Perfect Lunch for Popeye

In honor of National Spinach Day, here's a great recipe for Spinach Pie that is perfect for packing in a lunchbox and super easy to make: ​

Crustless Spinach Pie​

Preheat oven to 350 degrees​

Saute one chopped yellow onion in olive oil. Combine onion with two frozen packages of chopped spinach (20 ounces), prepared as directed on package. Add  2 large eggs, 6 ounces of crumbled feta, 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped dill, a dash of nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Optional: sprinkle top with grated parmesan cheese. Pour combined ingredients into an 8x8 baking dish.

Bake for approximately 35 minutes. ​Enjoy! 

"Bestest Scram" and Other Egg Adventures

We'd be lost without eggs in my house. We rarely have time for them on a weekday morning so eggs have become a terrific go-to for dinner. Need a quick dinner for two kids? Scrambled eggs are ready in just minutes. My kids call it a "Bestest Scram" and that's the protein for dinner in our house at least once a week.  

Got leftovers? Add those in and bake as a fritatta. The beauty of a fritatta is that it can work well for virtually any meal.  ​I combined last night's leftover roasted butternut squash (1/2 c cubed) with fresh chopped sage (1T), scallion (one, chopped), eggs (7 large) and a dash of milk and it will be a delicious lunch for myself and my kids. 

String Cheese: Snack? Or Main?

String Chees​e is a funny thing. I dont think it was around when I was a kid... at least my mom never had it in our house. But everywhere I look these days, kids are having string cheese. It's funny because cheese doesn't come in logs like this and we don't typically peel back layers of cheese and eat them with our fingers. And yet you can ask some kids about string cheese (referred to lovingly by many as cheese sticks) and they'll voice opinions loudly about the "striped kind" or the "white kind" or the "splotchy kind." 

Some parents hail it as a calcium-rich, non-sugar snack. Some parents consider it part of the "main dish" as an added protein. Some hate it because some brands have a hefty amount of sodium. Some avoid it entirely because all of the packaging is detrimental to the environment. All very good points, if you ask me. 

My daughter loves cheese in all forms and always has. But when it comes to her lunchbox, she's not sure where string cheese belongs. Is it a main protein? Is it a snack? 

What do you think of string cheese? 

Sunbutter - Peanut Butter's Delicious, Allergy-Free Alternative

I've got allergies. Bad ones. When I was a kid, no one I knew had allergies like mine. Some kids in my class said I should live in a bubble. Some adults that my parents knew used to say things like "send her over to my house! I'll teach her not to be allergic to nuts and fish." 

It doesn't work like that. Eating a nut that I'm allergic to can literally kill me. It's not something that I'll grow out of, either. Today, public awareness about food allergies is on a completely different scale thanks to organizations like the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network and vocal parents worldwide. Lots of schools are now nut-free. To me, this is a wonderful thing. 

My daughter's school is not nut free but I choose not to send her to school with nut products. In our house we buy nut alternatives like sunbutter. The organic unsweetened variety has one ingredient: organic sunflower seeds. It's earthy, flavorful and has a terrific texture that's great for sandwiches. 

Yummy Oatmeal Muffins!

I love oatmeal but my kids go back and forth on it. And when mornings are hectic, it's not the easiest breakfast food to make and serve. I've discovered and tinkered with a recipe for oatmeal muffins that is delicious, healthy and easy to throw into a lunchbox for a yummy snack. As you can see, my little guy loves these too. 

Yummy Oatmeal Muffins

Preheat oven to 375. In a bowl, combine:

• 2 cups of rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1.5 cups of milk
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 TB coconut oil (or melted butter)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 grated apple
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• (optional) 1/3 c unsweetened coconut

Mix well and let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes. Pour into muffin tin with cupcake liners and bake for about 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.