Grilled veggies also work well, since they have a nice caramelized taste.

So do roasted veggies. You can have them as a salad on their own out of a little tupperware container, or as a side dish with some grilled chicken breast strips.

Roasted eggplant rounds with a slice of mozzarella in the middle, or a stuffed portabello mushroom cap, is another way to eat your veggies in a semi-sandwich form, great for taking with you when you are on the run.

Vegetables can be excellent snacks for those times when you are hungry but it is not time to eat a full meal.

You can sit in front of the television and eat an entire bag of carrot sticks or cucumber chips without guilt.

You can have a salad or some roasted vegetables, qucik and filling, without spending ages preparing a meal, and without having to resort to junk food.

Take your veggies them in the car, on the job, or outside for a quick energy pick-me-up.

No matter what way you choose to eat them, vegetables make healthy snack foods for everyone.

Meal Planning 101

Save Time And Money By Planning Your Meals

Carrots can be cut into sticks or a veggie slicer can cut them into chips. Don’t waste time buying baby carrots. It is easy enough to take a regular sized carrot and cut it into shape, and most say they are better for you, with more nutrients, and less pesticide absorbed compared with the tiny carrot.

The same goes for cucumbers, beets, peppers, squash, zucchini, and other rigid veggies. They can all be sliced and diced for handy eating.

Tomatoes are classified as fruits, but we will consider them vegetables here. Many people just eat them like a fruit. Add a pinch of salt and bite in. Little cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes are also ideal when you are on the run.

Broccoli and cauliflower can also be eaten raw, or you can lightly par boil them to make them a bit less crisp.

Celery is a good veggie because it is filled with water. It can relieve thirst and hunger at the same time.

What are vegetables without dip? Dip adds a flavor to veggies and even kids who turn their noses up to vegetables will eat certain ones if they are dipped in something. My kids love carrots and broccoli with low fat ranch dressing dip.

Many dips can be made at home with dry seasoning packets and fat free sour cream. Just be careful of the salt content.

For a different taste add your own fresh herbs to low fat sour cream or low fat, unsweetened yogurt.

Sweet dips, like sweetened yogurt based ones, are also good with veggie snacks. Dip can be stored in a container or a two-piece salad bowl. With the salad bowl, the dip doesn’t mix with the vegetables until you are ready to eat them.

Meal Planning 101

Save Time And Money By Planning Your Meals

What is the one food that is most often fed to the dog at the dinner table? No, not meat. Nine times out of ten, someone is going to say vegetables.

They really aren’t that bad and they are very good for you. Vegetables come in so many shapes, sizes and flavors, that you are bound to find at least one you like.

Veggies don’t need any dressing up to make them taste good. Nature has done that all by itself. They are picked fresh from the earth filled with sweet and succulent taste.

The best veggies are the ones found fresh in stores, at farmer’s markets, or even better, your own garden.

Vegetables can keep without freezing or refrigerating them which is good for snacking on the run. You can grab a bag of veggies and hit the road. Most vegetables will do well when sliced into sticks, cubes, or chips. In this form, they are easier to manage, like celery and carrots.

One of many people’s biggest problems is eating while driving. We tend to try to do everything while driving, and eating seems to be the hardest. No one wants to end up in a tree or someone’s yard because of a sandwich.

To avoid these and other eating mishaps, pack your vegetables in plastic bags or small containers which you can put in your cup holder to have at the ready.
Meal Planning 101

Save Time And Money By Planning Your Meals

Nuts are another good choice in small quantities, as are chocolate chips. You can even throw them together with some dried cherries or cranberries for a tasty treat.

A cup of flavored yogurt or plain yogurt with granola makes a filling dessert with the right amount of sweetness. Making your own homemade granola is an even better choice. Start with oat clusters and add whatever you like from there.

Muffins are a great choice too, or their sweeter cousin, the cupcake. Also, why not pack more than one sandwich, cut into squares or strips, for a snack later. Peanut butter lasts all day without spoiling, as do many vegetarian pates.

Packed lunches don’t have to be boring. You actually have more choices than you are given with store-bought products for kids and adults alike.

And you want to keep your kids eating YOUR food, not being tempted by fast food, or tempted to swap things in their lunch box, and make bad choices.

With a bit of clever planning, everyone will want what you and your kids have in their lunchbox, and no one will ever want to trade!

Meal Planning 101

Save Time And Money By Planning Your Meals

Most prepackaged lunches come with drinks, and homemade ones should too. Most come with soda or another sugary drink that is not healthy for anyone. Choose twelve ounce water bottles and drink crystal sticks instead. These offer no calories but lots of taste.

The invisible Koolaid is also a good choice, because kids really don’t need a ton of artificial cooring and preservatives. I had a student once who I eventually figured out was acting out depending on whether or not he had had a certain kind of in the pouch drink that day!

People talk about ADHD, but seriously, as soon as we got him drinking milk, smoothies and other healthy choices, he became a fantastic student, and went from the least popular boy in the class to the most because he was in control.

Fruit juice is okay in a lunch box if it is only eight ounces and 100 percent juice. I often dilute mine with seltzer for a spritzer, or you can just add it to the water bottle to give it a bit of extra taste.

Snacks in the lunch meal are simple, so there’s no need to go all out in this department at home either. Give the kids pieces of celery, some peanut butter, and some raisins. Let them make their own dessert creations.

Raisins are naturally sweet, and there are dates, figs, and other dried fruits like pineapple rings, apricots, and apples.

Just be careful with the dried fruit as some of it can be preserved with some fairly heavy chemicals. Go for natural ones in health food stores where possible.

Be especially careful with apricots, as they often use sulfites to preserve that lovely orange color, but can trigger an allergic reaction.

Meal Planning 101

Save Time And Money By Planning Your Meals

For kids, messes are a regular occurrence. To avoid them at lunch, use a sandwich sealer. It is a round tool that will seal the edges of a sandwich once you make it. Use it for peanut butter and jelly, cheese sandwiches, ham, turkey, bologna, and the like.

There is also the hot sandwich press, which can turn an ordinary sandwich into a crispy, gooey in the middle treat if made with cheese as part of its ingredients.

Cookie cutters can turn a regular sandwich into stars, moons, balls, and other fun shapes to keep kids interested and looking forward to lunch each and every day.

Since you are making the sandwich at home, you can use light or fat free condiments and meats to make them healthier.

When you can, use slices of chicken and beef left over from dinner meals. A slice of chicken breast or a piece of roast has fewer preservatives than the lunchmeat found in the grocery store, not to mention the fact that it’s easier on the wallet too.

Many people argue now that preserved lunch meats have cancer causing agents. They are always very salty. So whenever you can, bank and slice your own meat.

You can even get a fairly inexpensive deli type slicer for making your own thinly sliced lunch meats. It will save you money in the long run, just be REALLY careful whenever you wash the blades. I took a tip off my finger with mine!

Meal Planning 101

Save Time And Money By Planning Your Meals

Like most people, I love sandwiches. It is a basic staple of lunch. We start with a sandwich and build it up from there.

The only problem, everyone gets tired of the same old sandwiches for lunch after a while. Here are some ideas for healthy and fun lunch fare.

My kids used to love those lunch snack packs you get at the grocery store. They had sandwiches, drinks, and a snack all in one handy box. Some have pizzas that you could build in place of a sandwich, a drink and snack. But after a while, they got expensive, not to mention unhealthy, because they are loaded with salt and other preservatives.

Kids like variety, and so do adults. So we can give them variety without breaking the bank and adding extra calories and sodium by making Lunchables at home.

We’ll start with the sandwich first, since it’s the main course of these types of lunches.

Sandwiches can come in many shapes and sizes. If crusts are not your thing, take a sharp knife and cut the bread into a square.

It isn’t necessary to pay extra to buy bread that has the crusts already removed. And you can use the crusts for a bread pudding, or french toast strips, so that nothing goes to waste.

The bread you choose doesn’t have to be traditional sandwich bread at all. Pitas, hoagie rolls, buns, and tortilla wraps make excellent sandwich packaging. It all depends on what kind of sandwich you are making.

Meal Planning 101

Save Time And Money By Planning Your Meals