Tag

parenting

Browsing

Organise lunchboxes with minimal fuss and lots of healthy yumminess with these four amazing recipes!

Click here for more articles on nutrition, food portions, superfoods and health!


Recipe 1: 2 Ingredient Lunchbox Scrolls

If you want to make some fresh scrolls for lunch at home or lunch boxes, this is a really fast and easy recipe.  Equal parts self raising flour and greek yoghurt, that’s it!!

Serves: 8
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook times: 20 mins
Total time: 35 mins

Ingredients: 
1 cup Self Raising Flour
1 cup Greek Yoghurt

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Mix flour and yoghurt and make a ball.
3. Knead for a few minutes, adding more flour if mixture is too wet.
4. Sprinkle extra flour on bench, roll dough into rectangle

Mix ingredients together into a bowl to create dough.  I add a little more flour if the mix is too sticky.  Roll out onto a floured flat surface.  I have made a double batch below and created a different variety of scrolls.  One side is ham, capsicum, pineapple and cheese, the other ham and cheese.

Then roll up and slice into 2 cm thick segments, bake on baking tray until golden, approximately 15-18minutes.

Recipe 2: Mexican Chicken Salad Sandwich Filling

Ooh we so love Mexican in this household.  The girls and I like most dishes as I make them, but the boys (so macho) like to add in extra dashes of chilli sauce or jalapenos.   We often have chicken rolls for lunch on the weekends, but this took the traditional chicken and mayo roll to a whole new level.  If you love mexican you must try this!

Serves: 8-10
Prep time: 10 mins
Total time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

1 tomato, finely diced
1 capsicum, finely diced
3 spring onions, finely sliced
1/2 cup tasty cheese, grated
poached chicken breasts or 1 BBQ chook, shredded
1/3 cup mayonnaise
taco seasoning, to taste
Bread rolls

Instructions:

1. Add tomato, capsicum, spring onions and cheese into a large bowl, stir
2. Place chicken, mayonnaise and taco seasoning into bowl and stir to thoroughly combine.
3. Taste and add more mayonnaise and seasoning if required
4. Serve on bread rolls. There is enough mix for approximately 10 rolls.

Firstly I combined a diced tomato, capsicum, spring onions and cheese.

Then added poached chicken(or BBQ chook), mayonaise and taco seasoning.

Serve on bread rolls tiger bread rolls on this day, for a special treat!

Recipe 3: Fruity Bliss Balls

These Fruity Bliss Balls are nut free, which are ideal to put in the lunch boxes of kids who have a nut free policy at their school, store in the fridge for up to one week.

Serves: 18
Prep time: 15 mins
Total time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

10 medjool dates, remove seeds
1/2 cup raisins or sultanas
1 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoon cacao or cocoa
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
coconut

Instructions:

1. Place the ingredients into a food processor.
2. Process on high speed for several minutes until the mixture sticks together like a paste.
3. Take small handfuls of mixture and make into balls, roll in coconut.
4. Keep in the refrigerator, enjoy.

My kids usually take 3 bliss balls in replace of a fruit, read more about my lunchbox packing guide.

Recipe 4: Greek Mason Jar Salad

I’m trying to mix up what I am eating for lunches during the week.  Earlier this year I was stuck in a rut of making a sandwich every day.  Now I take time to plan ahead and make sure I eat something different each day.  I still have a sandwich, but another day I may have crispbread loaded with tuna, spinach, onion and tomato and then another day a mason jar salad.

Prep time: 10 mins
Total time: 10 mins

Ingredients: 

1-2 tablespoons classic dressing
1 /3 cup chickpeas
Capsicum, diced
Cucumber, diced
Red onion, sliced
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Olives
Chicken, shredded
Fetta, cubed
Baby spinach, washed

Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients in the order listed above into a clean mason jar
2. Seal tightly, refrigerate and use within 5-7 days.

https://offspringmagazine.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/greek-mason-jar-salad-5.jpg

There is a special technique to the salad assembly to keep all the contents fresh.  The vegetables and protein need to be layered in a particular way:

Layer 1  Dressing
Layer 2  Chickpeas
Layer 3 – Hard vegetables – capsicum, cucumber and red onion
Layer 4 – Soft vegetables – cherry tomatoes, olives
Layer 5 – Protein – chicken and fetta
Layer 6 – Salad greens – baby spinach

Words and Photos from: 

Kat Springer
The Organised Housewife

Wine Mom Culture has become a massive phenomenon, both in social media and in real life.  But is a culture that promotes drinking as a reward actually healthy?

“I’ll definitely need a glass of wine tonight,” I recently told a friend as I recounted a stressful week with my kids. “Parenting is making me crazy.” Though my friend laughed and nodded in agreement, I realized that, without thinking, I had personified a meme I have frankly always been disturbed by: The Wine Mom, the perpetually-stressed-yet-zany parent whose eyes are glued to the clock, waiting for the appropriate time to indulge in her nightly glass.

In recent years, the “wine mom” has both shaped online content and positioned companies to strategically market wine-themed products — and actual wine — to young moms.  In addition to content glorifying alcohol consumption, the wine mom has gotten her fair share of space in think-pieces pointing out why, exactly, a culture that promotes drinking as a reward is problematic for women. Although the ritual of a nightly glass of wine isn’t in itself automatically detrimental, it does speak to a broader issue: Drinking among moms is increasing, and joking about it undermines the problem.

According to a study conducted by the nonprofit research organization ChildTrends, the percentage of mothers who drank at least moderately spiked by nearly 25 percent between 2004 and 2014.  And among two-parent families in 2014, three percent of mothers reported routine heavy drinking. Whether women employ a single glass of Pinot or a whole bottle to abate their stress, “wine mom” gives them a permissive smile and a nod as they do so.

Photo Designed by Freepik.

And therein lies one of wine mom’s fatal flaws: Her caricature is both pointed and broad enough to appeal to women with a variety of drinking habits and histories. Wine mom simply likes to drink, and her buzz-inducing weapon of choice is almost always portrayed as a well-earned stress reliever. Without consideration of a woman’s past (including the potential of predisposition toward addiction), the meme paints a stressful picture of motherhood and, in so doing, prioritizes alcohol as both a reward and an escape — and therein lies the problem.

“The spread of the ‘wine mom’ across social media normalizes the idea that motherhood is stressful, but drinking will help,” says Whitney Hawkins, a Miami-based psychotherapist specializing in substance abuse and addiction. “There is nothing wrong with drinking in moderation, but the idea that drinking is the only way to get through motherhood is a damaging concept. It also completely leaves mothers who are prone to addiction out of the equation and makes alcohol consumption a normal means of dealing with the stress of motherhood.”

Molly Davis, life coach and author of BLUSH: Women and Wine, experienced “wine mom” culture before it evolved to a meme, and eventually saw the impact of looking to alcohol as an emotional escape. “When I was raising my daughters, almost every mom I knew drank wine almost every night,” she said. “Wine has become a very classy-looking coping mechanism for women to deal with stress, dull pain, and avoid uncomfortable issues, emotions, conversations, and relationships that are calling for our clear-headed attention.”

Davis’ own evening wine habit, she said, affected her relationship with her children. “My own daughters knew me with a glass of wine in my hand in the evening, and the smell of it on my breath when I read to them,” she told Brit + Co. “And while I didn’t drink my way through a bottle of wine at night, I do know that there were times that I wasn’t as present as I could have been for my daughters.”

While moderate drinking may make a more subtle impact on one’s personal life and family relationships, heavy drinking has more serious repercussions. Of course, there are long-term risks to routine heavy drinking, like alcohol dependence, liver damage, and certain kinds of cancer. But there are also more immediate physical and emotional repercussions to alcohol abuse. Beyond the potential of a brutal hangover, regular heavy drinking can cause dehydration, weight gainsleep problems, and even increase the risk for mental health concerns like depression. In many ways, this means alcohol, especially when it’s abused, can actually make the problems women are trying to mask worse, which is a pricey tradeoff.

Along with the physical buzz that comes with it, alcohol significantly affects the brain. Because consuming alcohol helps shut down higher order brain functions and decreases rumination and thought, it can have a mental/emotional numbing effect that’s appealing in times of stress. However, experts say the continued use of alcohol as a coping mechanism can make matters worse over time.

“Alcohol is both addictive chemically and psychologically. This means that with continued use, especially during stressful situations, you can end up completely dependent on the substance,” said Hawkins.

There’s also the issue of building a tolerance over time with regular use of alcohol, which can also lead to alcohol abuse. Say you only need one glass of wine to relieve stress now. If you continue to drink regularly, you will likely need more alcohol to get the same effect over time, said Hawkins. This is why we see people who can put away a large amount of alcohol without becoming inebriated; their body has built up a tolerance.

Ultimately, Hawkins says the wine mom’s offer of escape by way of alcohol — though enticing in moments of stress —  isn’t worth the long-lasting repercussions. Like any other mode of self-medication, drinking to escape the hard parts of motherhood simultaneously glosses over and perpetuates deeper emotional issues.

“Using substances for mental health issues is a band-aid on a bullet wound. If you are experiencing feelings and emotions that are detrimental to your daily functioning, alcohol will not improve them,” says Hawkins. “It will only mask the feelings temporarily, leaving you with a headache and more problems in the morning.”

The article was originally published by  Brit + Co. and has been republished with permission. View the original article here.

Doctor Elise Bialylew, author of The Happiness Plan, explains the benefits of parents developing a ‘beginner’s mind’ while trying to engage with their child’s world.

As humans we have a unique evolutionary advantage, with minds that can project into the future, solve complex problems and generate creative ideas that transform what is possible. However, this unique talent comes at a cost. With minds that are free to time travel between past, present and future, we get excessively caught up in future thinking that creates unnecessary worry in our lives.

But, in its most cultivated form, the mind can be a resource for our deepest happiness, and for the flourishing of all humanity – and the planet. We are only just beginning to understand the potential impact that meditation can have on the brain, but what is clear is that mindfulness, when practiced regularly, can lead to long-lasting transformation.

One key attitude in the practise of mindfulness is the ‘beginner’s mind’. This is the ability to bring a freshness to your experience, seeing things ‘as if for the first time’, which allows you to drop your assumptions, ideas and desires, and instead be completely open to your experience. I’m often reminded of this quality by my two-year-old daughter. When I took her to the snow for the first time, she became completely absorbed in her exploration. In mindfulness, we’re invited to bring this quality of attention and curiosity to our meditation practice.

Through beginner’s mind, the fog of ‘ordinary’ starts to lift, and we see our lives with freshness and delight. Rather than seeing what we think is there, we see what is actually there. This new way of seeing opens us to new possibilities as we step out of our self-limiting assumptions, beliefs and habits.

Imagine how bringing a beginner’s mind to just one day of your life could change how you experience your family, friends, work and the many aspects of your day.

Life can get so busy that it’s easy to take the people closest to us for granted, and not be truly present to them. The ‘beginner’s mind’ that we practise through mindfulness reminds us to wake up and experience the preciousness of those around us.

“The fog of ‘ordinary’ starts to lift, and we see our lives with freshness and delight. Rather than seeing what we think is there, we see what is actually there”.

Beginner’s mind helps me cut through the sometimes monotonous daily routine of motherhood and experience precious moments where my full presence meets my daughter’s, and I’m moved to tears. Looking into the deep, dark-brown eyes of this little girl, I’m overwhelmed by her purity and innocence, and the complete miracle of her existence. I’m aware that she is still very close to an original, non-separate consciousness that connects all living things; the incomprehensible intelligence of life is peering out at me, the intelligence that has transformed itself from an embryo into a complex human being.

Children are a potent source of mindfulness. These days my daughter is my main teacher as I navigate the extended, not-so-silent mindfulness meditation retreat that is motherhood. Some nights after book time, I lie with her and we meditate together. I’ve introduced her to the concept of meditation, experimenting with how much she can understand of the practice. We watch a teddy move up and down on her belly as she breathes, and she giggles with delight. Then we do a few Om chants together – there is nothing religious in this chant, we’re just enjoying the sound of singing in unison. We chant, ‘Om, Om, Om,’ as we gaze into each other’s eyes. To enjoy this stillness with a toddler feels almost holy, a rare moment, as we manage to maintain eye contact for a few minutes.

“These days my daughter is my main teacher as I navigate the extended, not-so-silent mindfulness meditation retreat that is motherhood”.

In these moments it often occurs to me that my partner, my parents, all the people in my life and the strangers I walk past in the street are also mysterious living, breathing expressions of consciousness. Yet somehow, as we get older, it gets harder to maintain this wonder about one another, this beginner’s mind. Somehow the complete innocence of my daughter seems to be a direct line to presence and pure consciousness. It’s this exact quality of being that we try to return to through the practice of meditation.

“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love they bloom life flowers.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

Here’s an exercise to practice stepping into ‘beginner’s mind’ with your child, amplifying your presence as a parent. This practice can be explored with toddlers as well as older children. 

1. Decide on a time of the day when you have 20 minutes and dedicate this time to being fully present to your child and activating your curiosity.

2. Ask your child what they would like to do and follow their lead over this 20-minute period without suggesting other options (assuming of course what they are suggesting is safe).

3. As you engage with your child see them as if for the very first time. Notice the tone of their voice. Notice whether or not they make eye contact. Notice the different facial expressions as you engage in this activity. Notice your tendency to want to suggest something other than what they are suggesting. Bring awareness to your own emotional state: notice if there is joy, impatience, a tendency to think about all the things you need to do, then bring your attention back to your child. Notice all the details of their physical appearance as if you were going to draw them.

4. After the exercise find sometime later in the day to journal about your experience. Reflect on these questions:

  • What was it like to engage with your child in this way?
  • How was it different to how you normally interact with your child?
  • What did you notice about your child?
  • What did you notice about yourself?

 

DR Elise Bialylew is the author of The Happiness Plan (Affirm Press, $24.99) and the founder of Mindful in May, the largest online global mindfulness fundraising campaign that features the world’s leading experts and raises funds for clean water projects in the developing world. A doctor trained in psychiatry, and a mindfulness expert, she’s passionate about supporting individuals and organisations to develop inner tools for greater wellbeing and flourishing.