|
||
 |
 |
School Lunches the Frugal Way!
It seems that school starts earlier every year. So it's time to start thinking about what to put in those school lunches every morning. My children always wanted to bring their own lunches because they didn't really like what was offered in the school lunchroom. But it was sometimes a little difficult to make their lunches nutritious and tasty and also to put a little variety in their lunchboxes without spending a small fortune. If we let ourselves, we can spend a "lot" on individual servings, lunchables, and treats for lunches. Here are a few ideas to help you meet the "Frugal Lunchbox Challenge". Go to the Dollar Store and buy a few of those individual serving-size storage containers. These are very inexpensive and they are worth every penny. You can use them for any number of things--like making your own fruit cups and pudding cups. And they can also be used to hold dip for carrot or celery sticks or fill with peanut butter and pack a zipper bag of pretzels for dipping. Also at the Dollar Store or discount store, you can pick up one or two of the small "blue ice" cold packs. They will help keep lunchbox items cold and safe. Sandwiches such as egg salad or tuna salad need to have a cold pack. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, on the other hand, can be packed without one. Those zipper bags we all love come into their own when packing lunches! They can hold vegetable sticks, popcorn, crackers, homemade cookies, etc. Muffins hold up well in a zipper-top bag, as do slices of banana nut bread, or most any other quick bread. When the weather turns cool, a small thermos will come in handy for homemade soup or chili. I see lots of these for sale at garage and yard sales, sometimes for as little as 25 cents. A thermos is also handy to hold whatever drink your child likes to take. Try to put some fun in the lunchbox: keep a stash of small, inexpensive toys, cut sandwich bread into cool shapes with cookie cutters, write little notes to your child, cut out funny cartoons. Children love surprises. A good routine to get into is while you are cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, put leftovers in the storage containers, or make sandwiches and place in the fridge in a designated area for lunch items. Get your kids to help--the more they are involved, the better! Put napkins, etc. in lunch boxes or bags and place them where all anyone has to do in the morning is fill with the prepared items. Now you can all be out the door in minutes! Here are a few recipes that will help get you started this school year: Apple Surprise
Cut apple in half. Carefully, cut out the core of the apple. Spread peanut butter where the core used to be and over surface of apple. Sprinkle raisins over the peanut butter. Trail Mix
Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container. A small serving of this goes a long way! Peanut Butter Balls
Mix all ingredients and form into balls. Roll in sesame seeds. This is a good recipe for the kids to help with-- they love to roll the dough into balls. NOTE: sesame seeds are cheaper in bulk at a health food store. You can get unsweetened coconut there, also. About The Author Cyndi Roberts is the editor of the "1 Frugal Friend 2 Another" bi-weekly newsletter and founder of the website of the same name. Visit http://www.cynroberts.com to find creative tips, articles, and a free e-cooking book. Subscribe to the newsletter and receive the free e-course "Taming the Monster Grocery Bill"; editor@cynroberts.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Recipes - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Cookware: What You Need And What You Don't Cookware is always a rather contentious subject. I have seen chefs turn up to even the simplest of cooking jobs carrying more than it would take to maintain your average oil tanker (though maybe this is not the best use for your cookware), when all that was really needed was a knife and something to sharpen it with. Straight Talk from a Comfort Foodie - Fast Food My parents lived for convenience when it came to feeding their children. I was a Beech-Nut kid, and breast-feeding wasn't my mother's idea of liberation. A Scone Recipe for Dinner or Lunch There are two ways to pronounce scone. "Skon" in England and "Skoan" in the United States, but both in Canada, anyway, here is how to make them:Ingredients:8oz self-rasing flour;2oz margarine;1/4 pint of milk2oz dried mixed fruit;1oz sugar;A pinch of salt;Optional additions:Add to dry mixture after step 2 (cutting in the margarine); 2Oz raisins, currants, etc; 1/2 tsp orange or lemon zest;1/2 tsp cinnamon;1 tsp baking powder;Preparation:Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar (or replacement). Weight Loss Recipe: Veal Mango Just because you are watching your weight does not mean you can't prepare fantastic meals for company. "Veal Mango" is one of range of hunger fighting, low fat recipes that will assist you manage your weight. Vegetarian Gourmet----Meatless Makeovers Three years ago I decided to go "meatless." It wasn't a difficult decision as I wasn't a voracious carnivore to begin with, however there were a few dishes that I missed that contained meat and wondered how I was going to live without these favorites. Chicken Recipes That Everyone Enjoys! Chicken recipes are a stable in many people's diets. Many of them are recipes we have made time and time again and others, are special recipes, maybe a favorite Christmas recipe or even a special fondue recipe using chicken. Steaks Eating steak has always been a symbol of prosperity. During theturn of the century, steak houses were patronized by the elite. Crockpot Cooking - Advantages and Disadvantages In my 'un-biased' opinion, the crockpot / slow cookeris one of the most convenient and easy to use appliancesin my kitchen. The time savings features of theslow cooker and the delicious dinners that haveresulted more than offset any minor drawbacks. How to Easily Make Sourdough French Toast Like Cracker Barrel I got an idea one day when I was in a Cracker Barrel restaurant eating breakfast. They had sourdough French toast and it was the best French toast I'd had, so I wanted to re-create the recipe at home. Sicilys Great Eggplant - Tomato Stew I ran into a friend yesterday, who tells me that he should be harvesting eggplants from his garden any day now. Of course, this got me thinking about Caponata, the famous Sicilian eggplant and tomato stew. Low-Carb Pastry Pizzazz This delicious treat adds only 1.9 grams of carb for a Superb Roll of any size. Converting Recipes for Your Crockpot Crockpots vary but the low setting is typically around 100degrees and its high setting is around 300 degrees.Knowing this, it is fairly easy to convert most recipes foruse in your slow cooker. Homemade Cinnamon Rolls from Scratch (in 2 hours or less!) If I've heard it once, I've heard it a dozen times: "Make homemade cinnamon rolls? From scratch? Are you crazy? That takes all day!"Actually, it depends upon the recipe.I have several recipes for homemade cinnamon rolls that do, indeed, take at least all afternoon, if not all day -- scald the milk and let it cool to room temperature (30 minutes); mix the dough and let it raise for an hour (1. Frugal Microwave Cooking Microwave cooking can save you time and energyall year long. But it is especially nice insummer because it enables you to cook hot mealswithout heating up your home. Swiss Cheese Fondue Ingredients600g white bread (I recommend baguette or any other kind of white bread with a lot of rind)600g Swiss cheese (e.g. Fresh Fruit: The Sweet, Healthy Dessert Americans love dessert so much that some of us eat it before the meal instead of after. Fudgy brownies, gooey layer cake, cookies the size of saucers - we savor them all. Whats So Great About Slow Cooking Anyway? As I walked through the grocery store aisles a few weeks ago, I noticed the increase in prepackaged slow cooker meals. I've been using my slow cooker and reaping the rewards for years, so it was no real surprise to me when others started proclaiming the benefits of cooking with a crock pot. Save Time with No-Bake Cookies Whether you don't want to heat up the kitchen or the demands of getting the kids out the door are upon you, it's nice to have a few no-bake cookie recipes on hand. We thought we would share some of our favorites with you. Noodles Different cultures have their own way of taking some water and mixing it with an all-purpose flour, a rice flour, a wheat flour and adding either barley, buckwheat,soybeans,seaweed or tapioca.After combining whatever ingredients are used with the type of a chosen flour, they work the dough on a floured surface, roll the dough out and let it dry. African Bean Soup Yoruba ethnic group from the Southwestern part of Nigeria call this traditional soup 'Gbegiri'Most of the ingredients can be got at ethnic Nigerian or African food marketsIngredients:To serve 4 peopleBeans - 2 cups of size of small tinned milkDried crayfish - 2-table spoonful Beef - 1kgAfrican snail - 4 medium sizeDried fish - 1 large size'Stock' (cod) fish (dried) - 4 pieces or medium sizeDried pepper or ground chilly pepper - to taste (depending on your palate) Seasoning - your choice of brand -2 cubesWest African Palm-oil - 1 cooking spoonLarge pepper - 2 large sizeTomatoes - 2 medium sizeOnion - 1 medium sizeSalt - a pinch to tasteWater - as -requiredServe hotThe ingredients: Red pepper, tomatoes and onions, pieces or chunks of boiled beef, red palm-oil, dried crayfish, smoked catfish, ground and dry pepper, salt plus 3cubes of food seasoning, pieces of boiled African snail and pieces dried of 'stock' fish and the washed beans with the skin peeled at the centre. (To save time, have the mixture of your ground tomatoes, onions and pepper in a blender to a smooth paste prior to the following steps)1st step: The beans would have been soaked in water for about 5min to soften the skin.
|
| GZZT.org | recipes home | site map | ||||||||||||
 |