Giveaway Winners! Dinnertime! special issue

Congratulations to Jessie and Valerie! I used Random.org to choose the winners and the number were #37 and #15. They are the winners of the Family Fun magazine's special issue Dinnertime! giveaway. Please contact me within the next 48 hours with an email to mealmagic (at) gmail (dot) com with your contact info. to claim your prize.

To all the others who entered the contest, be on the lookout for future giveaways and thanks for sharing your "go-to" ideas for a quick meal.

Menu Plan Monday!

It's time for me to start thinking about cleaning out the freezer to make room for a new freezer cooking session so our meals will be a bit random these next few weeks! Here's what's on the menu this week:

Monday: Fab Fish Sticks, rice, steamed veggie and garden salad

Tuesday: Greek Meatballs, steamed rice, cucumber/tomato or garden salad

Wednesday: Chicken Parmesan with noodles and garden salad

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: leftovers

Saturday & Sunday: Labor Day holiday weekend...menu TBA as I'm not thinking that far just yet!

And a little feedback on last week's menu....I made Beef Empanadas. My husband and I loved them. The kids did not. They were a bit on the spicy side and that's what did it. I had the leftovers for lunch later that week and used a little sour cream for dipping. I know, not really South American-like but it cut the spice just enough and they were still delicious! Other than that they were soooo easy to make. If you decide to try them, I'd suggest cutting the cayenne pepper in half to start.

What's on your menu this week?

Lunch Revolution Blog Party {Keeping It Real}

There's been a lot of media attention lately given to the quality of the lunches offered in our schools here. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution television series this past spring seemed to have kicked things off here in the U.S. I wanted to join the Lunch Revolution party because there are several good sites out there addressing the challenge to improve our children's lunches too!

Mrs. Q over at Fed Up with Lunch is a teacher who takes a hard look at the food served in many of our schools and chronicles her experiences eating the food served at the school where she teaches and helps raise our awareness (by th way, if you go to her site, she's having a contest this weekend for some great lunch item giveaways and lots of other bloggers have linked with their lunch ideas too!) Notes from The Cookie Jar hosts Food Revolution Fridays and even went on a Food Revolution Road Trip this summer (very inspiring--and I'm encouraged to see that our road trips are pretty close to what theirs was--at least much of the time!)

I must say I'm encouraged in my own city with the changes in the largest school district in our state, HISD and several surrounding districts as well. This news report highlights the district including fresh fruit and salad bars at some school. Certainly the changes will not come overnight but at least they are thinking about it! The school district where my kids go to school still has a ways to go but they, too, are thinking about it as they base their menus on the Square Meals program.

I hope my Back-To-School series has gotten you thinking about how you can change the foods your children (or even yourself) eat for lunch each day. I have to say, we're not an all whole-grain, homemade-everything-eating family...at least not every day. But I would say we're pretty darn close compared to a lot of people we know. Sure, it helps that I like to cook, but I think that the more I learn about the foods that my children are offered, the more I want to try and prepare foods that are good for them and taste good too (generally the two go hand in hand!)

Melissa over at Another Lunch offers up some great ideas as did my recent guest posters like Fix Me A Snack, What’s For Lunch at Our House and Raise Healthy Eaters. Michelle of Muffin Tin Mondays provides another fun way to make a healthy lunch for your kids and the neat presentation may actually get them to eat more too! There are so many ideas out there (check my Resource Guide page too for more) I hope you'll find something that inspires you to make a change too!

{Guest Post} How to Handle Negative (Food) Peer Pressure Kids Get at School

I'm not sure how I originally came upon the blog, Raise Healthy Eaters, but from the moment I found it I was hooked! Blog owner, Maryann, is a registered dietician and a mom who speaks from practical experience on both sides--professional and parent--about how to feed our children healthy foods. Every time I read one of her posts it's as though she's reading my mind! Each topic has such relevance to our family in some way and offers suggestions and ideas that are practical and doable. She's done several series on topics like managing sweets or addressing picky eaters and many more.

As part of my Back-To-School series, I'm glad to welcome her as she addresses a challenge that many of us face with our children--peer pressure when it comes to food! As my children have gotten older, the influences about the types of food they are around are many (and not always healthy) and I know that will only continue. Maryann offers some great tips on how to overcome those challenges so that everyone is a winner!

Welcome Maryann!

The school year is upon us. It’s time to pack lunches and plan dinner meals to help our kids eat well. But another not-so-pleasant reality comes along with food and eating during the school year.

Cookies. Empty-calorie snacks. And all the negative peer pressure your kids seem to get about diet.

Maybe your son starts asking for the same Lunch-ables his best friend eats everyday for school or the same colorful chips he gets when he plays over there. You might even hear your children mimic one of their friends by saying a healthy food, one they used to love, is “gross.”

You certainly can’t hide your child from food choices you don’t particularly like, but you can handle it in a way that helps your child make better food choices.
Let’s take a look.

1. Stay Neutral: When your child comes home and tells you he ate something you find appalling at his friends house, say Cheetos, it’s easy to react with disgust saying something like, “You ate what? I can't believe you ate that!”

The same goes for requests from your kids. If they ask for something you don’t approve of for their lunch, you might go into “we never eat foods like that!”

The problem with these types of reactions is they give too much attention to these foods. Kids, being kids, will zero in on what they can't have. And this will increase their desire for such foods more than it will decrease desire.

Instead, act neutral. When you hear they had Cheetos don’t react at all. There’s nothing you can do to change what they have already eaten so don’t even try.

2. Give them permission: After a child starts eating something outside the house, they may start asking you to buy and serve it in your home. As a parent you need to consider whether or not it is something you feel okay with serving.

If it's a food item you don't want to bring in your home, explain the why behind it carefully to your kids.

International feeding expert Ellyn Satter recommends the honesty approach. She suggests telling your children it's okay for them to try different foods at other people houses but that you personally don't feel comfortable with including those foods in your home. This erases the taboo around the items while letting yourself off the hook.

3. Create teachable moments: As much as this negative peer pressure about food gets to you, it really is a good way to teach your child about making wise food choices. Just think, when they go to college they'll have complete freedom around food without you there telling them what to eat.

So when your child asks you why they can't have packaged food tell them you prefer to serve fresh foods not only for health but because they taste better. Ask them to think about this the next time they have packaged cookies vs. homemade ones. Show them the ingredient lines in packaged and processed foods. You want to focus on taste and quality as much as health.

Make sure you steer away from categorizing food as good/bad or healthy/unhealthy. Instead talk about the roles different foods play in the diet. For example, fruits, vegetables and whole grains are eaten more often because they help children grow. Items like cakes and cookies are eaten less frequently. Let them know all foods can fit into a balanced diet.

This teaches your child how to eat a variety of foods without feeling "bad" for eating foods that also tastes good.

4) Emphasize manners at the table: It can be disheartening when kids turn on healthy foods as they declare to everyone that peas are now "gross!" And with a little digging you realize that their new opinion comes from a friend at school.

Resist the temptation to reason with your child about how they liked this same food just last week. This simply makes a bigger deal out of what is likely a passing phase. If a child truly enjoys a food they'll start eating it again even if they are taking a temporary hiatus.

Instead of focusing the fact that they don't like a food, teach them how to voice their displeasure in an acceptable way. In her books, Satter recommends teaching proper table manners when it comes to kids disliking certain foods. So instead of "this is gross" they should say "no thank you." It is not fair for them to ruin the meal for the other family members who like what's offered.

Kids often try to push parents buttons when it comes to food. Once they realize that you are not participating, they will stop too.

There's a big wide world of food out there that kids learn about. But if we as parents stay neutral, give them permission to experiment and gently guide them in a balanced direction, they will be less likely to rebel against the healthy eating habits we are trying to establish.

After all, the most important aspect of raising healthy eaters is providing a foundation of pleasant, consistent and nutritious meals at home. Most often kids will return to this foundation even when they are influenced by how their friends' eat.

Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen is a registered dietitian, mother of two and creator of Raise Healthy Eaters, a blog that provides parents with simple and sound nutrition advice.

Check out Maryann's latest series on how to turn picky eaters into healthy eaters.

Dinnertime! Cookbook Giveaway

For many of us, when a new school year rolls around it's almost like we make New Year's resolutions just like in January.

"I will make more of an effort to feed my family heathier dinners"
"I will make my kids better lunches."
"I will try to plan my meals more often so we can save money and our health."

You get the idea. Even if you don't have children at home or in school, much of the media is focused on back-to-school, you can't help but get caught up in it all! And if your plans include looking for some new (and family-friendly!) dinner recipes to try out, look no further.

To help you achieve your goals (and also just because I love this cookbook!), I'm giving away TWO copies of Family Fun's special issue, Dinnertime! (see my review here) to TWO lucky readers!

Here's How To Enter:
1. Leave a comment with your favorite ways to get dinner on the table quick or you favorite family-friendly meal.
2. Become a follower of my blog (link is on the left of this page)
3. Like Meal Planning Magic on Facebook
4. Email subscribe to my blog.
5. Blog about the giveaway and leave me a link to your post.
6. Update your Facebook status with a link to this post.
7. "Tweet" about this post.
8. Vote for my blog at Babble.com's Best Mom Food Bloggers (I'm currently on page 2, #60 but hopefully your votes will move me up!)

Remember, leave a comment for each entry. Only one entry per person per method listed above. If you are already a follower or subscribe to my blog, you can still have an extra entry--just mention that in the comment. Good luck!

Giveaway Rules:
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!

Winner will be chosen via random.org and will have 48 hours to claim their prize. If prize is not claimed a new winner will be chosen. Winner will be posted on blog and if an email is given, they will be contacted via email. Open to US and Canadian residents only (sorry to my other international readers!)

Disclosure: I, myself, originally purchased this special issue cookbook featured in this giveaway. However, the copies being given away were received from the publisher for promotional use such as this giveaway. The opinions in my review are my own and just that, my opinion! Check out Giveaway Scout's listing of blogs with giveaways for more chances to win great prizes (seen link to the left).

Love Notes In Lunchboxes {Book Review}--and bonus printables!

Book reviews are back! Kicking things off is a book that fits in nicely with my Back-To-School series, Love Notes in Lunchboxes by Linda Jeffords Gilden.

I've been making lunches for my kids for several years now, starting with Mother's Day Out and preschool programs and during that time I've read here and there that including little notes in their lunchboxes can really brighten a day. When they were smaller and couldn't read I would just include a little card with a fun sticker and my name at the bottom. Now that they can read, I can get a little more elaborate on my notes. Maybe a a few words of encouragement on the day of a big test or just a note to let them know I'm thinking of them.

I'm still not super regular about including notes but hope to change that this school year! I've got a special part of my Lunch Launch Pad drawer for notes...the idea is that I make up a few ahead of time to easily drop into their lunchbags. Or just having a few blank cards with some rubberstamps or stickers to easily decorate the card and add a quick note.

Love Notes with Lunchboxes takes lunch note writing one step further, providing inspiration for all sorts of situations like the First Day of School, Holidays or other fun times. The author even offers tips on how to take notewriting beyond the lunchbox and keep a positive dialogue going between you and your children. Also included in the book are lots of testimonies from kids who received notes in their lunches over the years--girls AND boys--and how much it meant to them and how the little notes, no matter how simple, let them know that they were loved and thought about even when they were apart from those that they loved. The appendix includes a nice resource of descriptive words to use on your notes. There's also a section of blank note templates with fun borders and designs that you can photocopy and cut out to help jazz up your notes.

Of note, the tone of the book does have a Christian theme but it is not overwhelming and still has tons of terrific inspiration...thought that was worth mentioning as it may make a difference either way for readers.

Need a few more ideas but not feeling overly creative? Check out these totally cute tags from Alphamom's site that you can print out and put in your kids' lunches! I love the play on words and the little nudge to make eating fruit a bit more fun too! The site also offers custom lunch box notes that you can print out too...fun!



Love the idea but need something a little simpler? I found these fun lunchbox note sets last school year (and periodically since then) at the $1 section at my local Michael's store. Each card has a fun or encouraging phrase (like I love spending time with you) or did you know? question (like Did You Know? There are more chickens than people in the world?") that makes lunch time fun. My daughter especially loves the fun fact cards!

If you can't find them locally, you can also buy sets of the cards online (there are tons to choose from--you can even customize some!)

I hope you're encouraged to add a little extra love to the lunches you make for your kids (or any other loved one!) Enjoy!

Kitchen Organization (Part 3): Back To School Launch Pad

Several years ago I read about creating a Launch Pad to help us get out the door on hectic mornings. I set ours up in the front closet and it has made the process of getting going a whole lot easier. Since then, I've taken it one step further and applied the launch pad idea to the kitchen and created a lunch preparation launch pad.

I’m sure I’m the only one whose cabinets and drawers get out of control after awhile, right? :-) But in case you know someone who's like me, just pass this info. on to them. You know, the person who sometimes get in a rush and just throws things in the cabinets and drawer? Before you know it you have a real mess on your hands. It’s generally a good idea to go through everything at least annually to get reorganized. Be sure to evaluate and purge containers that are broken, you no longer use (like all those snack cups for toddlers we don’t need any more—at least not so many!) and other unused items...some may be recycled while others may head to the donation box.

Lunch Pad drawer before.

Lunch Pad drawer after.

Storage container cabinet before.

Storage containers organization during.

Storage container cabinet after (lunch containers are on bottom shelf).

I have two primary areas for my lunch preparation tools and containers. First, I’ve created a drawer that holds our reusable beverage containers, reusable snack/sandwich bags, our fabric napkins, bento box tools (the few that we have), sandwich cutters and a few other essentials to streamline lunch making. Secondly, I have designated a shelf in my storage container cabinet just for lunch making items…our reusable sandwich boxes and other containers that hold more “wet” foods like soup or pasta, dips or wet fruits like cut up watermelon, etc.

In between those areas are my refrigerator, a kitchen island and my pantry so grabbing what I need is all right there (yes, our kitchen is one thing that sold us on this house—the layout is great!) So when setting up your Lunchtime Launch Pad, try to locate it near the items that you will be pulling from to put into the lunch.

I try to make the kids’ lunches in the evenings and put things that need to stay fresh in the refrigerator to pull out in the morning. And when they're able to help, it makes things a lot easier for them too to find what they're looking for! Then, all we have to do is put it all into the lunch bag just before it's time to go--that's one more way for us to streamline our morning routine. And if you were inspired by last week’s guest post on bento-box lunch making, check out Michelle’s Journal Corner blog and her Muffin Tin Monday feature for how to organize all the tools that can come with that!

Lunches packed and ready to go!
(cold items like drink containers and fruit go
into refrigerator to be pulled out in the morning)

I hope this helps you get off to a great start of the school year (or any time) and making packing lunches a little less stressful!