School is starting soon so we thought we'd throw out some ideas for packing quick, healthy Meatless Monday lunches for the kiddos. If you read our blogs regularly, you'll know that we unschool Z so we don't pack lunches daily. But we have times during the summer when she goes to summer day camp, and during the spring, Z and I had a weekly picnic between my gym class and Z's Kindermusik class.

Some of our favorite things to pack:

• Carrot sticks with hummus or pita triangles


• Fruit like cherries, blackberries, grapes, sliced apples with cinnamon, or other finger-sized fruits


• Cherry tomatoes or steamed broccoli


• Wasa Crackers and cheese


• A green smoothie (our favorite recipe - makes three servings - 1 banana, 8 oz frozen pineapple, and a heaping cup of spinach - dilute with water or coconut milk, blend.)


• A nut-butter and jelly or banana sandwich (if your school is peanut free try something like soynut butter)


• Mock tuna salad on bread, pita, or crackers


• Ants on a log


• Dried fruit and nut mix (we make our own based on what we have in the pantry)


• Cheese stick


• Granola bar


• Fruit leathers (we love the Fruitabu organic fruit leathers)

We usually pack a combination of items that offer a balance of fruits, veggies and proteins. We usually include a small treat like animal crackers or a square of fair trade chocolate for dessert. Z's not big on leftovers and there's rarely a place to heat them up so we don't usually include leftovers in our lunchboxes anymore - but make sure if you do, you include a ceramic plate for reheating!

If you have five extra minutes while you're packing your child's lunch, do something to make the lunch fun - cut the sandwich or bread slices into fun shapes using cookie cutters (you can do this with slices of cheese or fruit leathers too), include a quick handwritten note, make a portion of the lunch DIY or toss a few chocolate chips into the fruit and nut mix.

Tell us, what are your kids' favorite lunches? Also, what would you like us to address in future Meatless Monday posts?

And if you're looking for a good lunch box, check out either the PlanetBox or the Laptop Lunch kit or our other suggestions in the ZRecs Guide for Safer Children's Products.

Have you heard about the Meat Free Monday campaign? It's "an environmental campaign to raise awareness of the climate-changing impact of meat production and consumption" founded by Paul, Stella and Mary McCartney. We're vegetarians so every Monday is meat-free for us, but I'm thinking maybe we should challenge ourselves to have a lower-impact eating Monday. See, Mondays are the busiest day of the week for us - it's the day we're most likely to fall back on frozen, prepared (albeit vegetarian) foods. With a little advanced planning, I could probably prepare a healthier, more environmentally conscious meal that didn't rely on prepared foods. Here's ten of our favorite, easy to prepare vegetarian foods:

• Replace the meat in lasagna with veggies like broccoli, mushrooms, onions, and garlic.


• Green smoothies served with cracker, hummus and cheese make a nice light meal.


• Veggie tacos: Beans, rices, tortillas, and guacamole are all your need but you can sautee onions, peppers, and mushrooms for more robust tacos
  
• Beans and rice: Do it New Orleans style by using red beans, plenty of Tabasco sauce, and some bread on the side.


• DIY pizza: Make a dough in a bread machine or buy premade dough at the store (we've even used French bread in a pinch), and top with sauce and your favorite toppings - sometimes we just do cheese, sometimes we add sauteed veggies to the top.


• Brown lentils over rice with carmelized onions: This is one of the faster, cheaper recipes and it's so delicious!

panini - get some fancy bread at the store (or make it yourself if you're so inspired), add some sauteed veggies, olive tapanade, hummus, or cheese then grill

• Veggie pot pies are always a hit in our house, stuffed full of carrots, squash, mushrooms, green beans and covered with a cheese sauce in a pastry shell. Our favorite recipe comes from the Moosewood Celebrates cookbook. Bonus? Make two, they freeze great!


• Egg or tofu scramble: Add peppers, onions, cumin, and a touch of chili powder, serve on a tortilla shell for a savory breakfast at dinner.


• Rice and veggie sautee: Sautee and serve whatever veggies you have in the fridge on top of brown rice.

The health and environmental benefits of reduced meat consumption are well-established, but vegetarianism isn't for everyone. If you're a meat eater, have you considered participating in a weekly Meat Free Monday? For a month? For six months? For a year?

There are few things that smell better to me than a newly lit BBQ grill when summer is just around the corner. For most of us, the aroma of BBQ brings back memories of playing as a kid in the park or family picnics in the backyards. But if you immediately think of high-calorie sausages, bratwurst and hot dogs, and you fear the grill, think again.

You knew that I would suggest grilling the vegetarian burger, right? But if you are tired of overly processed, low calorie and soy laden veggie burgers, I have a new one for you! Check out Gardenburger’s new Gourmet Garden Steaks. The Gourmet Hula steak (vegan) is flavored with pineapple, sweet onions and ginger, and it contains a lovely 250 calories, 6 grams of protein per burger. It is really thick, juicy and totally filling. I have the other flavor in my freezer to try in the near future - made with roasted red pepper, couscous and garlic.

Whether you choose to eat meat or go vegetarian this summer, making kebab skewers can be so easy and allows for quick cooking and unique food presentation. Simply cut your meat and vegetables into 1/4 inch cubes, line up on the skewer, add a little olive oil, teriyaki or BBQ sauce and grill! Consider adding mango, pineapple or apple for a sweet touch. If you worry about burning the wooden skewers, Amazon carries stainless steel ones.

And when planning out your dinner, keep your kitchen free of dirty dishes and consider grilling all of your food, especially the vegetables. Asparagus, corn, portobello mushrooms and even fruit can taste 10x better when grilled!

Consider trying salmon, ahi tuna, tilapia, trout, halibut, swordfish, shrimp, etc. An easy way to grill fish: Add lemon juice, salt and pepper, herbs, wrap in aluminum foil and throw on the grill for a few minutes. It won’t take long, since the foil wrap keeps the steam inside.

Are you still concerned about the possible cancer link associated with grilling food on the BBQ? Grilling or cooking meat at very high temperatures for a long time does produce HCAs, a family of compounds which likely cause cancer. Grilled meats (beef, chicken, pork) do appear to cause the highest amount of HCAs, while vegetarian foods cause the least. Studies are still being performed to determine these links in humans, but in the meantime, it is recommended to minimize the need on your grill for high-temperature cooking for extended periods of time.

And whatever you choose to grill this summer, please be safe and let us know how it turned out!