what
we always do on the podcast and start by giving
you three ideas of recipes that you could throw on
(01:53):
your meal plan for the upcoming week. I know that
many of us don't mind cooking, but deciding what to
make night after night is what feels so daunting, So
hopefully by sharing a few ideas with you every week,
it really eases that decision fatigue.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So here we go. Recipe one.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
We are making the most of summer and having kapray
sate grilled cheese sandwiches. So those summer tomatoes if you
are lucky enough to have a garden, Oh my gosh.
I don't grow tomatoes right now. I have in the past,
and nothing beats a delicious summer tomato in the month
of August, so grilled cheese. The way I like to
(02:34):
do this is I make almost like a smashed tomato sauce,
is what I call it. So I take grape tomatoes
because I find that if you're not having garden fresh tomatoes,
the grape tomatoes tend to be I think, the best.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Flavor at the grocery store.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
But I take those, I kind of put them in
a dry skillet and cook them down almost to make light.
It's like a tomato sauce, and I just add a
little bit of garlic. I hadd some salt and pepper,
some olive oil, and it becomes spreadable. So you cook them,
you burst them. It becomes this sauce and you spread
it on the bread and then on the other side
of the bread, I add pesto, so I get that
(03:09):
delicious basiley flavor, and then the fresh mozzarella. And if
you want to add a protein to this, we have
added prestudo or bacon in the past or This is
great to serve alongside grilled chicken or fish or kebabs
on the grill or something like that. But the grilled
cheese with the tomato, basil and mozzarella flavor profile is
(03:30):
pretty delicious. Next on the list is coconut lime chicken.
This has officially become my sister Kylie's favorite recipe clumb recipe.
It's a five and greeny recipe. It's so good and
it's so simple and it comes together in your skillet.
I was telling friends about it the other day. You
need a can of coconut milk, he need lime. Like
(03:51):
it's just very, very simple, but it's so flavorful.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
The sauce you.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Want to drink straight out of the skillet, and it's
just become kind.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I have a weeknight staple for us. We make it
all the time.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And then the last one I'm doing is I'm doing
a summer slow cooker, so I'm making these black bean
and chicken wraps. This is a recipe that came from
my husband's family and my sister in laws make it
all the time, and it's one. When I'm married into
the family, I learned about the black bean wraps and
it's like a bunch of pantry staples that go into
(04:24):
the slow cooker and you make delicious burritos and my
kids never complain about a Mexican weeknight meal, and so
that is going on. It. It's great because I can
kind of dump it all in in the morning. We
can be at the beach, the pool, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And it's dinner's waiting when we get home. There are your.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Recipes for the week. You can find and print them
all in Recipe Club individually or in our weekly meal them.
It's got an easy to follow shopping lists broken down
by recipe. You can also use our one click shopping
feature to add all of the ingredients directly into your
online shopping cart for any of these recipes. I am
still high after the launch of our new app and
(05:02):
refreshed Recipee Club site. It was a labor of love
and it's been so exciting to hear our members be
so excited about it and the new tools that we
have built in there. So to celebrate, we are going
to offer this is the first time we've done this.
We're offering free shipping on what we're calling our Back
to School Bundle, which is an annual membership to recipeae
(05:23):
Club paired with one of our premium recipe binders to
store all of your family's favorite recipes in. We continually
hear from people that they really like cooking from a
hard copy, and so we created a beautiful recipe binder
that's pretty enough. You can keep it on your countertop
and print the recipes that you make most often to
(05:44):
have really quick and easy access to them. When Recipe
Club and the binder are used together, that's where the
magic really happens, because it becomes a complete, simple dinner
system that you can rely on as you begin to
set up these new routines for the upcoming school year. Well, anyways,
free shipping, we'd love for you to take advantage of it.
Use the code back too, as in the number school
(06:06):
back to school to get that free shipping deal. Okay,
let's jump into the back half of the podcast and
chat about my lunch cheat sheet. One of the best
things about summer is getting a break from making lunches
for your kids. But school is back and it's time
to pull out the lunch boxes and get back into it.
(06:29):
We're also going to talk about feeding yourself lunch, but
first let's tackle the kids. Because I hear this pain
point from so many of you so before we even
get into sharing ideas of what you could pack, I
just want you to keep these three things in mind.
First of all, don't get hung up on variety. Many
kids like repetition. And if there's a set lunch your
(06:50):
kid likes to have every day, I give you permission
to just go with it. Bonus points if it's well
balanced and it includes something like a hearty protein a
vegging of fruit. It's okay if your kid wants to
eat the same thing in their lunch every day, especially
if it makes your life easier for me. I found
with one of my kids in particular, we kind of
(07:11):
fell into this pattern last year, and I would almost
feel stressed that I wasn't mixing it up for her.
But the honest truth is, if I want to make
sure I'm offering a variety of foods, dinner is a great.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Time to do that.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Make lunch simple, especially if you know that it's a nice,
balanced meal. Like I said, so, don't worry that it
has to be something different every day. Now, on the
flip side, if you do have a kid that tires
at the same options quickly, I created a lunch cheat
sheet to help out with that because of course, I
have a kid that's the complete opposite of my other
(07:44):
kid who likes the same thing every day, so I
have experienced both. Okay, number two, Before we get into
the lunch cheat sheet, check to see if your school
offers a free lunch program. I believe there are eleven
states that offer free.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Lunch for all.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Now, it doesn't have to be for you could absolutely,
you know, pay the couple bucks for a hot lunch.
But this worked really well for us last year. We
happened to live in a state where free lunch is offered,
and as a result, I encourage my kids to try
and have one hot lunch at school each week. It's
usually pizza day, which I'm totally fine with, but it
(08:23):
gives me a break and they actually kind of look
forward to it, and it just kind of mixes things up.
So think about that. That was like a It was honestly,
it saved me last year, and I think that in
some ways it's also good for your kids.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I felt like it helped my daughter Nora like this
whole idea of embracing hot lunch once a week. I
think it kind of opened her up to trying a
few new, different foods because she had lots of friends
that would have hot lunch, and so she sit down
and her friends are eating the lunch offering, she's more
likely to try something that she may not try at home.
(09:07):
So that's why I like just aiming for once a week.
And look, if you're kid lated it every day of
the week, great, that's fine. I think school lunch has
come a long way and offering a healthier balanced option.
But we aim for once a week, and I really
liked it. That's part of our routine. Okay, third, have
the lunch conversation before school starts and get your kids involved.
(09:30):
Here's what this looked like with my second grade daughter, Nora.
So I had to explain to her, Look, Nora, in
order for you to have energy at school, it's best
to have a lunch each day with a variety of foods.
And then I want to talk about the different categories
that we can fill her lunch box with to that
you know, she can be excited to eat but also
(09:50):
serve her body well to give it energy. So we
started by asking what she liked taking in her lunch
box at last year and if her friends ever brought
anything that she thought was great, and that was just
kind of the way we kicked off the conversation. And
then I pulled out the lunch cheat sheet. And this
(10:12):
is what that lunch cheat sheet looks like. It's broken
down into six examples of different lunch boxes. The lunchbox
is all the same, but what's in the lunch box
looks slightly different on each photo.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
And as I.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Explained to her, this is kind of the loose formula
that I like to follow when I'm helping her pack
her lunch. So some sort of protein, And I explained
to her that protein is important because it makes that
thing that makes us feel not hungry. If we don't
have any protein, lots of times we'll get hungry again
really quickly. Some sort of veggie, a fruit, something crunchy,
(10:48):
and something sweet. Because I'm not a monster, no, just
because I like having I like to wrap up a
mule something sweet too, So for the sake of giving
you some ideas, this is what I did with Nora.
And I just kind of want to walk through each
of these five categories and run through a list of protein, veggies, fruit,
(11:08):
crunchy sweet that fall within our cheat sheet that hopefully
can give you some ideas of what you can pack
in those lunch boxes. So first up, let's start with protein,
because I feel like protein is the hardest.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So a big hit for us.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Is like cured meats, so salami, pepperoni, something along those lines.
I happen to buy this one product at Trader Joe's.
They sell very similar products at other grocery stores. The
price is just really good at Trader Joe's, and my
kids like it. They call them pepperoni sticks. They're actually
salami sticks, but they are such a hit. They come
in a two pack, they're a little over a dollar,
(11:47):
and they have nine grams of protein in them, and
they are totally fine to not eat, super super cold,
which is great for packing a lunch. And those are
probably the biggest protein hit in our family. Usually pack
one of those in Nora's lunch every single day, so.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Keep that in mind.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It's and like sometimes I'll take this whole like charcuterie
approach to a lunch box where I'll do the cured meat.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I'll do some.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Baby deal pickles, I'll do some black olives. I'll do
some apples and grapes, some crackers and a little cubed
cheese and maybe like a chocolate covered pretzel and that
ends up being a nice, a nice lunch. Okay, let's
go through some more protein ideas, like mini tortilla roll ups,
so we're I'll take turkey and cheese and roll them up.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Those are a hit.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Occasionally my kids will they get tired of those. And
when they get tired of those, sometimes I'll go to
the ham and cheddar sandwich. So I'll take the little
Hawaiian rolls and I'll do ham cheddar and put them
on the roll and sometimes a little may or mustard,
depending on the kid in their preferences. But those are
also great. And what's really good about those is you
can make a bunch of those in advance. You can
(12:58):
actually freeze those and then you pull them out and
by the time they open them for lunch, they are
thought and ready to go.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Another one.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
If you've got a kid who doesn't like like any
sort of traditional meat protein is I will do. I
get the guacamole cups at Costco where they come in
like a pack of twenty, and then I will make
casadia and I'll cut up little triangles and so that
they can dip the casadia in the guacamole. If I can,
(13:29):
I will throw some beans in the casadia. Sometimes I
have to hide it just a little bit, but yeah,
bean and cheesecasadia with guacamole is a great protein option.
If we are doing no traditional protein, we will often
do a yogurt drink that like a Greek yogurt drink
that's got some protein.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And a protein granola bar.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
My kids really like the protein z bars and so
I will buy those often. And then another this was
we went a long time last year doing this. I
did the Just Bear chicken nuggets, the ones that taste
like the chick Fili chicken nuggets, and a little ranch
dipping sauce and so I can dip the chicken into
(14:12):
the ranch. So those are a couple of protein options. Veggies,
let's you know, they're simple. This is not anything you
haven't heard before, but just for the sake of ideas.
Pickles and olives, that's maybe something that you don't jump
to first. That huge hit with my kids, especially when
I'm doing like that, Like the salami sticks, those are great.
(14:33):
Sugar snat Peas and baby carrots. We live and die
buy baby carrots, grape tomatoes, I have one kid who
loves celery. Oh, here's a good one at a mommy
and a mommy's got a lot of protein. I think
there's nine grams of protein and edammmy for half a cup.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So sometimes I'll do.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Edammy with bell peppers. That's a really good one. The
baby cucumbers are big.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
For my kids.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Fruit once again, very obvious, grapes, apples, Sometimes, like at
the beginning of this month, I might do some watermelon.
Strawberries and blueberries are always great, mango and pineapple berries, raspberries, blackberries,
blueberries and cuties are also big, so the mandarin oranges.
I will do cuties a lot of the time. For
(15:21):
something crunchy, I will do any sort of cracker, so
whether that's a ritz cracker or a club cracker, it's
something that's more of like a multi grain cracker. Veggie
sticks super super big hit over here. The thin pretzels,
my kids really like those.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
The pretzel fins.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I will do either tortilla chips or yeah, and you
can get some really great like the siete ones are
so awesome where you can get more of that multi
grain in their granola and rice cakes. Rice cakes is
another one that's big on the crunchy front. And then
for sweet, I'll do yogurt covered pretzels, and you know,
(16:01):
I can get those in chocolate or the vanilla, or
even I get strawberry ones at Costco that are a
big hit. Sometimes I'll do like a mini cookie, or
I will do there's these mini letter cookies at Teeter
Joe's that are very cute, and my kids really like those.
They get excited about those. And yeah, sometimes, I mean,
(16:22):
what's great about the Planet Box lunch boxes, which is
our favorite, is right in the center. They've got this
teeny little square where I can put something sweet, So
whether it is I mean, you could do berries there
or something like that. But I try and give my
kids a little something, whether it's cookie or a little
chocolate candy or something like that. And that's almost always
(16:42):
gone when I open up the lunch boxes. Not everything's gone,
but usually the sweet is always god. So on the
cheat sheet you'll see a couple of different themed lunch
boxes where we've gone through all of these and they
make up. So I mentioned the Charcooterie lunch box where
you've got the meats, the geese, the crackers, the fruit,
the rap where I've got the turkey and cheddar rap
(17:05):
with the veggie sticks. I've got watermelons, some candies, some
veggies there to make the traditional sandwich on the Hawaiian
rolls is a big hit. I have to do pretzels
and berries with that. Mexican is our bean and cheese
quesadilla with the guacamole, the tortilla chips, some pineapple or mango,
a fruit and yogurt is where I'll have the granola
(17:27):
plus the protein bar, the yogurt drink and the berries
and then the chicken nuggets. I usually do rice cakes
with the chicken nuggets, and I do a cutie. And
it's just great that I have a visual reminder of
what I can do to pull these lunches together. Now,
before we move on, I want to talk about you.
I want to talk about what you're eating for lunch,
(17:47):
because it's hard enough to feed our kids, but we
have to eat lunch too, And so whether you work
from home, or you work elsewhere, or you're a state
at home mom, you still got to feed yourself. And
so the question I usually ask myself is I usually
pick something within four categories, and really I only rotate between.
(18:07):
I would say three lunches at a time, and then
when I get tired of something, I'll swap one out.
So I usually either make myself a salad, a wrap,
a sandwich or bowl, and the difference between a salad
bowl being that usually a bowl has some sort of
grain in it, a hardy grain bowl, and so similar
to my kids lunch box, I will do a sharcuteri
salad that has mixed greens, all of those you know,
(18:31):
some cured meats, some pickles, olives, a balsamic vinegarette. I'll
take crackers and crumble them over the top for some texture.
I have a ham and cheese wrap in recipe Club
that is my go to formula for making rap I
make a little pesto, aolei or mayo to go on that,
and it is so delicious and so yummy. A turkey
(18:51):
cheddar melt sandwich, so I like using the stonefire non bread.
It's a little thinner, but that paired with any sort
of deli meat and cheese, and then I'll add sliced
apples Dijon mustard. That is a real in fact, that
sounds delicious. Maybe I'll make that today for myself. I've
been known to make a breta bowl, some sort of rice,
(19:11):
whatever extra meat or protein I have from dinner that week, guac,
sour cream, bunch of veggies, some lime cilantro.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Delicious.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Sometimes, especially when it's still hot, I'll do a smoothie
bowl where I'll make a smoothie with some protein powder,
greek yogurt. I'll add a bunch of berries in top
with fruit, granola, maybe a little agave. And that is
a really filling lunch for me. And then I cannot
talk about lunch myself and not mention a chicken salad.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Listen, those just.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Bear chicken nuggets are so delicious that oftentimes I will
make those for myself and put them on a salad,
particularly a Dill salad kit. Something about the tailor firms
Dill salad kit, the breaded chicken nuggets on top, maybe
a few pickled onions if I've got them in the fridge.
(20:06):
That is delicious to me. I love it. So that's
definitely one of my go to lunch options. All Right,
you guys. Ultimately, I'm hoping that this lunch cheat sheet
will be helpful to you as you kind of establish
some of these new midday meal routines, whether you're packing
lunch for your kids in the morning, are making a
(20:27):
meal for yourself at noon. But let's finish with the
weekly gimme five. These are five things that made my
life easier or more enjoyable this week. So one thing
that made my life easier was a product called Folex.
I'm probably not the first person you've heard talk about this,
but after a summer of kids running in and out
of the house, most oftentimes in bare feet, I had
(20:47):
a few areas, a few rugs in particular, that needed
some serious stain treatment, and Follux to the rescue. It
is the best stain remover, especially for things like polstered items, rugs.
It's like magic. I will never forget. Years ago, way
back when I lived in New York City, a friend
of mine, Jenny Commanda. Some of you have probably followed
(21:10):
Jenny over the year. She's an amazing DIY original DIY
influencer and now owns a company, and she she's just amazing.
But Jenny Commanda is the first one that told me
about Folex, and it has never let me down. So
I cannot believe the stains I got out of my
rug yesterday using this product. I really wish I would
have taken it before and after. And when I bought
(21:32):
it was sixty percent off, so who knows it it
was like six dollars. So if you are looking for
a great stain remover, use Fulex. And my sister in law,
Betsy of Betsy's Best Bets, she uses it on clothes.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I might have to give it. I might have to
try that. I've never done that.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Before, but Betsy does, so okay. Next freezer bin organizers.
So I have a pull out freezer, and if you
have a pull out freezer, you know that it can
be a real pain to keep those organized. So I
got I actually had some of these in my last house.
They're almost I think they're called multipurpose bins at container Store,
but I found a really similar option on Amazon. I
(22:12):
had to get new ones because the dimensions of my
new freezer were slightly different from my last freezer. But
when you have certain categories or a segmented option for
those pull out freezers, it makes life so much easier.
So I definitely this is a time of year where
I stock up on some freezer options, especially those just
(22:32):
bear chicken nuggets. I do frozen rice occasionally because my
kids like rice a lot, and I just it's good
before we go back to school, to give my fridge,
freezer and pantrea a just a once over, just give
it a little bit of a refresh. And these freezer
bin organizers, I finally sat down, ordered the right size,
put them in my freezer, and I was like, ah,
(22:52):
did it? Why did I take a year.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
To do this? It makes your freezers feel so much better?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Okay, next, this is kind of fun, but I am
all in on the Olympics and I have found well.
First of all, let me make a case for this. Listen,
It's twenty twenty four. The next games Summer Games are
in LA and then the twenty thirty four games are
(23:18):
in Salt Lake City. So within the next decade we
have got two a winter and a summer Olympics coming
back to the US. So I think it's worthy to
maybe invest in some.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Olympic year I have.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I cannot believe how much I'm enjoying the games, like,
I am having such a good time. And Old Navy
actually has a pretty good Team USA collection, and it's
all on sale right now. And they still have a
fair amount of sizes available, Like we're talking thirteen to
fifteen dollars for a Team USA shirt. Snatch it now
and hang on to it. You're gonna be glad you
(23:52):
have it over the next decade. And you better believe
I'm hanging onto my Olympic year for the next ten
years because I love to say also very appropriate to
wear it around July fourth and whatnot. But Old Navy
in particular, really really affordable TMSA stuff Gap also has
a collection you may want to check out as well,
(24:13):
but I was very excited to get some Old Navy
fines this week, speaking of the Olympics. Number four on
my list is a flip phone stand. Now not an
actual flip phone, but it's a stand that kind of
flips out. And the reason I've liked this is I
have as I'm working from my desk, I kind of
have my phone there and I have my Peacock app open,
and I kind of have the Olympics going on in
(24:34):
the background just on my phone, and it's not as
distracting as having the TV on. But I just like
knowing what's going on. I like to know if there's
you know, a swimming relay er like a gymnastics event
that I want to catch, and so I've been using
that that phone stand more ever since the game started.
And then finally number five, we are making the most
(24:57):
of the final summer put licks. I have my favorite
potluck bowl that has the utensils right on top of
the bowl. I've shared it before, but I can't help
myself from sharing again because I use it so often
for watermelon, for my BLT pasta salad. It's just a
great bowl.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
To take places when you need to share.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
All right, that's it for today. Make sure you're subscribed
to the podcast so that you never miss an episode.
Podcast is always meant to be a quick twenty to
thirty minute listen while you map out your meals for
the week, and to support helping you set up a
simple dinner system. Thank you so much for listening today.
I'm genuinely so glad you're here, and until next time,
happy cooking. I'm Kelsey and look forward to chatting with
(25:39):
you next week. Thanks.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Thanks,
Hi everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to when you don't know what
to make for dinner. Today's episode ninety two Lunch cheat Sheet.
It has been a wild and wonderful summer that feels
like it's starting to wind down with back to school
just around the corner. It's been a summer of memory
(00:27):
making with kids at camp, family vacations, and more hours
at the beach and pool than I can count. I
certainly won't miss the daily loads of wet pool towels,
but it's been so great, and I genuinely feel energized
with school on the horizon and I'm ready to kind
of implement some new routines. In many ways, I feel
(00:49):
like August is almost a fresh start, and I'm ready
for a change of seasons. So I hope you're feeling
the same way. In Recipe Club this month, we added
an entire roundup of life lunch recipes that are really
made and designed to help you kind of get back
into the habit of that midday meal. Lunch has been
on my mind personally as I think about the daily
(01:11):
task of packing lunch for my kids every day and
that is overwhelming. I'm just going back to thinking about
how burned out I was unpacking lunches at the end
of the school year. So I'm doing my best to
like put a formula in place, think about some hardy
proteins I can put in those lunches to keep them full,
(01:31):
and you know, a nice well balanced lineup. So today
I want to go through that lunch cheat sheet that
I rely on, that formula I follow and have recently
reminded myself of when making lunch for my kids and myself.
But before we really get into that, let's do what
we always do on the podcast and start by giving
you three ideas of recipes that you could throw on
(01:53):
your meal plan for the upcoming week. I know that
many of us don't mind cooking, but deciding what to
make night after night is what feels so daunting, So
hopefully by sharing a few ideas with you every week,
it really eases that decision fatigue.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So here we go. Recipe one.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
We are making the most of summer and having kapray
sate grilled cheese sandwiches. So those summer tomatoes if you
are lucky enough to have a garden, Oh my gosh.
I don't grow tomatoes right now. I have in the past,
and nothing beats a delicious summer tomato in the month
of August, so grilled cheese. The way I like to
(02:34):
do this is I make almost like a smashed tomato sauce,
is what I call it. So I take grape tomatoes
because I find that if you're not having garden fresh tomatoes,
the grape tomatoes tend to be I think, the best.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Flavor at the grocery store.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
But I take those, I kind of put them in
a dry skillet and cook them down almost to make light.
It's like a tomato sauce, and I just add a
little bit of garlic. I hadd some salt and pepper,
some olive oil, and it becomes spreadable. So you cook them,
you burst them. It becomes this sauce and you spread
it on the bread and then on the other side
of the bread, I add pesto, so I get that
(03:09):
delicious basiley flavor, and then the fresh mozzarella. And if
you want to add a protein to this, we have
added prestudo or bacon in the past or This is
great to serve alongside grilled chicken or fish or kebabs
on the grill or something like that. But the grilled
cheese with the tomato, basil and mozzarella flavor profile is
(03:30):
pretty delicious. Next on the list is coconut lime chicken.
This has officially become my sister Kylie's favorite recipe clumb recipe.
It's a five and greeny recipe. It's so good and
it's so simple and it comes together in your skillet.
I was telling friends about it the other day. You
need a can of coconut milk, he need lime. Like
(03:51):
it's just very, very simple, but it's so flavorful.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
The sauce you.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Want to drink straight out of the skillet, and it's
just become kind.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I have a weeknight staple for us. We make it
all the time.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And then the last one I'm doing is I'm doing
a summer slow cooker, so I'm making these black bean
and chicken wraps. This is a recipe that came from
my husband's family and my sister in laws make it
all the time, and it's one. When I'm married into
the family, I learned about the black bean wraps and
it's like a bunch of pantry staples that go into
(04:24):
the slow cooker and you make delicious burritos and my
kids never complain about a Mexican weeknight meal, and so
that is going on. It. It's great because I can
kind of dump it all in in the morning. We
can be at the beach, the pool, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And it's dinner's waiting when we get home. There are your.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Recipes for the week. You can find and print them
all in Recipe Club individually or in our weekly meal them.
It's got an easy to follow shopping lists broken down
by recipe. You can also use our one click shopping
feature to add all of the ingredients directly into your
online shopping cart for any of these recipes. I am
still high after the launch of our new app and
(05:02):
refreshed Recipee Club site. It was a labor of love
and it's been so exciting to hear our members be
so excited about it and the new tools that we
have built in there. So to celebrate, we are going
to offer this is the first time we've done this.
We're offering free shipping on what we're calling our Back
to School Bundle, which is an annual membership to recipeae
(05:23):
Club paired with one of our premium recipe binders to
store all of your family's favorite recipes in. We continually
hear from people that they really like cooking from a
hard copy, and so we created a beautiful recipe binder
that's pretty enough. You can keep it on your countertop
and print the recipes that you make most often to
(05:44):
have really quick and easy access to them. When Recipe
Club and the binder are used together, that's where the
magic really happens, because it becomes a complete, simple dinner
system that you can rely on as you begin to
set up these new routines for the upcoming school year. Well, anyways,
free shipping, we'd love for you to take advantage of it.
Use the code back too, as in the number school
(06:06):
back to school to get that free shipping deal. Okay,
let's jump into the back half of the podcast and
chat about my lunch cheat sheet. One of the best
things about summer is getting a break from making lunches
for your kids. But school is back and it's time
to pull out the lunch boxes and get back into it.
(06:29):
We're also going to talk about feeding yourself lunch, but
first let's tackle the kids. Because I hear this pain
point from so many of you so before we even
get into sharing ideas of what you could pack, I
just want you to keep these three things in mind.
First of all, don't get hung up on variety. Many
kids like repetition. And if there's a set lunch your
(06:50):
kid likes to have every day, I give you permission
to just go with it. Bonus points if it's well
balanced and it includes something like a hearty protein a
vegging of fruit. It's okay if your kid wants to
eat the same thing in their lunch every day, especially
if it makes your life easier for me. I found
with one of my kids in particular, we kind of
(07:11):
fell into this pattern last year, and I would almost
feel stressed that I wasn't mixing it up for her.
But the honest truth is, if I want to make
sure I'm offering a variety of foods, dinner is a great.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Time to do that.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Make lunch simple, especially if you know that it's a nice,
balanced meal. Like I said, so, don't worry that it
has to be something different every day. Now, on the
flip side, if you do have a kid that tires
at the same options quickly, I created a lunch cheat
sheet to help out with that because of course, I
have a kid that's the complete opposite of my other
(07:44):
kid who likes the same thing every day, so I
have experienced both. Okay, number two, Before we get into
the lunch cheat sheet, check to see if your school
offers a free lunch program. I believe there are eleven
states that offer free.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Lunch for all.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Now, it doesn't have to be for you could absolutely,
you know, pay the couple bucks for a hot lunch.
But this worked really well for us last year. We
happened to live in a state where free lunch is offered,
and as a result, I encourage my kids to try
and have one hot lunch at school each week. It's
usually pizza day, which I'm totally fine with, but it
(08:23):
gives me a break and they actually kind of look
forward to it, and it just kind of mixes things up.
So think about that. That was like a It was honestly,
it saved me last year, and I think that in
some ways it's also good for your kids.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I felt like it helped my daughter Nora like this
whole idea of embracing hot lunch once a week. I
think it kind of opened her up to trying a
few new, different foods because she had lots of friends
that would have hot lunch, and so she sit down
and her friends are eating the lunch offering, she's more
likely to try something that she may not try at home.
(09:07):
So that's why I like just aiming for once a week.
And look, if you're kid lated it every day of
the week, great, that's fine. I think school lunch has
come a long way and offering a healthier balanced option.
But we aim for once a week, and I really
liked it. That's part of our routine. Okay, third, have
the lunch conversation before school starts and get your kids involved.
(09:30):
Here's what this looked like with my second grade daughter, Nora.
So I had to explain to her, Look, Nora, in
order for you to have energy at school, it's best
to have a lunch each day with a variety of foods.
And then I want to talk about the different categories
that we can fill her lunch box with to that
you know, she can be excited to eat but also
(09:50):
serve her body well to give it energy. So we
started by asking what she liked taking in her lunch
box at last year and if her friends ever brought
anything that she thought was great, and that was just
kind of the way we kicked off the conversation. And
then I pulled out the lunch cheat sheet. And this
(10:12):
is what that lunch cheat sheet looks like. It's broken
down into six examples of different lunch boxes. The lunchbox
is all the same, but what's in the lunch box
looks slightly different on each photo.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
And as I.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Explained to her, this is kind of the loose formula
that I like to follow when I'm helping her pack
her lunch. So some sort of protein, And I explained
to her that protein is important because it makes that
thing that makes us feel not hungry. If we don't
have any protein, lots of times we'll get hungry again
really quickly. Some sort of veggie, a fruit, something crunchy,
(10:48):
and something sweet. Because I'm not a monster, no, just
because I like having I like to wrap up a
mule something sweet too, So for the sake of giving
you some ideas, this is what I did with Nora.
And I just kind of want to walk through each
of these five categories and run through a list of protein, veggies, fruit,
(11:08):
crunchy sweet that fall within our cheat sheet that hopefully
can give you some ideas of what you can pack
in those lunch boxes. So first up, let's start with protein,
because I feel like protein is the hardest.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So a big hit for us.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Is like cured meats, so salami, pepperoni, something along those lines.
I happen to buy this one product at Trader Joe's.
They sell very similar products at other grocery stores. The
price is just really good at Trader Joe's, and my
kids like it. They call them pepperoni sticks. They're actually
salami sticks, but they are such a hit. They come
in a two pack, they're a little over a dollar,
(11:47):
and they have nine grams of protein in them, and
they are totally fine to not eat, super super cold,
which is great for packing a lunch. And those are
probably the biggest protein hit in our family. Usually pack
one of those in Nora's lunch every single day, so.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Keep that in mind.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It's and like sometimes I'll take this whole like charcuterie
approach to a lunch box where I'll do the cured meat.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I'll do some.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Baby deal pickles, I'll do some black olives. I'll do
some apples and grapes, some crackers and a little cubed
cheese and maybe like a chocolate covered pretzel and that
ends up being a nice, a nice lunch. Okay, let's
go through some more protein ideas, like mini tortilla roll ups,
so we're I'll take turkey and cheese and roll them up.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Those are a hit.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Occasionally my kids will they get tired of those. And
when they get tired of those, sometimes I'll go to
the ham and cheddar sandwich. So I'll take the little
Hawaiian rolls and I'll do ham cheddar and put them
on the roll and sometimes a little may or mustard,
depending on the kid in their preferences. But those are
also great. And what's really good about those is you
can make a bunch of those in advance. You can
(12:58):
actually freeze those and then you pull them out and
by the time they open them for lunch, they are
thought and ready to go.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Another one.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
If you've got a kid who doesn't like like any
sort of traditional meat protein is I will do. I
get the guacamole cups at Costco where they come in
like a pack of twenty, and then I will make
casadia and I'll cut up little triangles and so that
they can dip the casadia in the guacamole. If I can,
(13:29):
I will throw some beans in the casadia. Sometimes I
have to hide it just a little bit, but yeah,
bean and cheesecasadia with guacamole is a great protein option.
If we are doing no traditional protein, we will often
do a yogurt drink that like a Greek yogurt drink
that's got some protein.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And a protein granola bar.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
My kids really like the protein z bars and so
I will buy those often. And then another this was
we went a long time last year doing this. I
did the Just Bear chicken nuggets, the ones that taste
like the chick Fili chicken nuggets, and a little ranch
dipping sauce and so I can dip the chicken into
(14:12):
the ranch. So those are a couple of protein options. Veggies,
let's you know, they're simple. This is not anything you
haven't heard before, but just for the sake of ideas.
Pickles and olives, that's maybe something that you don't jump
to first. That huge hit with my kids, especially when
I'm doing like that, Like the salami sticks, those are great.
(14:33):
Sugar snat Peas and baby carrots. We live and die
buy baby carrots, grape tomatoes, I have one kid who
loves celery. Oh, here's a good one at a mommy
and a mommy's got a lot of protein. I think
there's nine grams of protein and edammmy for half a cup.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So sometimes I'll do.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Edammy with bell peppers. That's a really good one. The
baby cucumbers are big.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
For my kids.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Fruit once again, very obvious, grapes, apples, Sometimes, like at
the beginning of this month, I might do some watermelon.
Strawberries and blueberries are always great, mango and pineapple berries, raspberries, blackberries,
blueberries and cuties are also big, so the mandarin oranges.
I will do cuties a lot of the time. For
(15:21):
something crunchy, I will do any sort of cracker, so
whether that's a ritz cracker or a club cracker, it's
something that's more of like a multi grain cracker. Veggie
sticks super super big hit over here. The thin pretzels,
my kids really like those.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
The pretzel fins.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I will do either tortilla chips or yeah, and you
can get some really great like the siete ones are
so awesome where you can get more of that multi
grain in their granola and rice cakes. Rice cakes is
another one that's big on the crunchy front. And then
for sweet, I'll do yogurt covered pretzels, and you know,
(16:01):
I can get those in chocolate or the vanilla, or
even I get strawberry ones at Costco that are a
big hit. Sometimes I'll do like a mini cookie, or
I will do there's these mini letter cookies at Teeter
Joe's that are very cute, and my kids really like those.
They get excited about those. And yeah, sometimes, I mean,
(16:22):
what's great about the Planet Box lunch boxes, which is
our favorite, is right in the center. They've got this
teeny little square where I can put something sweet, So
whether it is I mean, you could do berries there
or something like that. But I try and give my
kids a little something, whether it's cookie or a little
chocolate candy or something like that. And that's almost always
(16:42):
gone when I open up the lunch boxes. Not everything's gone,
but usually the sweet is always god. So on the
cheat sheet you'll see a couple of different themed lunch
boxes where we've gone through all of these and they
make up. So I mentioned the Charcooterie lunch box where
you've got the meats, the geese, the crackers, the fruit,
the rap where I've got the turkey and cheddar rap
(17:05):
with the veggie sticks. I've got watermelons, some candies, some
veggies there to make the traditional sandwich on the Hawaiian
rolls is a big hit. I have to do pretzels
and berries with that. Mexican is our bean and cheese
quesadilla with the guacamole, the tortilla chips, some pineapple or mango,
a fruit and yogurt is where I'll have the granola
(17:27):
plus the protein bar, the yogurt drink and the berries
and then the chicken nuggets. I usually do rice cakes
with the chicken nuggets, and I do a cutie. And
it's just great that I have a visual reminder of
what I can do to pull these lunches together. Now,
before we move on, I want to talk about you.
I want to talk about what you're eating for lunch,
(17:47):
because it's hard enough to feed our kids, but we
have to eat lunch too, And so whether you work
from home, or you work elsewhere, or you're a state
at home mom, you still got to feed yourself. And
so the question I usually ask myself is I usually
pick something within four categories, and really I only rotate between.
(18:07):
I would say three lunches at a time, and then
when I get tired of something, I'll swap one out.
So I usually either make myself a salad, a wrap,
a sandwich or bowl, and the difference between a salad
bowl being that usually a bowl has some sort of
grain in it, a hardy grain bowl, and so similar
to my kids lunch box, I will do a sharcuteri
salad that has mixed greens, all of those you know,
(18:31):
some cured meats, some pickles, olives, a balsamic vinegarette. I'll
take crackers and crumble them over the top for some texture.
I have a ham and cheese wrap in recipe Club
that is my go to formula for making rap I
make a little pesto, aolei or mayo to go on that,
and it is so delicious and so yummy. A turkey
(18:51):
cheddar melt sandwich, so I like using the stonefire non bread.
It's a little thinner, but that paired with any sort
of deli meat and cheese, and then I'll add sliced
apples Dijon mustard. That is a real in fact, that
sounds delicious. Maybe I'll make that today for myself. I've
been known to make a breta bowl, some sort of rice,
(19:11):
whatever extra meat or protein I have from dinner that week, guac,
sour cream, bunch of veggies, some lime cilantro.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Delicious.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Sometimes, especially when it's still hot, I'll do a smoothie
bowl where I'll make a smoothie with some protein powder,
greek yogurt. I'll add a bunch of berries in top
with fruit, granola, maybe a little agave. And that is
a really filling lunch for me. And then I cannot
talk about lunch myself and not mention a chicken salad.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Listen, those just.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Bear chicken nuggets are so delicious that oftentimes I will
make those for myself and put them on a salad,
particularly a Dill salad kit. Something about the tailor firms
Dill salad kit, the breaded chicken nuggets on top, maybe
a few pickled onions if I've got them in the fridge.
(20:06):
That is delicious to me. I love it. So that's
definitely one of my go to lunch options. All Right,
you guys. Ultimately, I'm hoping that this lunch cheat sheet
will be helpful to you as you kind of establish
some of these new midday meal routines, whether you're packing
lunch for your kids in the morning, are making a
(20:27):
meal for yourself at noon. But let's finish with the
weekly gimme five. These are five things that made my
life easier or more enjoyable this week. So one thing
that made my life easier was a product called Folex.
I'm probably not the first person you've heard talk about this,
but after a summer of kids running in and out
of the house, most oftentimes in bare feet, I had
(20:47):
a few areas, a few rugs in particular, that needed
some serious stain treatment, and Follux to the rescue. It
is the best stain remover, especially for things like polstered items, rugs.
It's like magic. I will never forget. Years ago, way
back when I lived in New York City, a friend
of mine, Jenny Commanda. Some of you have probably followed
(21:10):
Jenny over the year. She's an amazing DIY original DIY
influencer and now owns a company, and she she's just amazing.
But Jenny Commanda is the first one that told me
about Folex, and it has never let me down. So
I cannot believe the stains I got out of my
rug yesterday using this product. I really wish I would
have taken it before and after. And when I bought
(21:32):
it was sixty percent off, so who knows it it
was like six dollars. So if you are looking for
a great stain remover, use Fulex. And my sister in law,
Betsy of Betsy's Best Bets, she uses it on clothes.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I might have to give it. I might have to
try that. I've never done that.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Before, but Betsy does, so okay. Next freezer bin organizers.
So I have a pull out freezer, and if you
have a pull out freezer, you know that it can
be a real pain to keep those organized. So I
got I actually had some of these in my last house.
They're almost I think they're called multipurpose bins at container Store,
but I found a really similar option on Amazon. I
(22:12):
had to get new ones because the dimensions of my
new freezer were slightly different from my last freezer. But
when you have certain categories or a segmented option for
those pull out freezers, it makes life so much easier.
So I definitely this is a time of year where
I stock up on some freezer options, especially those just
(22:32):
bear chicken nuggets. I do frozen rice occasionally because my
kids like rice a lot, and I just it's good
before we go back to school, to give my fridge,
freezer and pantrea a just a once over, just give
it a little bit of a refresh. And these freezer
bin organizers, I finally sat down, ordered the right size,
put them in my freezer, and I was like, ah,
(22:52):
did it? Why did I take a year.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
To do this? It makes your freezers feel so much better?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Okay, next, this is kind of fun, but I am
all in on the Olympics and I have found well.
First of all, let me make a case for this. Listen,
It's twenty twenty four. The next games Summer Games are
in LA and then the twenty thirty four games are
(23:18):
in Salt Lake City. So within the next decade we
have got two a winter and a summer Olympics coming
back to the US. So I think it's worthy to
maybe invest in some.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Olympic year I have.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I cannot believe how much I'm enjoying the games, like,
I am having such a good time. And Old Navy
actually has a pretty good Team USA collection, and it's
all on sale right now. And they still have a
fair amount of sizes available, Like we're talking thirteen to
fifteen dollars for a Team USA shirt. Snatch it now
and hang on to it. You're gonna be glad you
(23:52):
have it over the next decade. And you better believe
I'm hanging onto my Olympic year for the next ten
years because I love to say also very appropriate to
wear it around July fourth and whatnot. But Old Navy
in particular, really really affordable TMSA stuff Gap also has
a collection you may want to check out as well,
(24:13):
but I was very excited to get some Old Navy
fines this week, speaking of the Olympics. Number four on
my list is a flip phone stand. Now not an
actual flip phone, but it's a stand that kind of
flips out. And the reason I've liked this is I
have as I'm working from my desk, I kind of
have my phone there and I have my Peacock app open,
and I kind of have the Olympics going on in
(24:34):
the background just on my phone, and it's not as
distracting as having the TV on. But I just like
knowing what's going on. I like to know if there's
you know, a swimming relay er like a gymnastics event
that I want to catch, and so I've been using
that that phone stand more ever since the game started.
And then finally number five, we are making the most
(24:57):
of the final summer put licks. I have my favorite
potluck bowl that has the utensils right on top of
the bowl. I've shared it before, but I can't help
myself from sharing again because I use it so often
for watermelon, for my BLT pasta salad. It's just a
great bowl.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
To take places when you need to share.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
All right, that's it for today. Make sure you're subscribed
to the podcast so that you never miss an episode.
Podcast is always meant to be a quick twenty to
thirty minute listen while you map out your meals for
the week, and to support helping you set up a
simple dinner system. Thank you so much for listening today.
I'm genuinely so glad you're here, and until next time,
happy cooking. I'm Kelsey and look forward to chatting with
(25:39):
you next week. Thanks.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Thanks,
Host
Kelsey Nixon
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