Fed up with school lunch?

Just another day...getting out of class and as you're walking along, POOF - HUNGER STRIKES! Ok, so maybe it's not so dramatic as all that, but you know what, every person in the world knows this feeling. You were busy with something, and as soon as you finish whatever was occupying your thoughts, you suddenly realize just how hungry you are. Now, if you're a student, whether it's in the K-12 system or in college, the quickest and easiest option for you is the dining hall. But you know in the back of your mind what dining hall food does to your digestive tract...it sends your running to the bathroom every hour or so trying to clean that greasy hell out of your body with a vicious bowel movement.

You see, where I go to school, the company that provides our food is supposedly one of the healthiest. They provide nutrition facts and all sorts of options, like Chinese, Mexican, Italian, hamburgers, sub sandwiches and salads, but it is almost never enough. The Chinese is deep fried, the Mexican is fried too! The Italian is greasy pizza and slimy noodles that have been let set out so long that they're cold. The hamburgers are hard to choke down, because you can just feel the grease making it slither away. This food brings real meaning to the TV shows where the old lunch lady plops radioactive goop on a tray for a student. Now bear in mind - THIS ^^ is college food. High school and elementary is so much worse, because there are usually about three options, all just as greasy and unhealthy as the last. At least we have the option of salad in college, even if it is a little droopy and gross. Those kids don't stand a chance in the obesity battle. We're feeding our younger generations food that is low grade, barely edible and so packed with preservatives that it could probably outlast the human race when the world ends in 2012.

And then, there's the adults. When you're at work, or out trying to accomplish something, and then hunger hits you, where do you go? The freezer? Look for some microwavable meals? To McDonalds? Because that's where a high percentage of the adult population of the United States goes.

What has happened that keeps us trapped in this never ending circle of fast food, frozen dinners and grease? A lack of time and money. Since I lack both of these things as well, I suppose I am the ideal candidate to come up with some menu ideas that are cheap, fast and easy enough for even the worst cook to succeed at. Staple number one for the easiest, quickest meal ever? Ramen.

College student favorite, right? WRONG! We hate the plain old packaged ramen because we eat it so much! So why ramen then? Because it has great potential. Come on now, it's $0.25 a package. Can't get much cheaper than that.

So how about some easy ways to throw a curve ball into the world of ramen!

First, grab a package of your Oriental flavored ramen. Cook it in a bowl of water in your microwave for 4-6 minutes, depending on the strength of your microwave. Add in your seasoning, stir it around, drain most of the water off, then stir fry with frozen veggies! Done, and done. Easy chinese, thats actually healthy for you.

Frozen vegetables are wonderful, even if not much else frozen is, because in order to freeze most veggies, you have to do it straight after they are picked. So, they are definitely fresher and not nearly as processed as their canned counterparts. And a bag of frozen stir fry veggies is pretty quick and easy to find, as well as cheap. If you want to, on the other hand use fresh veggies, by all means do! On a budget, fresh veggies are expensive and can quickly eat away at your price, but if you have the time to cut them up, the money to buy them, and the desire to do both, by all means, do it! 

How about another recipe idea!

Grab a package (or two!) of chicken, or roasted chicken flavored ramen. Cook it for 4-6 minutes in the microwave, stir in your chicken seasoning, and drain off all but about 1/2 a cup of water. Now stir in 2tbsp butter, and 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Easy garlic butter noodles!


Italian and Chinese are the easiest types of food to make with ramen, since there are always lots of noodle recipes. Substituting ramen noodles for spaghetti noodles and topping with Ragu tends to work out well (omit the seasoning packet of course). Making a pesto out of olive oil and Italian seasoning also works well. One of my personal favorites is to top it with Kraft Zesty Italian salad dressing and either have a chilled or a warm pasta salad. Another easy thing to do is to cook your ramen to be mostly done, but not fully done, so that the noodles are a tiny bit crispy still, then toss them with spinach in a frying pan and add a few tablespoons of Caesar dressing. The pasta will finish cooking in the frying pan with the Caesar, and the spinach will wilt just slightly, enough to release the flavor. Perfect Greek pasta in a snap! 


But what about lunches for our kids? Students that are K-12 can't exactly fix this sort of thing for themselves at school even if college students and busy adults can. So what do we do to help give them healthy meals that are still on a budget for us, and quick to fix to send them off with in the morning? Some tips on helping keep your child's lunch healthy, on a budget and still ready to go early in the morning without excessive thought for those of us that arn't morning people.

• Watch what they eat when they're at home! Do they love green beans? Drop some frozen sugar snap peas into their lunch box, and along with keeping the other food cold, they should be thawed enough to eat by lunch time!
• Try cutting up some carrot sticks or putting in a handful of cherry tomatoes. Pretzels and tortilla chips are also cheap and easy options! If your child likes dip, try getting a snack box with a dip container in the middle, and filling it with french onion dip, peanut butter or even hummus for the more adventurous eaters. Just a tablespoon or two of dip should suffice, so a simple container of generic brand dip can go a very long way!
• While the standard apple is a great go-to fruit for lunch since they’re sturdy and unlikely to get squashed, they are also getting to be rather expensive! The cheaper option? think about picking up some frozen berries or fruit mixes from the store, and putting them in a container with a sprinkling of sugar.
• Yesterday’s dinner in a container with a small spoon can be a nice change of pace to the parade of endless sandwiches, and it helps them learn to love leftovers just as much as we adults do, right? ;)
• Is your child so bored with their sandwich that they won’t take a bite? Arrange a selection of things in their lunchbox, like tomato, lettuce, deli meat and a slice of cheese, and let them build their own sandwich!
• For school, stick to water. Most juices are full of sugar and make a reusable bottle smelly. They’re not very good at quenching thirst, and they're more expensive. 
• Find food items that are easy to make ahead of time, such as tortilla chips— pop them in a bag and put them in the lunchbox with a bowl of salsa and call it good! 

More recipes are to come, and maybe we can make some progress on the fast food and grease filled lives of the average American today, while still staying on a budget and a time limit! Enjoy, and let me know how these simple recipes turn out for you!