Day 8 of the Lunch Challenge

YES, I am a slacker, but I don't care! :P Nicole, finished her 21 days very well. I have an excuse, Bumble is very demanding, and I find I am good to just get through the day. I will prevail though! You can't beat a slower race.


One day I made a veggie BLT. YUMMY! I can't wait to make one with my own tomatoes. They are out there, green, and just waiting on me. :)

Day Seven of the Lunch Challenge

I have come to the conclusion that we will just do 21 days of the challenge at my speed. Darn homeschoolers thinking they can just bend everything their way! HA HA! I am just not "ON" some days. It will have to do.


This was our meal on day Seven.





We were low on fresh groceries so I had to make this up with what we had in the fridge. I used whole wheat bread for the "dough" and put tomato sauce down for sauce. Next came cheese and veggie "sausage" which made it sausage pizza. ;) The cup is an ice chiller thingy. I think that is what it is called. The kids liked them.


They ate this meal up! I came back and they were all gone! HA HA

Day Seven of the Lunch Challenge

We just had the last of the Red Beans with some Rice today. They are so good and filling so why waste them?


Do you have something that you make for supper that you find to be a good lunch the next day? There aren't many leftovers I love...but Red Beans I do!

Day Six of the Lunch Challenge

This was day six of the challenge. We took of for the weekend. :)


Today we had Red Beans and Rice. I actually made this last night for supper and we used it as a quick and easy lunch for our challenge today. I love leftovers because they are EASY!





I do add in some liquid smoke, soy sauce, and nutrtional yeast (if I want to that day). Pink Salt is so yummy!!!! We add that on top, too. ;)


Everyone eats this one up, of course. I love this red beans recipe and it has stayed my staple recipe since it came out in the Vegetarian Times Magazine back in 2005! Try it!


The liquid smoke gives it a "bacon" flavor.

Day Five of the Lunch Challenge

On day five of the challenge we made Pumpkin Ravioli with Broth for our lunch. Elijah made this almost entirely himself. I was even able to leave the kitchen and attend to something else that needed my attention while he went through the preparations of our meal.





I liked it. I didn't like how it looked like poached eggs in broth. Remy agreed.


Elijah thought it was heavenly and ate it up quickly! :)


Remy ate half of his portion and then ate something else, a sandwich I think.


It was nice to try and it gave Elijah a few more kitchen skills. ;)

Day FOUR of the Lunch Challenge

This is what happens when you leave the job of the lunch challenge to the MATTMOS!!!





He made Remy a taco pizza like taco bell. He even added some taco sauce to it. Beans and cheese...the man food! HA HA





Elijah had nachos with cheese and beans...more man food! HA HA


I cheated and went with my friend Renee to the local Greek restuarant for her birthday lunch. YUMMY, YUMMY, YUMMY, YUMMY!

Day THREE of the Lunch Challenge

Day three!





I needed something fast and simple so I took the left over pinto beans we had for supper one night, loaded them in the food processor (my best friend), and blended them up with garlic and onion powder. I also added some PINK salt. Nicole and I are a little crazy about our pink salt. ;)


I did serve some cheese in these. I only had some leftover white tortillas. I would have preferred mine on wheat. The strawberries and raisins were good so I am told. ;) The other things are peanut butter filled whole wheat organic pretzels. YUMMY is what they are! I can eat the whole bag. The kids felt special that I would share them. HA HA


Everything was eaten. Remy declared me a bean genius! I think that is an okay title.

Day TWO of the Lunch Challenge

Yesterday we had to pack up our lunch and take it on the road.


Matthew and I made a Curried Potato Salad with Toasted Cumin the night before. It was YUCKY!!! I do not like potato salad that has a greek yogurt base, YUCK! Learned something new! HA HA


I had also packed sandwich fixings like bread, condiments, tofurkey deli sliced "turkey", etc. We did have those and they were YUMMY of course. I bought a bag of Sun Chips to give us a little something extra and they helped to round out the meal. ;) We had water as our beverage. All in all it wasn't anything special but it was a yummy lunch out of doors that was very affordable and we knew what was in it. :) No hidden carbs for the Eliman! I always love that.

Day One of the LUNCH Challenge!

Today was the first day of the 21 day challenge. The kids and I worked together to prepare Korean Sesame-Crusted Tofu for our first healthy lunch.


We have started this challenge not because we eat out for lunch or because our meals are really bad in the first place. We are doing this because we wanted something fun to challenge us in our lunches. And like my friend Nicole said, "It is much harder than slapping together a PB&J!" Yes, it is! And it is more fun. I wanted to try some lighter recipes and recipes that I would not have considered for supper because they wouldn't have kept the boys full all through the night. They are after all bottomless pits. HEE HEE...


Since we are homeschoolers and we eat at home for lunch MOST of the week I didn't pack the lunch, that will come tomorrow when we will not be home for lunch. I will pack it up and take it with us. That is going to be hard. It is so much easier to make it if your home or to just eat out if your not. We will see how that goes...tomorrow...


Anyway, here is the kids tray.




They had water, strawberries (you might see these alot since they are CHEAP and so sweet right now), starfruit, raisins (Eli's idea), and Jasmine Rice with our main entree.


Remy decided that the fruit was the best part of the meal along with the tofu. No surprise there. This is how he is all of the time. He didn't eat much of the bok choy but he did eat LOTS of baby corns (his favorite) and some rice. He isn't so thrilled with rice. I didn't use brown rice as they do favor the Jasmine over the brown for ethnic dishes. I know it could have been healthier but hey it does taste good that white rice. Mmmmm.... Remy says the starfruit was the best part of the meal.


Elijah ate most of the rice and entree. He ate all the strawberries and nibbled the startfruit. I agree, starfruit is strange. He ate the raisins of course. He says the best part was the tofu. ;) I knew he would say that.


I had a big plate of food and didn't bother with those pesky chopsticks. I am pregnant and I don't want to wait for food...Bumble and I need it THEN and shoveled in. HA HA




I did NOT like the starfruit, YUCK! I ate everything else. :) The baby corns were way too plenty for me and I fed most of them to my doggie Juliet (aka Dewy Doggie), she didn't mind at all. ;)


Bumble bumbled around inside with this meal. Bumble must have approved. ;)


All in all...good first day! 20 more to go!

I will say the biggest thing was getting this done by lunch and not snack like we did today. I should have started earlier. Eekkk!

I will also say that I did not work out on the Bike, nor did I swim, I am just too tired. I really overdid myself yesterday until I was whinny and almost cried at one time. I think since I am PG...I will shoot for the 3 days or 4 days of working out.

Vegetarian Time's 21-Day Lunch Challenge!

Why not join Nicole and I as we dive head first into this 21 day healthy lunch challenge with Vegetarian Times? It starts on May 10th and will end on the 30th. She and I are in it, win or fail! HA HA





Just click that nifty photo above and you can read all about it!


The full article explains even more...so give that a quick read as well.

The challenge is simple. For 21 days, you’ll make your own lunch, go for a brisk 30-minute walk, and take a mini meditation break. That’s it.

I will be breaking this up a little for myself and adding in my children and husband in on the challenge as much as possible. Making all of our lunches with fresh whole foods is the biggest part of this for me. We will be trying things we may not have tried and I will TRY to blog each day for you all. Instead of walking, my pregnant hips are KILLING me people, I may just swim or ride my inside exercise bike for 30 minutes. Instead of mediation, that sounds wonky to me, I will be praying for 10 minutes, mainly for God to help me to stay on task with this. HA HA!


Don't even think about it. Just say you will do it and then do your best. If you blog it let us know! Nicole and I want to read along! Before you get out those pens to make those grocery lists do these things first:


You will want to sign up for VT's Food Editor Mary Margaret Chappell's newsletter. She is taking the challenge and writing about it. Her newsletter is the first option on the list of VT's newsletters.


Second, bookmark the Editor's Blog as this will also help with ideas along the way.


Search www.vegetariantimes.com for recipes, read that whole article as it has recipe ideas, and make a list.


Another great blog to read for ideas is Jennifer McCann's wonderful writings at the "Vegan Lunch Box". She has a fresh way of making it fun for the kids...so be sure to start at the start of her blog and read through.


Okay, that is it! Bumble Baby and I are so ready for the yummy foods starting on MONDAY!