What's for Lunch?

It's back to school time--back to early rising, back to homework, and back to packing lunches. Whether your child is in high school, grade school, or MDO, the dilemma of what to pack can be an on-going challenge. But once again, I'm here to share ideas for how you can go green and save green for school lunches.

Since my first grader has no interest in school lunches, I'm packing every day. To cut down on trash, I've bought Laptop Lunch boxes (like the traditional Japanese bento box) for all three kids. They're a little pricey ($25 at reusit.com or search online for "discount codes" before buying), but it's a worthwhile investment. Inside, there are two small and two medium size boxes (dishwasher and microwave safe). There's also a tiny box you could use for ketsup or dipping sauces, and flatware included. Most boxes don't have tops, but solid contents will not fall out, even turned upside down. I can attest that the boxes and flatware are great quality and will hold up to everyday use. They also fit into most standard insulated cases.

For a ton of ideas of what to pack in your laptop lunches, it comes with a handy book. Melissa at Frugalissa Finds has some great pictures and ideas too; here's another of her posts about how to actually get your kids to eat these healthy lunches.. If your school allows them the use a microwave, that opens up loads of possibilities. I send cooked pasta, lunch meat rolled up since they don't like sandwiches (aka: turkey or ham roll-ups), slices of cheese, cut-up fruit, Chex mix, popcorn, goldfish, cheezits, Annie's bunny snacks, raisons, mini carrots, and pretzyls. I stay away from anything already prepackaged, including Capri Suns and juice boxes. I send ice water in a Klean Kanteen instead; look for the sport caps for younger children. You can often pick them up for half price on babysteals.com.

The most important detail is follow your program's guidelines on nuts. If peanuts are out but other nuts are allowed, I recommend fresh almond butter at Ingles for sandwiches. Since Devin has a classmate highly allergic to all nuts, I'll be careful of that.

For more ideas, sign up for Earthfare's Healthy Lunch Challenge. You'll get a coupon for a free insulated bag (value: $2.99) through 8/31 or while supplies last. Now through 8/24, you can get one pound of organic grapes (red or white) for FREE with this coupon. Remember grapes are one of the "dirty dozen" that you want to buy organic or at least grown in the USA. For other sale items at Earthfare and printable coupons, go here. And don't forget to check out Iheartearthfare.com.

If you haven't made it to Kroger's mega sale the past two weeks, get there by Saturday for some great deals on lunch items. For fresh produce, there was a $4 off $20 or $1 off $5 coupon in the Kroger home mailer. I also had two store coupons for $.50 off mini carrots. Note: these do NOT double, but with the sale this week, each pack was only $.50. There's also a $.55 off Earthgrains bread; never underestimate the importance of good quality bread! Finally, there was a $1 off Hefty storage bags, which makes one box free this week. The gallon freezer bags are great for making freezer meals to save you time during the busy school year. If you don't get Kroger home mailer coupons, call customer service; they're great!

As for lunch meats, I prefer Hormel Natural Choice meats. They have NO nitrates, NO artificial ingredients, are minimally processed, have NO MSG added, are raised without added hormones, and are gluten free. You can also find coupons in the paper, online, or in blinkies near the meat. This week they're on sale for $2.50 each, and I used 2 $.55/1 and 2 $1/2 to make each pack about $2. The expiration is still a few months out; so I could stock up.

Thanks to creative couponing, you can get Fiber One bars, Nature Valley bars, Nature Valley clusters, Chex Mix, and Gardetto's Snack Mix for FREE this week. They're not as healthy or green in terms of packaging, but they sure are handy. You might also consider donating them to a food pantry. For details on how to get the best deals this week, go to Southern Savers. Coupon Katie and Gabrielle at Couponing in Critical Times also posted their trips to Kroger for guidance. I saved 53% today (a high percentage for me).

What tips do you have for making school lunches more green?

New Dirty Dozen

Here's the dilemma: do I buy what's healthier or do I save money? I get it. There's some resistance out there to spending the extra money on organic because most of us don't want to be suckers. What if organic isn't all that special and we're throwing our money away?

I, for one, do NOT feel this way. I've read enough to know the herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones used in much of mass produced, conventional farming is horrendous. However, I'm not an organic purist. My first choice is to buy locally farmed, non-certified organic foods at our wonderful farmers' markets. Most are responsible farmers and want to produce food they would serve to their families. If you really want a label, look for "certified naturally grown." I hear 4 or 5 of them are at the Market Square farmers' market weekly.

That said, there are other vegetables and fruits I want to buy that can't be grown locally or aren't always in season. That's where I start trying to decide which foods are most important to me to buy organic.

The best place to start is the New Dirty Dozen: 12 Foods to Eat Organic. By choosing organic for these foods, you can reduce the amount of pesticides you ingest by 80%! The list has been around for 15 years, but it changes somewhat from year to year. Here's the list for 2010:

1. Celery: I'm stunned to read that 64 pesticides were detected on celery. Who knew there were 64 pesticides they could use?! I haven't bought organic before, but I'll be looking for that now.

2. Peaches: Peaches didn't fare much better with 62 pesticides. Having grown up with a peach tree, I've seen how quickly they turn from ripe to rotten. I'm thankful we now have two peach trees in the backyard. I'll let you know about July how they taste and how I preserve them.

3. Strawberries: I know it's hard to pay sometimes twice the price for organic vs conventional strawberries, but I think that's money well spent. However, if you're willing to pick them yourself, now is the perfect time to pick your own. We went to Rutherford's Strawberries in Maryville 5/7/10 and the plants are dripping with berries! Look for a post on that soon. Rutherford's is not organic but they use minimal pesticides and the cost is just $1.25 / pound.

4. Apples: Since scrubbing apples doesn't remove all chemical residue and many of the nutrients are in the skin, this is a good food to go organic. Head to Earthfare for these. They've had deals for free apples in the past and most recently they were 3 pounds for $5--a reasonable price. If they have them at Kroger, look for bags in bulk.

5. Blueberries: This is one of those "super foods" loaded with antioxidants, but they can be very expensive. I have found a coupon from Driscoll's before to use at Kroger. Consider buying them frozen to put in smoothies. Cascadian Farm often has coupons; paired with a sale, they're a good buy. We planted blueberry and blackberry bushes this year; I'm just hoping we get them before the birds do.

6. Nectarines: Since I never buy nectarines, I can cross this one off my list. If you're looking for alternatives, consider mangoes and papaya.

7. Bell Peppers: Now I admit I rarely look for organic when buying peppers, but maybe I'll start. I have read that red peppers have loads more nutrition than green (that may explain why they cost three times as much); so if you see a deal on red, get those.

8. Spinach: This is a fairly easy vegetable to buy organic. Last week I bought organic spinach at Sam's Club for $3.97 / pound. Most grocery chains carry organic spinach and often put it on sale. Or I saw a few people selling locally grown spinach at the farmers' market.

9. Kale: Again, I rarely buy kale but I'm trying to muster the courage to try it. Safer alternatives are broccoli and asparagus. I bought beautiful broccoli and asparagus at the farmers' market on Thursday.

10. Cherries: I was surprised to learn that one survey found three times the number of pesticides on U.S. grown cherries than those imported. Good thing I rarely buy them.

11. Potatoes: When I read this article, what struck me was that most potato farmers would never eat the potatoes they grow (which require so many pesticides). They usually plant a separate plot without all the treatments for themselves. That's why I buy our organic potatoes at Earthfare. They have had specials for free potatoes and most recently a 5 pound bag of red cost $6 and russet cost $4.

12. Grapes: They warn imported grapes can be much more contaminated than local alternatives. I'll be trying to buy American grapes from now on. Keep that in mind for wine as well.

Other fruits and vegetables to consider buying organic when possible are leafy greens, carrots, pears, and tomatoes. The article also discusses the importance of buying organic meat and milk. Here are my two cents on those.

Meat: This one is tough for me because organic meat is so much more expensive. However, we've begun buying 1/4 of a cow from a former colleague of my husband's. He does it as a hobby and is experimenting with grass-fed beef. Yes, I have to store a lot of meat in my freezer at once, but the price works out to much cheaper than anything in the store, and we know he uses minimal antibiotics. There are several local resources you might consider; start at the farmers' market or contact Hannah at Frugally Farming Family.

After reading about The Seven Foods Experts Won't Eat, we stopped buying farm-raised salmon. A few weeks back I found wild salmon on sale at Kroger and stocked up. I'll let you know when I see that again.

I admit I haven't researched local pork or chicken. If you have suggestions for where I can find affordable meat locally, please leave a comment.

Milk: Again, this one is tough to do financially for us for the sheer volume of milk we buy a week: 2-3 gallons. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but at least I feel better that the milk we buy states: "Our farmers pledge not to teat their cows with rbST."

Finally, the good news. Here is the list of the Clean 15: foods that don't need to be organic. These fruit and vegetables typically have a protective skin you don't eat: onions, avocados, corn, pineapple, mangoes, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes.

Where do you stand on organic vs conventional?