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I guess you must have some mutant kids then, because 2 ounces of deli meat is the recommended serving size (per serving, per person), according to the nutritional facts of 3 different deli brands I checked (Hormel, Boar's Head, and the Big Y store brand label), and the American Heart Association.
A serving size of meat is 3-4 oz. 1/4 lb is 4 oz. Teenage boys need more food than most adults. Do you know any actual teenage boys who are active? They can eat an un-ending amount of food without gaining an unhealthy amount of weight.
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Originally Posted by AnonChick
As for the pudding - you'd rather stuff your kids with over-salted artificially-colored compressed deli meats with water/sugar added?
Nope. We eat natural, unprocessed foods. Turkey, chicken, roast beef, sometimes chicken salad (I make that) on whole wheat bread. Carrots, crackers with peanut butter, raisins, carrots, fresh fruit.
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Originally Posted by AnonChick
I mean really - it was just a suggestion, and 4 ounces of meat is WAY too much for a single serving, and I don't care how much your teenage son is growing. You'll grow him all the way to obesity if you give him 4 ounces of meat in a single serving at lunchtime.
2 slices of whole wheat bread is around 100 calories. 4 oz of turkey is 160 calories. That's 260 calories for the main course not exactly high in calories. None of my kids are mutant nor are they obese.
No kids to pack lunches for, but I do pack my own every day and I'd be pretty horrified to spend $3 on any regular kind of basis. Lunch for me is almost leftover dinner from some time that week, with several other snacky type things - yogurt (scooped from a quart, not individual cups) with granola, fruit, hardboiled egg (free from my chickens!) etc. Then again, I don't buy meat and limit the processed stuff so that makes things a lot less expensive. I could never bring myself to buy a box of Minute Rice when the regular rice from the bulkbin is about a million times cheaper (and uses less packaging).
It's not that doing it cheaply is the most important thing to me when it comes to lunches, but since the things I like and are good for me also happen to be less expensive so much of the time, and it sucks to waste dinner food, it works out nicely!
Manhattan. The biggest box is like 3 and some change I believe. I like rice so I always buy the big box and I usually buy brown rice. Being 1 person i lasts me a while.
That was my guess, so I win a bet with myself.
A big "Brava!" on the brown rice BTW. I eat a lot of brown rice and a lot of raw cabbage and put oatmeal in pretty much everything. Including birthday cakes. My cholesterol numbers are so low the doc always asks for a re-check. (Every try a little low-sodium teriyaki sauce on your brown rice? Um-um-good!)
Except, momma_bear, the thread is supposedly a query as to how anyone can feed their kids for only $3/lunch or less.
IF you want to spend more than that, then sure. go ahead and feed your kids all that stuff. But that's not how to feed your kids lunch on $3.00 or less.
My suggestions are in direct response to the request for advice on how to feed your kids lunch on $3.00 or less. Do you have any suggestions?
Why buy lunch meat for $7 a pound when you can buy MEAT for much less? You can make a sandwich with chicken, ham, turkey, roast beef, etc. Last time I got chicken breasts they were less than $2 a pound so at most $0.50 for a 4 oz serving compared to $1.75 for lunch meat.
We buy all of our bread at the discount bakery. Most people assume it is day old but it's usually dated 3-7 days out. I buy a loaf and freeze a loaf. Everything is $0.99 and we get whole wheat/grain and organic bread products that costs $4 + at the grocery store. They carry bagels, english muffins, wraps, sandwich rounds and rolls so we always have a variety.
We buy the big carrots and actually peel and make them into sticks instead of buying the more expensive baby carrots. We don't buy prepacked snacks either. If they want peanut butter crackers they actually pack peanut butter and crackers. If we don't have homemade yogurt I buy the big tub and they take a portion in a dish along with some sliced fruit or topping....it doesn't cost near $1 to add in that part of the lunch. A homemade oatmeal bar takes the place of granola bars and cost MUCH less.
I plan meals to have left overs that the kids take in a hot thermos for lunch as well. I also freeze single serving portions. I think I posted about mexican beans and rice (VERY filling and you can add chicken or beef) that is $0.28 a serving. We don't eat tator tots or canned soups but we keep homemade hash browns on hand and I make soups in the crock pot...it's pretty cheap overall.
A recent favorite is a spinach salad with vinegar/bacon dressing...again, less than $0.50 per serving.
Most of our meals are well less than $3 per serving, including the kid's lunches.
I'm impressed.
We are lucky that we are not on that tight a budget right now so I can afford to spend a little more when I want to do so (meaning I am being lazy).
My kids do like leftovers for lunch but I don't always have anything left over from dinner. It's probably cheaper to buy a little more and send it to school as leftovers. They LOVE when I make chicken salad from leftover chicken. They also like when I have leftover fish and send it in with a salad.
Except, momma_bear, the thread is supposedly a query as to how anyone can feed their kids for only $3/lunch or less.
IF you want to spend more than that, then sure. go ahead and feed your kids all that stuff. But that's not how to feed your kids lunch on $3.00 or less.
My suggestions are in direct response to the request for advice on how to feed your kids lunch on $3.00 or less. Do you have any suggestions?
It was not a query as to HOW to feed my kids for $3 or less. Go back and re-read.
Plus-starving them by giving them practically no food is not really feeding them for less money.
Good thing I wasn't suggesting starving them then. No one was suggesting that. I was recommending a bit of each of the food groups, including a recommended serving size of meat (even though vegetarians would snort at that phrase), and the sandwich was not just meat and bread.
It was meat. And bread. And mayo (which is oil and egg). And lettuce. And tomato. And cheese.
AND dessert.
If all you're giving your kids are meat on bread, then it's you who are starving your children, because they're not getting the nutrition they need to grow healthy. My recommendation was a healthy serving of a combination of foods, all for under $3/meal. Plus a dessert that is made out of whole milk (fat and dairy), chocolate (brain and circulatory stimulator), egg (protein), and banana (potassium, vitamin D, vitamin C, fiber), over pound cake (more fiber/starch, which doesn't do much to benefit anyone other than fill them up, which is why I included it).
Good thing I wasn't suggesting starving them then.
Suggesting that I give them 2 oz of meat on their sandwich is suggesting that I starve them.
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Originally Posted by AnonChick
No one was suggesting that. I was recommending a bit of each of the food groups, including a recommended serving size of meat (even though vegetarians would snort at that phrase), and the sandwich was not just meat and bread.
It was meat. And bread. And mayo (which is oil and egg). And lettuce. And tomato. And cheese.
So replacing lean protein (turkey, chicken or roast beef) with saturated fat (mayo and cheese) is nutritionally sound?
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Originally Posted by AnonChick
AND dessert.
So-eating 4 oz of turkey will make them fat, but it's ok to feed them pound cake and pudding?
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnonChick
If all you're giving your kids are meat on bread, then it's you who are starving your children, because they're not getting the nutrition they need to grow healthy. .
Go back and re read. Meat and bread is not all they get. I'm pretty sure that the snacky stuff I give them is healthier than pound cake and pudding.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnonChick
My recommendation was a healthy serving of a combination of foods, all for under $3/meal. Plus a dessert that is made out of whole milk (fat and dairy), chocolate (brain and circulatory stimulator), egg (protein), and banana (potassium, vitamin D, vitamin C, fiber), over pound cake (more fiber/starch, which doesn't do much to benefit anyone other than fill them up, which is why I included it).
So cheese and mayo is healthier than lean meat? And pound cake and pudding is healthier than yogurt and fruit?
Except, momma_bear, the thread is supposedly a query as to how anyone can feed their kids for only $3/lunch or less.
IF you want to spend more than that, then sure. go ahead and feed your kids all that stuff. But that's not how to feed your kids lunch on $3.00 or less.
My suggestions are in direct response to the request for advice on how to feed your kids lunch on $3.00 or less. Do you have any suggestions?
Love brown rice. The smartest thing I ever did was teaching myself to make chinese food. I even make my own fried rice! Which is great because I don't have to pick out the peas. Just some chicken, veggies, rice, and egg, and a ttouch of low sodium soy sauce and I have twice as much rice as when I order with half the calories!
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I eat a lot of brown rice and a lot of raw cabbage and put oatmeal in pretty much everything. Including birthday cakes. My cholesterol numbers are so low the doc always asks for a re-check. (Every try a little low-sodium teriyaki sauce on your brown rice? Um-um-good!)
