How Healthy is your Lunch?

Since returning to work full time I have really struggled with what to have for lunch. I will admit to getting lazy and fed up with sandwiches. On the odd occasion I have called into Tesco on my way to work and picked something up. I tend to go for their salads but have also been tempted with their delicious wraps. This is not always good for my diet or for my pocket! So when I saw this infographic from TrustTwo I thought that I would share it with you as it certainly did open my eyes!

Weekly Meal Plan - #MealPlanningMonday 2017 Week 25

Hello and welcome to week 25 of MealPlanningMonday!

I hope you had a great week and were as blessed with the summer weather as we were! It feels so good to finally have some sunshine and heat. My moods are always so much better when it is sunny! Over the weekend we have spend the majority of the time out in the garden. I even did my ironing outside in the sun while the children were playing under the water sprinkler.

Last week I started my job and I love it! I know that I made the right decision applying for the job. It has given me a new lease of life. I am my old self again, interacting with real people and having something different to apply myself to. Being part time means that I can still keep up with my love of blogging. I really do have the best of both worlds.

The only thing that did not quite go as well was my meal plan. It started off well but then the nice weather came and my food motivation went out. We did have the mushroom and lentil ragu, which was amazing and enough left for a second meal. So the following day I added some MOR pork, super green veg and lentil sausages that I was sent to try and had a second meal. The gluten, wheat and dairy free sausages went perfectly with the sauce. Each sausage is full of pork, asparagus, peas, spinach, green lentils, onion and coriander in a sweet chilli dressing.

#CookBlogShare Week 5 - Plus 4 Lovely Lunches

Welcome to week 5 of CookBlogShare.

Things are changing a little bit with the CookBlogShare team. Unfortunately Mandy from Sneaky Veg is stepping down as a host. Mandy has been a fantastic part of the team and was with me from the start. But I am sure that we all wish Mandy the best and hopes that she continues being a big part of the community! 

As Mandy has stepped down, from now on it will be just Eb and I hosting. I will be hosting Mandy's slot as well as my own and Eb will continue hosting every third week. As I am going to be hosting more I will not be continuing with my Monday round-ups of CookBlogShare but will simply share it with the linky. I am hoping that this will give me one less job to do and I love reading through all the delicious posts that you share each week.

Now onto this weeks linky and four featured posts. This week is all about lovely lunches. Here are my four favourite recipes from week 4 of CookBlogShare...

#FloraLunchbox Challenge - Getting the Balance Right

All parents who have children of school age will know how hard it can be to give your children a good variety of packed lunches. But it is not only variety that is important. We also need to ensure that they contain a good balance of nutritional elements that are essential for good health.

Flora have recently conducted a survey regarding children's lunch boxes and their results have shown that this is a common dilemma that parents face. I was not surprised that they had found these results, however what I was surprised about that only 1.6% of children's lunchboxes are meeting school food nutritional standards! This percentage has only increased by 0.5% in the last 10 years! Only 1 in 5 lunchboxes contain any salad or vegetables! The report illustrates that the majority of lunchboxes do meet the standards of protein and vitamin C, which is great, but there is still work to be done.

To help parents Flora has sent out 631,000 lunchboxes and lunch meal planners to retailers throughout the country. The guides are intended to make packing a lunch easier. I was sent one of the lunchbox bundles and have found the guide to be an immense help. The guide sets out exactly what our children need to be having in their lunchboxes.

Back to School Lunch Box Meal with #PowerofFrozen

Now that we are coming to the end of the long summer holidays it is time to start thinking about the children returning to school. The return to school also brings the return of preparing packed lunches. I don't know about you but making packed lunches always seems like a chore, it is always done at the end of the day and I often get stuck for ideas. So when Iceland challenged me to devise an easy recipe for a healthy packed lunch I knew that it would need to be a lunch that will not take long but that would also be full of healthy foods that the kids would love. The one way I find that my children tuck into a salad is if it is fun, colourful and with mayonnaise.

The beauty of this recipe is that the majority of the ingredients are frozen so there are no worries about whether you have the fresh ingredients to prepare. Even the bread rolls are frozen! One of my packed lunch fails has to be not having enough bread or forgetting to defrost some fresh bread. When I defrost bread that I have frozen it never tastes as good, so when I saw that Iceland stocked bread rolls that could be baked from frozen I knew that they would be a must have! I was not disappointed the rolls came out of the oven just like freshly made bread rolls do.

For my back to school recipe I decided to make a rice salad. Rice is full of carbohydrates so acts as a fuel for the children's bodies. The return to school can be tiring for them so they need all of the energy they can get to keep their bodies and brains going! The addition of an egg provides them with protein to help keep their energy level up. The tuna provides them with healthy omega 3 fatty acids while the vegetables give them their much needed vitamin goodness! When using frozen foods you are guaranteed to have a high amount of vitamins as the vegetables are frozen at the optimum time after picking to preserve all of the goodness that wears off as they ripen.

Today's recipe is colourful, fun and full of goodness. This is what I did...

Mushroom, Egg and Avocado Brunch - #CookBlogShare Week 7

Hello and welcome to week 7 of CookBlogShare 2016.

Before I hand it over to the lovely foodie bloggers who return each week I thought that, today, I would share with you a delicious brunch recipe. I say brunch but it would be perfect as a lazy Sunday breakfast, or, as I enjoy it, as a light lunch.

You will probably know that I am currently on my own weight loss journey with Slimming World. If you know the Slimming World plan you will know that avocado's are a high syn food. But I am eating them without counting because they contain a good fat that our bodies need, monounsaturated fat. Monounsaturated fat helps to protect our hearts by maintaining the levels of good cholesterol while reducing the bad cholesterol. So it is not good to cut out all fats in our diets. As I always say, everything in moderation

This dish is so quick and easy to make and is a lot tastier than a boring sandwich or a piece of toast!

This is what I did...

Yumbox Review

We have been fans of  theYumbox since they went on the market. So when they got in touch with me and asked if I would like to review a box and host a giveaway for them I jumped at the chance!

If you do not know what a Yumbox is let me tell you...

Yumbox are lovely bento lunch boxes. The inserts that fit inside the boxes allow you to pack up a variety of foods in ideals portion sizes. The Yumbox is designed with a leak proof lid so you can pack yogurts or dips with no worries that it is going to leak into the other compartments. Therefore there is no need to use cling film or plastic bags or various different boxes. Everything can be packed in the one box. No only is this easier but will also save you money on food wraps and is also environmentally friendly as you will be reducing your waste.

Curried Chicken and Mango Wraps

Now that the weather has become sunnier I love to go back to lighter meals.

We always enjoy curry but sometimes I want something a bit lighter. That is why I came up with this quick and easy meal that is full of flavour and low on calories!

It can be easily enjoyed as a main meal accompanied by salad and potatoes or as a tasty lunch. For the curry coating I have used Knorr's Curry Flavour Pot. They are such a quick and easy way to add extra flavour to dishes.

This is what I did...

Loving a Lunch Guest #IBSD14

Hi! I'm Jackie from Loving Lunches, and I'm loving the opportunity to participate in my first International Blog Swap Day thanks to Digital Parents, Tots 100 and of course your very own Kirsty here at Hijacked by Twins.

I started making fun bento-inspired lunches for my daughter when she started daycare as I returned to part time work. Two years on I still enjoy making special lunches for her Kindergarten days as well as a few snack boxes to take out & about, although these days I'm packing for two. I also enjoy experimenting and playing in the kitchen and have been know to share a recipe or two.

I decided to make his & hers lunch boxes for Taylor & Isabella. Both these Decor Quarters include the same ingredients, presented slightly differently. One box is about half the amount of food I would send Miss M to daycare with when she was 2. Yes, we have been blessed with a good eater ^-^

Isabella has:

plain vanilla yoghurt with red grapes on decorative food picks (affiliate link)

Cheese 'fish' sandwich on white bread (the cutter is from this set of Lunch Punches. That's an affiliate link too) Sitting on a bed of rocket, which I thought looked a little like sea kelp, thank you Octonauts!

mandarin & grape flower in a silicon cup and half a kiwi fruit

Taylor has:

Same, but different

mandarin segmented with a grape & fun food pick in a silicon muffin mould. Half a kiwi fruit

Cheese 'fish' sandwich on white bread, in a bed of rocket

plain vanilla yoghurt with grapes on food picks (affiliate link)

These lunches were really quick & simple to put together once I had a plan, but I think they look so much more appealing than a traditional lunch box.  I'd love to hear what you think!

Don't forget to check out Kirsty's delicious recipe over on Loving Lunches, live now!

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~Jackie, Loving Lunches

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Hijacked by Twins and Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Walkers Mighty Lights

   

Crisps certainly are my weakness, so I was over the moon to be asked to taste and write about the new Walkers Might Lights crisps.
I was even more pleased to try them when I saw that Walkers Mighty Lights contain 30% less fat. Would these crisps be the same as other low fat, diet crisps that are on the market?
Would they be healthier but no where near as tasty?
I would certainly be happy to give them a taste and put them to the test with my families help.
There are three flavours available:

• Lightly Salted
• Cheese and Onion
• Chicken

We had all three to try and this is how we got on:

Lightly Salted

These "plain" crisps are all but plain! The first thing that we all noticed when we tried this flavour was that they were not your average, run of the mill, salted crisps. These had an added flavour that I could not pin point. In the end I gave up and looked on the packet at the ingredients and found that in the seasoning they had also included some spices and herbs. With many plain salted crisps I feel that there is often too much salt used. I was pleasantly surprised that these crisps were different.
When I asked Joseph what he had thought he said that he preferred these to other plain, salted crisps as they "had a better flavour". The plain crisps are normally the last to be eaten in our house, I have a feeling that with these crisps that won't be the case.

 

Chicken

I sent a packet of the Chicken Mighty Lights in my hubby's packed lunch for work. When I quizzed him about what he had thought of them he told me that he could not taste any difference between the Mighty Lights and regular crisps. The Mighty Lights, unlike other low fat diet crisps, do not compromise on the flavour. They offer a healthy alternative, they are low fat but remain high in flavour!

 

 

 

 

Cheese & Onion

I was pleased to have the "taster" excuse and had some of the Cheese and Onion crisps at lunch time. As with the Chicken flavour, these crisps were just as flavoursome as regular crisps. Walkers Mighty Lights Cheese and Onion have kept the tangy cheese flavour that we all love with the bite of onion that makes them unmistakably Walkers crisps.





The only negative that we have got with the flavours is that there aren't any Salt and Vinegar Mighty Lights. Please, Walkers, do some Salt and Vinegar Mighty Lights!

We all know that saturated fats are the "bad" fats and that they are present in so many of the snacks that our children love.
So what better way to let them have their snacks without the guilt?
Include Walkers Mighty Light in their lunch box
With 30% less saturated fat than regular crisps, they are made from real potatoes with no artificial colours or preservatives and no MSG (Monosodium Glutamate).


They are not only a better, healthier alternative for children but for parents too!
We have other regular crisps in the house but ever since the Walkers Mighty Lights have arrived whenever Joseph has gone for a packet of crisps he always returns with Mighty Lights!
From now on we will be enjoying Mighty Lights in both lunch boxes and at home as a snack!

For more information visit:

 www.walkersmightylights.co.uk

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. We received packets of all three flavours. Walkers have had no influence on my post and all of the opinions are my own and of my family.