Life in the Bento: Week One | 3-4 Sept 2015

Hulloooooo cupcakes!
My kiddos first week of school (if you can call it a "week"..... they only had school 2 days this week!) is officially over & I wanted to start a series on my blog called Life in the Bento which will showcase all the yummy goodness of lunch that my littles consume for school. I figured this is a great way to help those mommies & daddies who are having trouble with ideas for school lunches - because lets be real no one wants to eat sandwiches every day. & so, I bring you.....

LIFE IN THE BENTO.

week one. 3-4 Sept. 2015

Thursday, 3 Sept 2015: Lunch for the kiddos was fairly similar to each other. They had homemade chicken nuggets, "penguins" (which are Save-a-lot's version of Goldfish), Motts All Natural Fruit Gummies, & J chose cherry tomatoes while H chose carrots. (*H also chose to have ketchup with his nuggets)

Prepping the nuggets was easy. I sliced up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you can also use tenders or thighs) & rolled them in italian breadcrumbs (you could also use panko which would make the "breading" thicker, but my parents didn't have any panko in the house & I didn't feel like making another grocery store run). Bake them at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (depending on the size & thickness of your nuggets); let them cool & put them in a ziplock baggy with the date you made them so you can use them for meals later in the week.

I actually ended up snacking on them while prepping their lunch. They're really delicious!

Friday, 4 Sept. 2015: Their final day of their first week & each boy wanted something different in their bellies! The yummy deliciousness shown up above is J's lunch! He was having a "yellow" theme for some reason. In his little bento, he decided he wanted:
. half a banana
. 7 Ritz crackers
. Vanilla Yogurt
. "Kitty Sandwich"

To make the Kitty Sandwich, it was fairly simple. First: make any type of sandwich your monster is craving that day (J wanted black forest ham & cheese on whole wheat bread). Then take a cookie cutter or a sandwich cutter & smoosh it into the sandwich to create your shape. We ended up using a halloween cookie cutter for this but it was the perfect size. The "scraps" (aka the bits of bread on the OUTSIDE of the cutter) ended up in J's belly while I packed his brothers lunch. Get your little to help smoosh the cutter into the sandwich so they feel like they're having a big part in their lunch making.

Now onto H.....

For H's lunch he wanted homemade pizza! What kid doesn't love pizza?! But those lunchable pizza's that you can find at the grocery store are so full of sodium & processed junk..... + it's always more fun to figure out what you have on hand to make a delicious, kid friendly pizza. He also, sorta, stuck to the yellow theme too..... ish.

In H's bento:
. "Penguins" (read above if you are wondering about them)
. Corn
. Half a banana
. some hand shredded cheddar cheese

. 10 slices of turkey pepperoni

. 1 whole wheat "sandwich thin" (which I opened up to look like pizza crusts)

Now, you may be wondering where is the pizza sauce?! You are more than welcome to send your kiddos to school with pizza sauce in a little tupperware container, but I could just see H trying to open the container & it going everywhere..... or him trying to pour a little onto his crust & it end of in a soggy heap. Yeah, no thanks.

& that was pretty much their lunch for their "week" at school. I am honestly excited for next week when I can bring you a FULL weeks worth of meals for your littles! As for the bento boxes, I actually picked up these 3 compartment lunch containers in the Target Dollar Spot for, yep, $1! While they're not traditional Japanese Bento boxes, I think they work wonderfully with the boys & if they break them or lose them (& I'm sure they will), they were only $1. To separate the snacks & crackers a little more, I'm using cupcake liners to make extra "compartments" - I will be switching to silicone cupcake liners for reusability within the next week or so. 

If you guys do any of the aft formention bento ideas, tag me on Instagram using the hashtag #NavyLifeinBento. I can't wait to see all your wonderful creations. I may even feature you in a future blog post!

Drinking myself Skinny

Hello cupcakes!

Here is, yet again, my feeble attempt at #girlgetsfit. It is quite difficult for me to stick to a routine because I often get quite depressed when I don't see/feel immediate results (&, yes, I know results don't happen over night) & when I get that way, I just stop everything. It really is quite horrible because, honestly, I like working out - the rush & feeling of a good run use to fuel my bones. But not lately. (& it doesn't help that most days I'm in extreme pain from the fibromyalgia that I am not on medication for - the doctor wants to try PT since my original medicine regimen made me sick).

However! That post is neither here nor there. This post is about an amazing TEA that I was introduced to through Swagbucks called BotanicaScience SkinnyTox Detox Tea. Long name, right?! But it's totally worth the tongue twister.

Day One of starting SkinnyTox

Now, I have always been a big tea drinker - especially when it comes to loose leaf tea. I was first introduced to loose leaf tea in 2010 from Teavana - but that's not the point of this post; hahah. Anyway, Swagbucks was offering a pints promotion of 2,000 points for trying out this tea so I jumped on the bandwagon.

BontanicaScience prides themselves on being 100% organic & all natural. Their teas include things like rosehips, orange peels, stevia leaf, currents, & elderberries - just to name a few. You are meant to drink one cup in the morning & one at night &, honestly, after the first 2 days it becomes like clockwork for me to drink my tea on a regular basis. The tea does not stake claims in making/helping you lose weight but it does state to help curb appetites - which is pretty much the same thing, right? Not hungry means no munching on random nonsense. Since starting the detox tea, I have also lost my taste & desire for soda which is something I have been struggling with for a long while.

When I first started my tea-toxing journey, I was severely bloated, always run down & exhausted with no motivation or energy to do much of anything.

SkinnyTox Day Seven

I'm not sure if you can see the difference in a weeks time, but by a week in, I was definitely feeling loads better; I had more energy, I didn't feel so "heavy" (not in reference to weight, but overall body feeling - does that make sense?), & I was sleeping better at night with the night time tea. My cravings for sodas & sweets in general was pretty much nil by this point. With my morning tea, I would use my Frog Ocean Honey (from a local farmer here in NJ) Cranberry Blossom honey (apporximately 2-3 tsp) & at night I would drink it straight as it was. You can even drink the tea with out any extra type of sweetner at all! I just wanted to try & boost my immune system, so localized honey was my option. My darling loose leaf tea (even though it comes in a satchel), would steep in my tea cup for about 2-3 minutes (& if I walked away & forgot, sometimes longer - haha) in my beautiful TARDIS Tea Infuser my love bought me because, well, Whovian. ♥

I have successfully completed the 14 day tea-tox & am in the process of ordering the 28 day tea-tox. (: I highly recommend purchasing this brand of detox-fying tea if you're in the market for something new to add to your regimen. I am so happy I found this & even recommended it to my husband.

Can you see the difference? I kinda can. My husband can when I sent him pictures. I am not so much worried about the "losing weight" aspect when it comes to this tea because that's not what it's for. I bought it to help cleanse my body of all the nasty toxins I have been putting in it lately & I feel amazing, refreshed, & energized since starting this. & that's really all that matters. 

My next step in the #girlgetsfit journey is my 21 Day Fix which is all ready on order & you can purchase your own here (no, I am not a beachbody coach). I will definitely keep you guys updated on my progress with that as well.

Are you guys doing anything to get healthy? Have you tried as special detoxing products? Any recommendations you'd like to offer?

Girl Gets Fit: Week 2 at a stand still.

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter & didn't load up too badly on junk food. I can honestly say I did fairly well but it was mainly because I was busy being a domestic goddess since 6am & ended up in extreme pain & passing out at 9pm. So lame. As for why I've been in pain, I will be doing a follow up post after my Doctors appointment today & I get some answers. 

But I digress. 

So because of the intensive pain that I've been experiencing again for the past 11 days, I haven't been able to make it to the gym but once & it nearly killed me. This is not to say that I'm getting unmotivated or lazy... I've been in so much pain that I wound up in the ER this past Friday & was sent home with pain meds that only seem to dull the pain or make me nauseous. I hadnt worked for 5 days & my first day back (yesterday) was brutal. But I'm rambling again...

Looking at this picture versus last week, I've noticed at least a bit of weight loss progress...

Or maybe I'm just crazy. 

I'm hoping to get back into my normal workout routine within the next couple of days... Pain pending. 

Until next time...