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Real Solutions for Real Parents by Autumn Rose Reo

Back to School Breakfasts

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Take away the back to school blues with these easy breakfast recipes that are on the go and good for you!

School time makes my house absolute chaos. No matter how many processes and advance plans we put in place, the morning time looks a lot like marathon and no one is going to win. With all the craziness, I still want to try to get something down their throats and mine that’s healthy and tastes food. So here are a few best-sellers at our house that work for the whole family and with just a little time (very little), we can still manage to get to school with a few minutes to spare (well most the time!) 

Added Nutrition: Banana Bread made with yogurt or applesauce 

DairyMax Pumpkin Smoothie

Protein Packed Pumpkin Smoothie


Easy Eggs: Jimmy Dean Simple Scrambles

Peanut Butter Granola

As featured on Fox Good Day Dallas, August 19. 2017

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Cinnamon Peanut Butter Granola

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If you love peanuts you’ll love this easy recipe for breakfast granola made with peanut butter and roasted peanuts. Once you make this, you’ll never buy cereal ever again! 

Thank you to the Texas Peanut Producers Board for sharing that there’s a lot more to peanuts than peanuts and for this sponsored post. 

Peanut-Butter

Recently I took a trip to Lubbock, Texas to learn about peanuts. I wasn’t sure what all I was going to see, especially in West Texas, but with just 48 hours in Red Raiders country and I had a great time getting hands-on with farming, manufacturing, distributing and appreciating peanuts. I shared a lot of the highlights on the trip on social, but I can’t wait to share how much work goes into that jar of PB in your cabinet. 


It takes almost 850 peanuts to make an 18oz jar of peanut butter!

Of course when I returned home after my peanut paloooza, I was craving peanuts more than ever. And with several jars of peanut butter in hand a need to get more protein in my family’s body in the morning, this granola came to be. 

Peanut-Butter (13

With just seven ingredients, you probably have these items in your pantry so it’s super cost-effective! You can eat on it all week and for every meal (I love it with yogurt and berries and my husband eats it on top of his ice cream!) Another thing I love about this granola is that it’s full of healthy ingredients and still tastes so indulgent, especially when you top it with the roasted peanuts.

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Cinnamon Peanut Butter Granola

  • Author: Autumn Reo of mamachallenge.com
Print Recipe

Description

A peanut lover’s dream with peanut butter and roasted peanuts.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I love Homeplate Peanut Butter!)
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup roasted peanuts

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
  2. Combine everything together into a bowl.
  3. Spread mixture onto a baking dish with a rim.
  4. Bake, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, approximately 20-25 minutes.
  5. Allow to cool before serving with yogurt, milk or as a snack.

 

Going Old School: Best Ever Sloppy Joes

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Sloppy Joes have long been a staple of the school lunch line. Bring the recipe home with a special twist inspired by your kid’s lunchbox to make it the best-ever sloppy joes using no-added sugar apple juice.

Thanks to Juicy Juice for bringing this kids in the kitchen moment home to our house just in time for back to school with this collaboration. 

“Hey mom…what are sloppy joes?” 

Best-Ever-Sloppy-Joes


When I heard my son asked the other night, I immediately flashed back to grade school and rolling through the lunch line on Fridays to snag a sloppy joe. Good and messy, I never minded sloppy joe day. However as much as I enjoyed them, I’d never made them for my family. Actually, I was pretty sure it had been at least 10 years since I’d had one. 

So rather than to tell him what it was, we made ’em. It was going to be sloppy joe Wednesday at our house. 

Scrambling through the kitchen, I went looking for the few items needed to make sloppy joes and realized man, I have been missing out on making a meal that was so EASY to make! AND the kids could learn, too. 
Juicy-Juice-Back-To-School

Lucky for us, there were buns in the freezer, already cut up onions in the freezer, and a pound of lean meat too, so we were off to create dinner and have a teachable moment, too. 

Kids-in-the-Kitchen

To be honest, I had made sloppy joes from a can before, but never from scratch. So this learning lesson was going to be just as much for me as it was for him. 

Using a little ketchup, brown sugar and salt and pepper, I had almost everything I needed for the perfect sloppy joe…except that sweet flavor that makes a sloppy joe well, a sloppy joe. 

Best-Ever-Sloppy-Joe

Apple juice. 

That’s right, taking a little lunchbox inspiration: I borrowed a Juicy Juice 100% Fruit Juice from my kid’s juice inventory.  One box of apple proved to be the perfect amount of sweet, yet savory flavor that our sloppy joes needed.

 

Best-Ever-Sloppy-Joe-Back-to-School

Now my Juicy Juice had dual purpose – an easy kids lunch staple by day and an easy dinner helper by night! Don’t like sloppy joes? Then try one of the other kid-friendly recipes that you can make with Juicy Juice. 

Best-Sloppy-Joes

Basically with only six ingredients and 20 minutes, we had dinner on the table. And man, he ate it up! Gold star for me. 

Sloppy-Joe-Recipe

If you’re looking to twist up your normal apple juice routine, try one of the new four flavors of Juicy Juice Splashers with 50% less sugar than that of other leading juice brands, no artificial sweeteners or colors, no high fructose corn syrup! 

And just in time for school, Juicy Juice has teamed up with Macy’s for the Perfect Fit Sweepstakes. Submit a funny picture of your kids in clothes they’ve outgrown or describe a funny time they outgrew their clothes for the chance to win a shopping spree, gift cards, and of course, Juicy Juice!

Enter now for your chance to win!

What’s your favorite meal memory from grade school?

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Best-Ever Sloppy Joes

  • Author: Autumn Reo of mamachallenge.com
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x
Print Recipe

Description

An easy dinner that’s perfect for teaching kids cooking skills and using a little inspiration from their lunchbox!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 lb ground lean beef (you can use turkey, chicken, etc.)
  • 1/4 cup onions, chopped fine
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup dijon mustard
  • 1 box of Juicy Juice 100% apple juice (or 1 cup of apple juice)
  • salt and pepper
  • 4 buns (we use gluten free hamburger buns)

Instructions

  1. Brown ground meat in skillet with onions and salt and pepper.
  2. Stir in ketchup, sugar, mustard and any additional salt and pepper on medium heat for 10 minutes.
  3. Pour in apple juice and combine. Cook for another 10-15 minutes until juice has reduced by half. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.
  4. Serve by placing 1/4 cup meat mixture between a bun.
  5. Enjoy!

Notes

  • This is a perfect recipe for back to school!

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 4
  • Calories: 474
  • Sugar: 30
  • Sodium: 1178
  • Fat: 17
  • Saturated Fat: 6
  • Unsaturated Fat: 9
  • Trans Fat: 1
  • Carbohydrates: 53
  • Protein: 27
  • Cholesterol: 70

 

5 Real Tips for Back to School Bento Box Lunches

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Want to create yummy lunches that your kids will love? We have 5 real tips for making back-to-school Bento Box Lunches, inspired by this summer’s hottest movie, Finding Dory. Thanks to Tum-E Yummies for collaborating for this sponsored post just in time for back-to-school.

Back-to-school isn’t just for kids.

Sure, you can check out Pinterest for some ideas, but most of those lunches are quite complicated to make. These real tips for back to school Bento Box lunches feature food your kids will want to eat featuring one of our kids’ new favorite Finding Dory. However, you can use these ideas for any under the sea fan (like for The Little Mermaid or Finding Nemo.)

Tips for Back to School Bento Box Lunches13

Real Tips for Back to School Bento Box Lunches

1. Colorful and creative mixes are the name of the game.

2. Think outside the bread box

3. Cookie cutters make everything more fun.

4. Lunch will stick with them with shish kabobs

5. Multitask making lunch colorful and creative mixes are the name of the game.


Keep it simple! Kids don’t want complicated recipes and fancy presentations. They want food they can eat with their hands that tastes good. My kids love raw vegetables and hummus.

Try using the top of the bell pepper and lay it in a bed of hummus. We made “Hank,” the octopus from Finding Dory. Of course, the eyes make it more fun so I always have candy eyes around to add that special touch!

Another way to get creative is to mix it up!

To make this Bento the colors of Finding Dory, I used cantaloupe and blueberries for a unique fruit salad. There are lots of ways to make your lunches more exciting by getting creative with different items.

Tips for Back to School Bento Box Lunches4

5 Real Tips for Back to School Bento Box Lunches11

Think outside the bread box.

I started making these years ago for my kids and they LOVE them. I use a combination of meat, cheese, veggies, and soft white sandwich bread. The softer the bread the better since you’re actually flattening out the bread with a rolling pin, layering on your extras, and then rolling it up like sushi.

Back to School Bento Box Lunches8

The secret to making successful “sandwich sushi” is in the direction you roll it. If you roll it down top to bottom, the bread doesn’t stay together. But, If you roll the sandwich from left to right (vertically), the bread seems hold tighter like sushi. You can see what I mean from the photo below. The first one is done with top roll and the second one is the side to side roll.

Back to School Bento Box Lunches9

Tortillas, flatbreads, and crackers add a great twist to lunch meat, cheese and veggie combinations. Shop the deli section and try out something different from time to time to keep things fun.

Cookie cutters make everything cuter!

Variety is the spice of life but that doesn’t mean you have to constantly reinvent the wheel. Just using a cookie cutter on your sandwiches or fruit can change things up and make them a lot more interesting. Cookie cutters make everything look cuter and are and easy way to change up your daily lunches.

5 Real Tips for Back to School Bento Box Lunches13

As a rule of thumb, I purchase cookie cutters throughout the year, when we visit somewhere special, and right after the holidays when they go on sale. After my kids saw Finding Dory, I ordered all kinds of sea-like creatures for their back to school lunches.

My favorite cutters are the stars I have in several sizes. We use them for princesses, Star Wars, and for this Under the Sea themed Bento Box, we used them to make starfish sandwiches. Voila! 

Back to School Bento Box Lunches2

Back to School Bento Box Lunches7

Lunch will stick with them with shish kabobs

Presentation is everything. For instance, bits of meat, vegetables, and fruit are always more fun when it’s on a shish kabob. If you have younger kids and don’t want to have pointed ends, you can use a straw.

This Bento Box includes fruit shish kabobs, lunchmeat, tomato and cheese rounds; dried kale chips, and a special combo of white cheddar popped chips with fish-shaped cheddar crackers.

Multitask your lunches

To make sure they stay hydrated add a Tum-E Yummies to their lunchbox. Instead of buying a freezer pack, place your Tum-E Yummies in the freezer overnight and throw it in their lunchbox before they leave for school. The Tum-E Yummies thaws in the lunchbox, keeping everything cool, until it’s time to eat!

Back to School Bento Box Lunches5

Back to School Bento Box Lunches

Real Tips for Back to School Bento Box Lunches12

Tum-E Yummies is a fruit flavored water beverage for kids made in five flavors: Very Berry Blue, Greentastic Apple, Fruitabulous Punch, Orange-arific, and Sour-sational Raspberry. My kids also really love the limited time flavor, Berry-Licious Watermelon. All Tum-E Yummies flavors have 100% daily value vitamin C, B6, B12 and only 50 calories and 13g of sugar. They also have no sodium and a spill-proof sport cap.

However, the best tip for Back to School Bento Box Lunches is to have your kids help! Just putting together the box teaches them nutrition, invites them to be responsible for themselves, and it’s a fun way for you all to spend time together…and of course, helps you to get it done!

And best of all, it’s a great way for you and your kids to spend time together!

For more back-to-school tips, follow Tum-E Yummies on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

 

 

Healthy Protein-Packed After School Snacks

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SponsoredPostDisclaimer

Like clockwork, when my kids hit the door after school, you should take cover.

They take over the kitchen and begin raiding the cabinets, pantry and fridge like they’ve never eaten a day in their life. Working fast to find nourishment, they go in search of whatever they can find quickly…and unfortunately, it’s normally not good for them or a good way to lead up to dinner.


Shamrock-Applesandwiches

To prepare for the “hostile takeover,” I’m loading up on healthy after school snacks for quick ways to meet their immediate hunger needs and my want to fill them with vitamins, protein and the good stuff to make them stronger.

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Shamrock Farms aims to inspire busy moms and dads by creating Roxie’s Midday Menu with fun snack ideas that pair perfectly with Roxie’s Midday Menu like:

A great way to give them what they need in a way they will love it is with Shamrock Farms  protein-packed mmmmilks now available at select Walmarts in the dairy aisle nationwide for only $1. Shamrock Farms milks are pure, fresh and nutritious with no added hormones AND come in 12-oz 2% chocolate, chocolate milk, 2% strawberry, whole regular milk varieties.

What’s your favorite after school snack? 

 

Back to School with Not Your Mama’s Slow Cooker Recipes

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Dinner time blues? Get back to school with Not Your Mama’s Slow Cooker Recipes. 

Affiliate links may be included.

Sure, meal planning makes getting on the table much easier, but I admit, it’s difficult to schedule the opportunity to lay out what your family is going to eat when, go to the grocery store to get exactly what you need and then most of all, put it all together for that perfect dinner that everyone loves…

Slow-Cooker


Nobody got time for that…and face it, that’s not the times that most of us live in. So I’m sharing some of the best recipes to make your school nights easier – all made in the slow cooker! 

However, what we do have our a few minutes here and there to make our world rock a little better, especially during back to school time. So we’ve got a few tips for meal planning and recipes with the slow cooker that you may have never thought about. And takin’ a look at these slow cookers, it’s worth reconsidering if you think that these babies are only for roast and chili night.

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Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

  • Author: Autumn Reo, mamachallenge.com
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 240
  • Total Time: 255
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast halves (or chicken thighs, approximately 6-8)
  • 1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes with green chilies
  • 1 red, orange and green bell pepper, julienned
  • 1 large yellow onion, halved and sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 3/4 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3/4 tsp pepper

Instructions

  1. In a bowl whisk together chili powder, cumin, paprika, coriander, salt and pepper. Evenly sprinkle seasoning over both sides of the chicken breasts.
  2. Now pour the tomatoes into the bottom of a slow cooker and spread into an even layer. Top with peppers and onions. Then add garlic and lastly, the seasoned chicken.
  3. Cover and cook on HIGH heat 3 – 4 hours or low heat 6 – 8 hours, until chicken has cooked through and peppers are tender. (Depending on your slow cooker, you can do less heat for sliced fajitas or more for shredded.)
  4. Remove chicken and cut into strips or shred. Gently toss a little of the broth onto fajitas for more flavor. Now serve warm in warmed tortillas with sour cream, guacamole, cheese and salsa.

Notes

  • Back to school is easy with these standy that takes no time to prep or cook!

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 4
  • Calories: 425
  • Sugar: 3
  • Sodium: 879
  • Fat: 9
  • Saturated Fat: 2
  • Unsaturated Fat: 5
  • Trans Fat: 0
  • Carbohydrates: 11
  • Protein: 72
  • Cholesterol: 193
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Slow Cooker Lasagna

  • Author: Autumn Reo, mamachallenge.com
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 270
  • Total Time: 285
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 lb lean ground beef (or turkey or chicken)
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, smashed
  • 1 jar spaghetti sauce
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 6 ounces cottage cheese (or ricotta cheese)
  • 6–7 ounces Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 12 ounces lasagna noodles, uncooked
  • 16 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

  1. Brown ground beef, onion and garlic in pan.
  2. Add sauce, salt and oregano.
  3. Spoon a layer of meat sauce onto the bottom of the slow cooker.
  4. Add a double layer of uncooked lasagna noodles and top with cheeses. (You can break noodles to cover.)
  5. Repeat with sauce, noodles and cheeses until all are used up.
  6. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours.
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Slow Cooker Lemon Rosemary Chicken

  • Author: Autumn Reo, mamachallenge.com
  • Prep Time: 7
  • Cook Time: 240
  • Total Time: 247
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 whole chicken
  • 4 lemons
  • 2–3 heads garlic
  • Fresh rosemary and other favorite herbs
  • Poultry seasoning

Instructions

  1. Cut garlic and lemons in half. Save one half lemon, a few slices of lemon (cut wide) and garlic head and set aside.
  2. Lay in bottom of slow cooker so they lay flat.
  3. Clean chicken, rinse and pat dry.
  4. Season chicken with poultry mix, all over (both inside and out) as well as salt and pepper.
  5. Lay chicken onto garlic and lemon and stuff garlic into cavity of chicken.
  6. Cover chicken with lemon slices and rosemary.
  7. Cook chicken for around four hours on high (or until 165 degrees.)
  8. Turn off slow cooker, let chicken rest for 15 minutes and then remove from slow cooker to serve.
  9. Use reserve sauce to be served over chicken.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 4
  • Calories: 385
  • Sugar: 2
  • Sodium: 125
  • Fat: 21
  • Saturated Fat: 6
  • Unsaturated Fat: 13
  • Trans Fat: 0
  • Carbohydrates: 9
  • Protein: 42
  • Cholesterol: 132
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Slow Cooker Breakfast Egg Casserole

  • Author: Autumn Reo, mamachallenge.com
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 150
  • Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale
  • 20 ounces shredded hashbrowns (you can use frozen or fresh)
  • 4 ounces chopped ham, 8-10 slices of bacon, or 1/2 roll of crumbled sausage
  • 8 ounces shredded cheese
  • 12 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 onion, chopped finely
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • Cooking oil or cooking spray to coat pan

Instructions

  1. Whisk eggs, milk, and seasonings in a bowl. Set aside.
  2. Grease slow cooker with cooking spray.
  3. Layer half of hashbrowns with half cheese, half meat and 1/4 onions.
  4. Then repeat hashbrowns, meat, cheese and onion.
  5. Pour eggs over the top of the layers.
  6. Cook for 2-3 hours on high or 4-5 hours on low.
  7. Sprinkle more cheese, meat and onions for garnish and serve.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 6
  • Calories: 356
  • Sugar: 2
  • Sodium: 940
  • Fat: 25
  • Saturated Fat: 12
  • Unsaturated Fat: 12
  • Trans Fat: 0
  • Carbohydrates: 3
  • Protein: 28
  • Cholesterol: 427

Yes, these slow cookers are THAT cool.

Crock Pot Smart WiFi WeMo 6-Quart Slow Cooker 

Crockpot-I-stir

Crock Pot iStir Automatic Stirring Slow Cooker

Ziploc-Meal-Planning

Spring Slow Cooker

Follow Autumn {mamachallenge.com}’s board FOOD: Crock Pot on Pinterest.

No-Planning Meal Planning

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ZiplockBacktoSchool #CollectiveBias

I strive to be organized and well prepared, but it doesn’t always happen.

I have good intentions, especially at the beginning of the school year, to not just get my kids into a routine, but to create efficient and EASY systems that work for my family. I’d love to have meals planned for an entire month, with all my grocery shopping complete, but I just don’t have the time to do it. However, with the new Ziploc® brand Storage bags with Easy Open Tabs, I have a can’t-be-beat meal planning process that takes little work and even gets the whole family involved with what might be the most dreaded question in our household: “What’s for dinner, mom?”


Ziploc-Meal-Planning

I’m happy when I get to the grocery store, and I’m prepared enough to get all the ingredients for a specific meal. I typically have one hour to go to Kroger, figure out the items my family enjoys and then go home to prepare a meal using the things I bought. However, on some days, I don’t have enough creative space left in my brain to prepare a meal in time for everyone to enjoy it before going to bed. I had to come up with a way to meal plan that didn’t require much thinking so I wasn’t running through the drive-thru every night of the week.

Ziploc-Brand-Bags

Ziploc® brand has always been a staple in our home for everything from packing for a flight, organizing the kids’ crayons and markers, and of course, storing food. However, their new Ziploc® brand bags with Easy Open Tabs have taken it to a whole new level for me. Not just because they’re easy to grip and easy to open for small or big hands, but I’ve learned to use the colored-tabs to help me meal plan – and here’s how.

Ziploc-Kroger

Still using my system of running to the store to take advantage of the sales, I purchase proteins (chicken, shrimp, etc.), produce and starches like rice and gluten-free pasta. Then, when I get home, I just need around 20 minutes to cut up my meat and produce. Many other meal planning techniques require you to pick what you are going to cook when, but I don’t always know exactly what we are going to eat and most of all, want, all week.

Veggies

We need flexibility for whatever might happen on a given day AND what we might want to eat (since sometimes you aren’t feeling Monday’s menu either.) While even at this point I may not know what we’re going to eat, I’ve learned meals like stir fry make it easy to create healthy meals by just having a few basic sauces ready to go.

I take my cut-up proteins into bite-sized pieces/strips and place them in Ziploc® brand bags with Easy Open Tabs. While the meat doesn’t take up the whole bag, you use the Ziploc® brand bags with Easy Open Tabs for a couple of things:

  • Add a marinade to a Ziploc® brand Storage bag with Easy Open Tabs so you have room to mix the ingredients
  • Pound your protein into thinner, more tender pieces
  • Place any leftovers in the freezer inside a Ziploc® brand Freezer bag with Easy Open Tabs (blue tab), so you’re always ready to go

1.  Place a “1” on these bags with a marker.

Ziploc-Colors

2. Next using both the quart size Ziploc® brand Storage bags with Easy Open Tabs (pink) and a few of the Ziploc® brand containers with One Press Seal, cut up the produce like onions, mushrooms and broccoli into smaller pieces. Additionally, I put healthy and easy nibbles like baby carrots, chopped peppers, etc. in the Ziploc® brand Snack bags with Easy Open Tabs for snacking. This way I have a few already prepared items for me to snack on while I’m cooking dinner or for the kids when they get home from school. On these bags, I place “2.”

Chopped-Vegetables

3. Then comes time for the fun stuff. For meals like stir fry, the sauce is everything. The sauces are super easy to make and only get better with time if you prepare them in advance. I have a few standard recipes for chicken and beef I always use, and if you’re feeling creative, you can add a little something else. Again stir fry meals give you that flexibility to make it what you want. Sometimes I mix these up in advance and sometimes I make them on the fly, but if you have time, put them in a Ziploc® brand Sandwich bag with Easy Open Tabs (green) and place them in the fridge with a “3.”

Ziploc-containers-collage

4. Now here’s the magic. You’re set. On Monday or Tuesday when the dinner conversation begins, have the kids pull out one of the “1” bags, one, two or three of the “2” bags/containers, and one of the “3” bags. I normally then add a rice or pasta, which can boil while you fry up the ingredients from your bags, and then dinner is done!

Fridge-Ziploc

Make sure you stock up on the value pack of Ziploc® brand Sandwich and Snack bags with Easy Open Tabs right now because they have all kinds of uses, and you can’t beat two sizes in one package – especially during back-to-school. School supplies, snacks, lunches and even those special “Show and Tell” days, all are easier with Ziploc® brand.

8/9 to 8/30: Save $.50 off regular price on: Ziploc® brand Sandwich bags with Easy Open Tabs 40ct, Ziploc® brand Sandwich bags with Easy Open Tabs 90ct, Ziploc® brand Snack bags with Easy Open Tabs 90ct.

Thai-Chicken-Mushroom

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Thai Basil Chicken and Mushroom

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Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 lb. boneless chicken breast
  • 1/2 cup of mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1/4 cup green onions, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons red chiles
  • 1 cup fresh basil
  • 2 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1/8 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1/2 can coconut milk (I use lowfat)

Instructions

  1. Heat oil in pan to high.
  2. In a Ziploc Sandwich bag, blend fish sauce, honey, cilantro, and basil together.
  3. Cook green onions, mushrooms, and chiles.
  4. Add chicken and stir fry until tender.
  5. Add coconut milk and heat until warm.
  6. Serve with rice.

What’s your favorite way to use Ziploc® brand bags with Easy Open Tabs?

 

Quick and Easy Meals for Back to School

By 20 Comments

Awwww… Back to School.

The time in which the mad hustle to get meals for your children along with the 101 other things that have to happen that day. AND in a perfect world that have some source of nutrition and don’t take three hours to make.


So we’ve put together a few ideas that not only will make your life easier, but also will get your kids healthy grub in their tummies and maybe a few extra minutes of your day back. (And don’t we all want that!)

3 Quick Tips to Remember

  1. Meals don’t have to be hard. Just because you saw it on Pinterest doesn’t mean it’s your personal responsibility to do it, too. However, there’s nothing a matter with experimenting.
  2. Make your kids help you. It will do wonders for you and also teach them how to be healthier eaters and more independent.
  3. The name of the game is time. Spend 20-30 minutes on Sunday prepping or 10 minutes the night before and you’ll be rockin’ and rollin’ all week long.

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School Breakfast Ideas

Breakfast Cereal Bars // recipe
And you don’t even have to cook them!

Energy Balls // recipe
A super treat that’s no cook and no fuss for any meal of the day (I love these)

Breakfast Cookies // recipe
One of my favorite recipe I found from Gold Medal flour, clean out your pantry with these no-cook bars

Applesauce Muffins // recipe
Just use a package of Gogo squeeZ in your muffin mix and you just added a 2/3 cup of natural apples with vitamins and minerals (and you don’t always have to tell them you did that either!)

Breakfast “Lunchables”
Are mornings your hardest trying to get everyone dressed, fed and out the door? Make breakfast the night before for easy prep and even eating on the way to school!

Back to school lunch

Gotta love the cute firetruck lunchbox from Thermos! And you can’t really go wrong with Jack Links jerky for snacking all day long! However, I suggest you throw in a Bath and Body Works travel size antibacterial cleaner in fun colors to get your kids to wash their hands before and after they eat to stop the spread of germs!

School Lunch Ideas

Lunchbox Sushi // recipe
It’s fun to eat sandwiches again (and throw in some more veggies, too.)

Macaroni and Cheese
Add 1/2 cup of steam and smashed cauliflower or winter squash to their favorite mac n cheese recipe for added nutrition.

Most of all, Make it Fun // video // video
Cookie cutters, fun muffin tins, toothpicks, their favorite characters…add a little bit of fun that can brighten up both your days (and we’re talking just seconds here!)

back-to-school

Also make sure to check out my other back to school ideas solutions (and giveaways) for your mamachallenges right now!

 

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