August 17th, 2010
Editors’ Note: This is the first in our “Ask Lunchtaker” series. We get a lot of questions from parents about food-related issues, and are selecting a few situations to talk about here. Do you have a food-related dilemma? Contact us and ask! Oh, and the names have been changed below, but the scenario is real.
Question from Lynn
I have an EXTREMELY picky 5 year-old eater. His diet basically consists of mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, pizza, peanut butter and jelly, and the daycare’s spaghetti (he won’t touch mine at home). He refuses to try anything new, going as far as putting himself to sleep to avoid eating. How can I get him to try new things? Read more…
Tags: advice, help, picky
Posted in Techniques | No Comments »
July 29th, 2010
I’ll start off by saying that we don’t eat out much. We’re kind of picky about where we go, and we really look forward to those outings. That said, the last time we went out, we had a big surprise. Now, we’re fully aware that (most) restaurant food isn’t the best for you. We don’t partake very often, but when we do, we enjoy it with the full knowledge that it is an indulgence. But now, with a new law on the books, must I get this special indulgence with a side order of caloric guilt? C’mon …
Read more…
Tags: calories, restaurants
Posted in Dietary Guidelines, Nutrition | No Comments »
May 24th, 2010
We’ve been busy the last few months readying some of the new features you now see on this site! Sure, there’s a new layout and some snappy graphics, but we’d love to point out some of the cooler features. We hope you enjoy using lunchtaker.com even more! Read more…
Tags: about, lunches, organize
Posted in About This Site | No Comments »
May 22nd, 2010
Some of our most favorite wraps and sandwiches use diced chicken as a main ingredient. We’ve struggled with this because home cooked chicken gets a leftover taste almost immediately, making it not the best ingredient the next day. We have used pre-cooked chicken for our convenience (and yours) when we create fun new sandwiches, but the price tag and sodium are sky-high. Rotisserie chicken also works well, but we’ve been hoping to find something that would work even better. Guess what! We finally found a new favorite way to make any sandwich requiring diced chicken. Read more…
Tags: chicken, freeze, tips
Posted in How-To, Techniques | 2 Comments »
May 1st, 2010
We’ve been working on some exciting updates to lunchtaker.com (stay tuned!), and in the meantime have a wonderful feature to share with our members! We hope you find these calendars and lunch notes helpful … not yet a member? Join today, it’s free! Read more…
Tags: calendar, notes
Posted in About This Site | No Comments »
April 22nd, 2010
When we got the Easy Lunchbox System, we started thinking more about how our kid’s lunches were presented, and how many nutrients and calories were part of their lunch. For some reason, when we were using a host of different containers, we were fully aware of how many things were in the lunch, but didn’t often spend too much time thinking about the lunch as a collective whole. Now that we’re working on a new site feature for showcasing lunches using the Easy Lunchbox system, we’re also thinking more about the daily requirements, and how what we pack for lunch works within those recommendations. Read more…
Tags: calories, guidelines, iom
Posted in Dietary Guidelines, Education, Nutrition | 2 Comments »
April 14th, 2010
Since our kids started school and we started this Web site, we’ve been on a “container hunt”! Over the past few years, we’ve collected a lot of great (and not so great) containers to transport lunch. While searching for articles about school lunch, we discovered Kelly Lester’s EasyLunchboxes.com site. Even as a family that promotes packing a healthy lunch, we have to admit to getting tired of the “container” drawer in our house. You know you have one, too: a drawer filled with plastic and glass containers of every size and shape, with lids haphazardly strewn about. Her affordable lunchbox system looked like a perfect thing for our family to add to our lunch collection. Read more…
Tags: containers, easy, lunchbox
Posted in Lunch Gear | 4 Comments »
March 30th, 2010
Which of these shortening-laden measures represents a gram of fat? Read on to find out…
Dietary fat got a bad reputation in the 90s, when the dieting trends were about eating foods low in fat. Unfortunately, most products (and people) started replacing fat in their diet with increased levels of sugar. Several recent studies show that fat need not be treated as the enemy we were led to believe it was. However, you should be aware of the amount and type of fat you are choosing to eat.
There are several sources of healthy fats (monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids), including:
- olive oil
- canola oil
- avocados
- walnuts
- almonds
- fatty fish
- flaxseeds
Read more…
Tags: calories, fat
Posted in Nutrition | No Comments »
March 26th, 2010
We are really excited that Jamie Oliver’s 6-part series is starting tonight! We put this on our TV-viewing calendar when Jamie won this year’s TED prize. If you’re planning on tuning into the series, you should take a look at Jamie’s TED prize acceptance video. It’s 18 minutes and well-worth watching. Read more…
Tags: revolution, ted
Posted in Education | 4 Comments »
March 19th, 2010
When our daughter started Kindergarten, it was her first time enjoying lunch away from home. Lucky for us, the school had made great forward strides in the previous few years to improve school lunch. To be consistent with our eating habits, we decided that we’d send our daughter home-prepared meals four days each week; to let her experience school lunch, we also opened an account for her and agreed that she would buy school lunch one day each week.
Read more…
Tags: angry, dvd, school
Posted in Education | No Comments »
