Natural Family Recipes Blog

1/2 can (8 oz) condensed tomato soup

1 carrot

1 parsnip

1/4 c red lentil

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

How to Make It:

Place the soup in a sauce pan.

Add ½ soup can of water to the soup.

Grate the carrot and parsnip into the soup mixture.

Add the red lentil.

Sprinkle in the onion and garlic powder.

Place the sauce pan over medium heat.

Bring to a quick boil.

Once boiling place the heat on low and continue cooking 10 minutes.

Pour into a warmed thermos.

Serves 1

There are many variations to this soup.  Try grated zucchini.  Add rice or cooked pasta to the mix.  Use canned beans instead of lentils.  If you use lentils be sure they are red not green lentils. Green lentils take awhile to cook down.

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The best thing about a brown bag lunch is that you create it yourself. Whatever you want to add can be thrown in the brown bag each day. For those who are trying to stay healthy, adding a few extra things to their lunch bag is a necessity.

Brown bag lunches of the past almost always contained a fruit. Moms dropped a shiny red apple or a blemish free orange in the bag. Remember how it used to crush the sandwich in the middle every time? Fruit is now, just as it was then, an essential part of a brown bag lunch. The best part is that now it can be packed without flattening the main course sandwich!

One way to keep from denting your delectable sandwich is to slice the fruit. Apples do turn brown fast so douse them in some lemon juice after you cut the apple to stop the browning process. Kids may look at those apple pieces with a funny expression if they open the container and see brown spots. The chances of them actually eating them decrease so keep them looking good and you’re kids are more likely to gobble them up. Oranges don’t turn colors but choosing seedless varieties lessens the chance of swallowing a seed and possibly choking.

Other good fruits are raisins, dates, prunes, and dried fruits. Dried fruits are sweeter because the drying process concentrates the natural sugars. Kids will think you added something special and they are getting away with something eating that overly sweet fruit. This will probably get them to eat more of the healthy stuff which is great for you.  They don’t have to know you didn’t sweeten their fruit with unnecessary sugar in order to get them to eat it so you’re secret is safe.

Instead of chips, try some pretzels. Hard pretzels aren’t just the dark brown twists with salt on top. Pretzels come in sticks, small twists, little nuggets, and a variety of flavors like honey mustard, honey, and cheddar. Even Pringles created a thin crispy pretzel stick that makes an easy to munch snack.

Nuts have always been ostracized because of their fat content. But, as we all know, all fats are not equal and the fat in nuts is good for you. Almonds are good to eat but many people prefer peanuts or pecans. The fat content is higher in those two types of nut, but you don’t have to eat an entire container. Fill a bag with a serving or two of nuts and eat them as a snack before or after lunch.

Pudding and applesauce are also a great addition to a brown bag lunch. They can be purchased in pre-packaged portions from the store. These types of snacks provide a sweet treat in specific proportions. You can find these goodies in sugar free forms as well to add to the healthy factor. Jell-O also comes in these types of single serving containers which sure makes it more appealing than the jiggly stuff we used to get in school.

Who says that healthy additions can’t be fun or tasty? Once healthy brown bag lunch foods tasted like cardboard; they now have flavors that kids and adults both enjoy.

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