100+ Back-to-School Lunch Ideas

September 02, 2018 in Nourished Home, Nourished Recipes

It’s back to school season which means many of us parents are scrambling to figure out “what do I (or my kids) pack for school lunch?” I (Caitlyn) am honored, excited, and overwhelmed joining for the first time the rank of parents and caregivers that are packing up their little lovebugs and sending them off to school! Whether school is a car drive a way, the destination of the sea of school buses, or across the kitchen table, back to school season requires some prep.

With school starting last week for my kiddo, I’ve been in the thick of washing school clothes, packing his backpack, and planning lunches. This week I want to share with you my round up of healthy school lunch ideas. Below you’ll find a couple Living Wellness original recipes and a bunch of links to other websites. Bookmark your favorites for later! I'd also love for you to share in the comments below your favorite school lunch ideas.

Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Rainbow Bacon?

June 17, 2018 in Nourished Recipes, Nourished Home

When they said “Eat the rainbow 🌈” they never said that couldn’t include bacon!

Weeknights can be a little crazy to get a meal on the table, let alone one with a side dish or a veggie. Even if I do manage to quickly whip something up with a veggie or two, it seems like I turn around the the dishes behind me in the sink have multiplied. That's why I've really been getting into sheet pan meals. One pan. One meal. Endless possibilities.

For this month's Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love recipe blog post, I wanted to share with you a tried-and-true favorite in our household: 🌈 Rainbow Bacon.

Yes 🌈Rainbow Bacon is packed full of veggies as the name would imply :) Okay in all seriousness the heart of this sheet pan meal is the bacon and you can toss in whatever veggies you have on hand. This recipe started out with onions, Brussels sprouts, and bacon but has morphed into so much more. The recipe below is by far our favorite. How did I come up with it? Honestly I opened up the fridge, freezer, and pantry and asked my toddler which veggies he wanted for supper. His first response was "bacon!" "No, what veggie do you want with your bacon?" :) We came up with the list of veggies below, some of which I knew he wouldn't eat, but as I said in our last post in this series: walk the walk.

Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Pumpkin Chocolate Brownie Muffins (GF)

May 13, 2018 in Nourished Recipes

On this very special day, Mother's Day, we want to share with you a recipe that's as sweet as mom :) We're back again for another post in our series Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love. Type this title into our search bar to find all the other delicious and nutritious recipes in this series. So with this month's recipe, I wanted you Moms (and everyone else too!) to have your veggie recipe but also have your dessert too. Have you ever heard of a dessert with a veggie in it other than carrot cake? I haven't!

As I mentioned in this post, my son is muffin crazy, and it brings me so much joy to see my kiddo go crazy for something I've made that is healthy too. This spring, I started experimenting with some egg-free Paleo muffin recipes for his birthday party.

I'm typically pretty good at adding the main components of a recipe on my grocery list, but this particular recipe I ran out of a few ingredients and had to improvise. The result was mouthwatering! What was once a pretty decent Paleo chocolate chip muffin, elevated into this chocolate peanut buttery goodness that melted in my mouth, completely masking the fact I was eating a veggie I didn't like: pumpkin! What's even better? They're super easy to make. Honestly the hardest part was scooping the peanut and almond butter from the bottom of the jars! Oh and I forgot to mention, my son loved them too!

Living Wellness LIVE Episode 3 Recipes

March 11, 2018 in Nourished Recipes

What an amazing Living Wellness LIVE Episode 3 we had this past Friday! We had such a great time learning from Stefanie Peters from Lady Boss Empire, Carisa Rasmussen from Clean & Lean, and Kelley Suggs from Lithe Wellness Solutions. If you weren't able to join our fun live audience and want to see the show, check out the full show here!

Also, if you missed our show in-person, you can still enjoy the amazing THREE course meal Kelley Suggs made by recreating those simple yet super flavorful dishes in your own kitchen. All three recipes are below!

For those of you who are not familiar with Kelley Suggs, she is a two-time guest on the Living Wellness LIVE show and certified health education specialist (CHES) at Lithe Wellness Solutions. You can learn much more about Kelley here!

Veggies You Never Thought You'd Love: Sweet Potato Fries

February 04, 2018 in Nourished Recipes, Nourished Body

Healthy eating has not always been something on my priority list nor was it something I was always willing to do. If I were to show my current diet to my 8-year-old self who often refused to eat anything except Campbell's Chunky Soup and Dinty Moore Stew (not making this up!), my 8-year-old probably would have fainted. When I look at the changes I've made, whether by choice or by medical-necessity, I'm quite proud of how far I've come.

One area though that I continue to struggle with and consequently see my toddler son struggle with being adventurous is veggies. Choose any color of the rainbow and there are a multitude of veggies with amazing nutritional value. I know how amazing broccoli is with it's calcium and vitamin C, Brussels sprouts with their manganese and vitamin B's, and sweet potato with it's vitamin A. I know how amazing veggies are for you, but that isn't always enough to challenge my palate to take a bite. As a former picker-eater and mother of a picker-eater, AND lover of honoring my body with nourishing foods, I'm excited to share with you a series of recipes I've developed over the years that have become a hit in our family and helped us to eat more veggies.

I'd also like to share with you a simple tip each post in this series how to help your kiddos (or yourself) becoming more adventurous with their eating!

"Cheesy" Lentil Macaroni

April 08, 2017 in Nourished Recipes, Nourished Body

Have you ever needed to remove a food from your diet for a season or forever? If you have, I'm guessing you went through a process similar to me: initially you felt overwhelmed & the diet change felt all-consuming, then you started to get your groove with some days that were easy/some were hard. At some point, this change started to become your new norm, but every now and then (or sometimes every day) you miss the food(s) that you no longer could eat. Sound familiar?

Yesterday marks two years since I needed to remove gluten from my diet as a result of a diagnosis of an auto-immune disease. I remember that meal planning felt all-consuming to me those first few days/weeks/months that I started the gluten-free diet. It was hard to imagine at that time that I would ever figure out this diet change. Fast-forward two years and eating gluten-free is no longer stressful or consuming; instead, I'm celebrating that it feels normal. I'm celebrating that eating gluten-free no longer feels like something has been ripped away from me and left stress in its place.

Chores, Cleaning, and Chaos!

October 24, 2016 in Nourished Home

Is chaos how you would describe cleaning and chores in your household? Do you dread cleaning and put it off for "another day"? Read on for some HELP: hope, encouragement, laughter, and a plan.

As I laid down to go to sleep last night, I took a long deep, cleansing breath and felt a sense of contentment about the cleanliness of my home. Now, I know what you are thinking....so let me dispel a couple things:

I do not have a maid or anyone who is at home full time to clean.
I am not delusional...well mostly not
The magical cleaning fairy has not returned by calls, texts, or emails. Ever.

No, the secret here is a concept I dreamed up one night as I was falling asleep or possibly in the shower where all great ideas come to life. This is it: a cleaning schedule. I'm all about organization and schedules, so this was no surprise to my husband. I was ecstatic! We've used this strategy on and off throughout the past few years. The location of our home and members of our family have changed, so by necessity our cleaning schedule has adapted.

3 Nutrition Tips for Your Back-to-School Routine

October 10, 2016 in Nourished Home, Nourished Body

Fall is a great time to think about our families’ health. Kids go back to school (or for those of us homeschool parents, we “host” the kids at “school”, some of us settle into a new routine, the weather gets cooler and the leaves change into beautiful shades of red, gold, and purple. We want to protect our children when they are out and about -- so we get out the snacks, water bottles, and helmets J. While those items are vital for the health of our children and us, the rest of the items in our snack and sports bags may be poisoning our children. Below are the 3 food products that should be avoided: