Natural Family Recipes Blog

1 tbsp olive oil + extra if needed during cooking

1 small zucchini, sliced into 1/4 in slices
1 small onion, wedged
1 (6 oz) can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 small red sweet pepper, cut into 2 in strips
2 C  fresh bean sprouts
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp pepper

How to Make It:

Place the olive oil into a wok. 

Heat to medium high heat.

Add the zucchini and onion and cook 3 minutes or until crisp but tender.

Remove and place in a separate bowl.

Add more oil if necessary.

Place the mushrooms and red pepper strips into the hot wok.

Cook 2 minutes or until fork tender but crisp.

Remove and place in the same bowl as the onion mixture stirring together to incorporate.

Add more oil if necessary.

Place the bean sprouts into the wok.

Pour the soy sauce over the top of the bean sprouts.

Stir in the sugar and pepper being sure to mix together well.

Cook 2 minutes. 

Place the onion and mushroom mixture back into the wok.

Continue cooking 4 minutes, being sure to stir occasionally, or until completed heated through.

Place immediately into a warm prepared thermos. 

Serves 4

As long as the thermos has been warmed, sealed tightly and not opened until ready to eat this meal will remain hot and delicious right up until lunch time.

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1 (10 oz) pkg. chopped spinach

2 c mayonnaise

1/2 C parsley, chopped

1/2 C green onion, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Assorted vegetable pieces

How to Make It:

Cook the spinach as directed on the package.

Drain the spinach and mash it down with a potato masher to remove as much juice as possible.

Place the drained spinach into a mixing bowl.

Add the mayonnaise with a rubber spatula.

Dump in the parsley and green onions.

Sprinkle with the salt and pepper.

Using the rubber spatula and stirring from the bottom up mix the ingredients all together well.

Place the dip into a prepared cooled thermos.

Place the vegetable pieces in a separate container.

Serves 6

Just about any type of vegetable will work with this dip.  Try carrot or celery sticks, broccoli, cauliflower or even cherry tomatoes.

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1/2 C canned black beans

1/2 C canned corn, drained

1/2 C brown rice, cooked

1/4 C salsa

How to Make It:

Place the beans and corn in a saucepan.

Add the cooked brown rice.

Stir in the salsa.

Place the saucepan on the stove over low heat.

Cook 12 minutes or until heated through.

Place in a prepared warm thermos.

Serves 1

This meal is so easy to prepare and is very filling.  A side salad or some tortilla chips can be added for the perfect lunch.

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2 slices of bacon

1 (6 oz) can sliced mushrooms, drained

1 small onion, chopped

1 small red pepper, chopped

4 C chicken broth

2 C chicken breast, cooked and chopped

2 C taco salsa

1 tbsp taco seasoning

How to Make It:

Place the bacon in a soup kettle over medium heat.

Cook the bacon crisp, 12 minutes, being sure to crumble the bacon as it cooks.

Place the mushrooms, onion and red pepper in with the crumbled bacon.

Pour the chicken broth in over the vegetables.

Carefully place the chopped chicken into the pot.

Stir in the taco salsa and taco seasoning well being sure all the ingredients are incorporated together.

Bring the mixture to a quick boil over high heat.

Turn the heat to low once boil, cover and cook 15 minutes.

Pour into a prepared thermos.

Serves 4

Add a few tortilla chips or corn chips with this soup for a perfect meal.  Shredded cheese and sour cream can also be added as a garnish.

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1/4 C steel cut oats

1 1/2 C boiling water

1/4 C dried fruit (your favorite)

How to Make It:

Dump the oats into the thermos. 

Pour the boiling water over the oats.

Place the lid on the thermos and seal tight.

Leave the thermos set overnight.

In the morning drain off any excess water.

Stir in the dried fruit.

Replace the lid and go.

Serves 1

You can use old fashioned oats or quick oats in this recipe but don’t try instant oats.  Add a little milk, white sugar, brown sugar or butter for a different taste. 

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We look forward to eating lunch. It’s a time to catch up with coworkers or friends over a good meal. Whether you have thirty minutes or an hour, follow some safety precautions so that the food you eat won’t come back to haunt you.

The first safety issue with food concerns keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Now, with hot foods, they won’t stay hot for several hours but an insulated container or Thermos allows for lukewarm or room temperature foods. Even if the food needs to be reheated before eating, it should be room temperature or cool when packed.

Letting food cool down before refrigerating it avoids the excess condensation inside the container. That extra water that builds up inside can make food soggy. On top of that, it doesn’t look good when the container is opened and extra water has collected on the food. And, seriously who wants to eat soggy bread?

For frozen meals from the store, there’s no need to thaw them out before packing your lunch bag. By the time you get around to eating it, the meal will probably not be frozen anymore. Using a cold pack in the bag also keeps the temperature constant so the meal won’t completely thaw before it’s time to dig in.

These meals have preservatives so they are not as much of a worry as homemade dishes brought for lunch. Anything with mayonnaise or egg holds up better with refrigeration. A lunch bag left out in the sun or not refrigerated will become rancid over time. That doesn’t mean your lunch will be that way if you don’t have an ice pack, but you never know what might happen. Taking leftovers for lunch that are a few days old combined with the lack of refrigeration can cause serious problems.

Any food that is not eaten at lunch needs to be refrigerated again if you plan on eating more of it. You should also remove a portion of the meal to a plate or other container when you don’t intend to eat it all. Enzymes in saliva break down food and can cause bacteria to spread more rapidly. A half eaten sandwich or plate of meatloaf won’t be palatable three hours after lunch unless the portion was divided before you took the first bite.

One final thing – empty the lunch bag when you get home. Kids are great for leaving leftover food in a lunch bag on the top of the refrigerator. Yuck! Clean the bag out in case something spilled in the bottom or there are some food pieces. By following these tips you and your kids can enjoy eating lunch without getting sick.

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Brown bag lunches today are not your mother’s lunch packing job. For kids, brown bag lunches have gone all modern and flashy. When you offer a brown bag lunch to your kids or other members of the family, here are some essentials to have on hand.

1.      The packaging is part of the presentation. Whether you use a brown paper bag or a lunch box, express your own style. A brown paper bag can be decorated with stickers or unique drawings if you are gifted with the talent. Lunch boxes used to be metal and covered with super heroes. Now they are insulated and look like purses or a small camping bag. The lunch bag should fit the style of the carrier.

2.      Don’t forget the refrigeration. Many offices have refrigerators for their employees. A brown bag lunch can stay in the brown bag when the lunch can be kept cold. It becomes harder to stick with the traditional packaging if you are in school or somewhere that a refrigerator is not accessible. In this case, bring a cold pack to do the job. For any cold pack, store it in the freezer in a leak proof plastic bag. When the cold pack begins to melt, the food is protected from contamination from the pack if it should get punctured. Cold packs are good for several hours each day.

3.      Containers prevent cross contamination. Each school child had opened their lunch once and seen a sandwich all soggy with the pink tint of a drink that has opened up. Containers prevent that. Lots of lunch bags come with their own containers that expressly fit in that bag. For ones that do not, buy various sizes of containers with tight fitting lids so even if the lunch bag turns over nothing will be disturbed.

4.      Add a note of love. This doesn’t just work for kids but adults as well. Opening lunch and finding an encouraging word or two from someone who loves you can make the difference between a good day and a bad day getting worse. Don’t worry about kids getting embarrassed. Eventually, their friends will begin looking for notes in their lunches too.

What is essential to complete your brown bag lunch? It could be plastic ware, napkins, or condiments. If the lunch bag has an extra compartment, keep a set of silverware, extra condiments, and wet naps in there for weekly lunch use. Be prepared and you won’t be caught without what you need at lunchtime.

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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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The last thing we want to do in the hot summer is heat up the kitchen cooking dinner. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to feed your family and still beat the heat. Breakfast is fairly easy since fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, cereals and smoothies are delicious in the A.M. any time of year. Dinnertime is a little more challenging. Here are some ideas:  

Sandwich Night 
Every family should adopt a weekly sandwich night, if for no other reason than to give Mom a break! But another great reason to have sandwich night is to avoid turning on the oven. Just gather up all of your family’s favorite sandwich fixings and let them go to town. If plain old sandwiches get boring, try using tortillas and creating wraps or make open faced sandwiches or panini.  

Main Dish Salads 
What’s nicer on a hot day than a cool, crisp, crunchy salad? In the summertime your body needs the additional water so give it what it’s craving by making a main dish salad. To make a meal out of a salad, add cooked and cooled chicken, shrimp, tuna, beans, cheese and hardboiled eggs for additional protein.  

Take It Outside 
To the grill, that is. Cook your meat and veggies outside on the grill and keep the heat out of your kitchen. Then serve a nice cold fruit salad for dessert. Refreshing! 

Use Smaller Appliances
If you just have to have a hot meal, use a smaller appliance. Your toaster oven or slow cooker create less heat than your stove and oven do. You can also make meals that cook quickly like omelets, quesadillas and stir fries. 

Eat it Cold
Some dishes are meant to be served cool or at room temperature. Some ideas: sushi, gazpacho,  chips and dips, and hummus with pita and veggies. These are excellent for lunch or dinner.  

Go Raw 
Summertime is a wonderful time to experiment with eating more raw fruits and veggies. Even if you don’t want to commit to a raw foods diet long term, pick up a raw food “cookbook” and experiment with some of the recipes.

This The 365 Salad Recipe Collection is made up of just salad recipes, one for every day of the year.

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