The Good Bean: Great Snacks Made with Chickpeas

The Good Bean roasted chickpea snacks

The Good Bean roasted chickpea snacks

I am always on the lookout for simple snacks that are tasty and nut free. As luck would have it, I recently received a delightful box containing several flavors of roasted chickpea snacks from The Good Bean for my family to taste.

In a word: Yum!

Good Bean Chocolate Flavor

My kids were thrilled to open the package and find seven different flavors to try: Sea Salt, Cracked Pepper, Smoky Chili & Lime, Mesquite BBQ, Thai Coconut, Chocolate and Sweet Cinnamon. These definitely satisfy the crunchy snack craving and they were filling too, thanks to fiber and protein. It was fun to see which flavors my kids were drawn to: my 8 year old loved the Smoky Chili & Lime best, my 4 year old loved the Chocolate flavor and my littlest one is pretty much equal opportunity but seems most fond of the Sea Salt flavor. These snacks are particularly wonderful for us because they are produced in a dedicated nut-free facility. My son's school is very strict on the issue, so it has become something that we pay close attention to.

We make our own roasted chickpeas at home from time to time but I would absolutely use these for an added layer of texture. My son specifically requested the Sweet Cinnamon flavor with his yogurt the other day. 

Fruit & No Nut Bar

The Good Bean also sent us some Fruit & No Nut Bars to try. These are not made in a dedicated nut-free facility but they follow Good Manufacturing Processes to address issues of cross-contamination. All 3 flavors are chewy and flavorful without that pasty-bean aftertaste. My favorite was the Apricot Coconut bar - earthy and sweet with a surprising hint of nuttiness, without nuts! Delicious.  

In short, thumbs up for The Good Bean! You can find out where to get them with their Store Locator.

*Full disclosure: these products were sent to me for free but I have not been paid to provide my opinion. We genuinely enjoyed these!

Why I Give My Kids a Voice in Their Lunch

I was never a PB&J kind of kid. When I was growing up, my mom never packed the same lunches for me that the other kids got. I was okay with that; I never liked bologna and cheese and it's not like she was sending me to school with a sprouted lentil loaf, if you know what I mean.

My favorite lunch as a kid that I can remember was cheese tortellini with a homemade vinaigrette. My mom usually packed an apple with it and some kind of snack, like pretzel rods. I *loved* this lunch. My friends thought it was interesting and cool, without being weird. And that's the thing... lunch is social. It's a delicate balance for a kid to find something that he or she enjoys eating and at the same time, feels confident about. Let's not pretend that kids aren't conscious of this dynamic; it's one of the big reasons behind lunch trades and wasted food. My daughter loves to eat certain foods at home but refuses to have them in her lunch. It's disappointing, but I can't fault her for this, because I remember the feeling. 

This is a big part of the reason why I'm happy to give my kids the opportunity to plan their own lunches. Allowing them to choose the foods they want to eat for lunch (within the parameters that I set on LaLa Lunchbox, of course) helps them not only to find their food voice, but also to discover new taste preferences. Seeing new options in a visually simple way enables kids to think about foods that aren't otherwise top of mind. My daughter is on a huge goat cheese kick now for this very reason. While they're thinking about what to pack, undoubtedly they are considering the social impact. Will it be too smelly? Too weird? Is it something I'll want to eat in front of my friends? If you think about your own brown bag lunch experiences as an adult, the same issues may come into play, but your dining companions (at work or otherwise) can likely hold their tongues if they don't like what you've brought. Ever been on an airplane next to someone who opens something that you find horrific? Ever decide not to bring something on an airplane because of the reactions of others? Then you'll know what I'm talking about. 

Some families I know operate on the "parents choose the what, kids choose the how much" philosophy. I completely get that. My kids choose the "what" based on the "what" that I've already chosen, and within that, they choose the "how much." Navigating the social dynamic of school can be challenging, even for the most confident kids. For that reason (and so many more), I'm happy to empower my kids to be part of the lunch planning process. They're excited to choose their lunches with LaLa Lunchbox on my phone but it began as a paper-based project that my gal and I did together. There's no right answer of course. As with all parenting-related things, you have to find what feels right and even within the same family, some kids are more sensitive to these social issues than others. What works in your house? 

You may also enjoy: 

Our Favorite Lunchboxes
Best 4 Lunch Packing Tips
Top 5 Reasons to Involve your Kids in Meal Planning
Meal and Snack Planning at the Kids' Fingertips
 

Back to School and a Lunch Confession

I sent the kiddos off to school yesterday morning. How is it that the summer flies by more quickly every year? There were first day jitters but the day went very smoothly for the most part. But.. here's a lunch confession for you: 

My daughter called me in the middle of the day (this has never happened before - and I didn't recognize the phone number and almost didn't answer) because she didn't like the sandwich that I packed for her and requested a hot lunch. Ugh. She had planned her first day of school lunch over a week ago and requested a cream cheese and jam sandwich, apple slices, celery and seaweed. Apparently I used the wrong jam and it messed up everything. 

My littlest can't eat berries so I've completely gotten rid of berry jam in our house to avoid any issues. I now only buy the Santa Cruz mango fruit spread or the apricot fruit spread. I like them because the first ingredient listed is fruit (mango and apricot, respectively). Recently though, some ginger spread caught my eye at the grocery store and after reading the ingredients (ginger and sugar), I bought it. Here's the truth though – I couldn't remember which of my kids liked it and so I figured they all did. Not so. It's not a huge deal; My daughter didn't like her sandwich and she was enormously hungry at the end of the day. I had to throw out the uneaten sandwich, which is a shame, but worse things have happened. Note to self: no ginger jam for the oldest. 

Cherry yogurt, frozen peas, grapes, dried mango, Somersault Snacks Pacific Sea Salt cookies

Cherry yogurt, frozen peas, grapes, dried mango, Somersault Snacks Pacific Sea Salt cookies

In other news, my son devoured every last crumb of his lunch yesterday. He's crazy about frozen peas so I add them to his lunchbox right before he leaves for school so that they stay as cold as possible. Anyway, today is a new day with a new lunch for both kiddos. 

Happy back-to-schooling to all of you! 



Last Day of Summer

white nectarine, red pear, egg and Applegate organic turkey bacon

white nectarine, red pear, egg and Applegate organic turkey bacon

My kiddos start school tomorrow, so today, I'm basking in the relaxation of a non-school day morning and at the same time, dreading the whole 'getting back into a routine' thing. I guess we all have back-to-school jitters. When you have kids in different schools with different start and end times and a third who doesn't go to school but takes a midday 2 hour nap, figuring out a new schedule with all of the moving parts is dizzying. I still don't know how it's all going to work. The kids have put in their breakfast and lunch requests for the first two days of school so that's not part of the problem. I guess it'll be one day at a time and eventually (aka, in April or May) I'll figure out a routine. 

In the meantime, we had a Sunday breakfast on this sunny Wednesday morning and leisurely read some of our favorite books (many of them school-related) at the table.