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!

Calsway Snacks Review - Plus Dessert Recipe!

Eating right just got a lot easier with the new health brand Calsway. Calsway have recently announced the launch of their Eat Right® (#EatRight) range of snacks.

Like the majority of busy people finding a healthy snack for on the go can be hard. But Calsway have created a range of naturally delicious snacks that finally solve this problem. Trying to follow a healthy eating plan you are bombarded by what you can and cannot eat, the amount of calories to consume, weighing foods, following a 'diet' can be exhausting. These Calsway snacks come pre packed in resealable pouches that come in 100, 150 and 200 calorie packets with both paleo and vegan options available. When Calsway contacted me to ask if we would like to try one of their variety boxes I knew that they could solve both my snacking problems and finding healthy snacks for the children.

#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...

Action Storage - Ideal for Packed Lunch Foods and PE Kits

When I was challenged to use a school locker as a storage place for school items I immediately knew that being the foodie that I am it would be an ideal opportunity to use for packed lunch items. Next year Joseph goes up to high school, which is a huge step for both him and for me. It will be hard to accept that he really is growing up. With growing up comes more independence.

We have recently started to give Joseph more jobs to do to increase his independence. His jobs in the morning are to finish packing his lunch box with snacks and fruit and to prepare his PE kit. I prepare his sandwiches the night before and he adds the extra bits in the morning. These always get left until the last minute and when I am getting both the twins and myself ready for the morning the last thing I need is Joseph shouting and asking me where his trainers are or where his drinks are. This is where my locker from Action Storage, who supply lockers in schools, comes in. 

The locker is a two door cabinet which enables me to separate his packed lunch extras from his pe kit and other items such as hat and gloves. This way everything that he needs to get is all in one place. This makes it easier for him to locate all of his things and makes life less stressful for me in the mornings.

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.

Jungle Dogs Perfect for Packed Lunches

Now that the children are back at school the tough decisions of what to put in their packed lunches is back!

That is where Jungle Dogs come in!

I was sent some Jungle Dogs to create a recipe that would be great for a packed lunch. However  I will admit that Joseph likes them just as they are!

I am not usually a fan of hot dog sausages. It is something which I do not buy as they usually contain a lot of ingredients but not a lot of meat and are heavily processed. However Jungle Dogs are different from other hot dog sausages. They contain 85% Pork which is not mechanically separated meat, naturally smoked, contain no artificial colours or flavours.

The packaging is designed to attract children and my son thought that it looked great. You get 6 hot dogs in a pack and retail at £1 which is a good price.

Joseph has enjoyed taking the Jungle Dogs sliced in his lunch box.

I have previously posted a recipe Jungle Dogs Pasta which would be great as a cold pasta salad for packed lunches.

Disclosure: I was sent some Jungle Dogs for the purpose of this post. No payment was received. All views and opinions are my own and 100% honest.

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.