Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 07:07 AM
Every now and then, I let you all take a peek inside my lunch bag. When you work for a Nutritional Scoring System, people are always curious about what foods you choose.
Like so many parents – and non-parents (is that a word?) – I have a really long day. I’m up between 4:30 and 5 in the morning – just so that I can squeeze in some exercise before my day really starts flying. I either go to the gym, I run with neighborhood friends, or I work out at home. After getting everybody ready for school and work, my breakfast is typically a whole grain English Muffin and egg sandwich that I eat while commuting to work. I know, I know. It’s not ideal to eat and drive, but Boston-area commutes are brutal, so somethings gotta give.
I prep my lunch and snacks the night before. Always. There is zero time for lunch-prepping in our morning routine. The only prep that I do in the morning is that I move lunches from little holding containers in our refrigerator into the actual lunchboxes/lunch-bags with ice packs. That’s it.
About an hour into my workday, I’m already hungry again! I’ve been up for over four hours, I’ve worked out, I’ve gotten kids ready for school and I’ve battled Boston traffic. That’s enough to make a girl hungry. Even if she has already eaten an egg sandwich! So I nosh on some almonds and a banana.
- Almonds: NuVal score of 81
- Banana: NuVal score of 91
What do I like to eat for lunch? Funny, my six-year-old daughter asked me that same question recently. “What’s your favorite lunch, Mom?” I told her that it was salad. But I would also say that dinner leftovers are a strong favorite as well. For the record, my daughter’s favorite lunch is soup.
This lunch is leftover cod baked with whole wheat bread crumbs, cous cous and grean peas. For dessert, I have an orange and dark chocolate chips.
- Atlantic Cod: NuVal score of 81
- 4C 100% Whole Wheat Bread Crumbs: NuVal score of 25
- Near East 100% Natural Plain Cous Cous: NuVal score of 48
- Food Club Frozen Green Peas: NuVal score orf 96
- Orange: NuVal score of 100
- Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: NuVal score of 13
In the afternoon, my tummy starts to grumble – usually around 3 pm or so. I always want something crunchy. And a little salt would be good.
- Tribe Red Pepper Hummus: NuVal score of 48
- Carrot Sticks: NuVal score of 99
- Celery Sticks: NuVal score of 96
I would also love a cup of coffee, but instead, I opt for some caffeine-free tea.
Time to head home. Traffic again! And when I get home there is a big danger zone lurking – that time when I’m in the kitchen making dinner. I’m starving – the kids are too! So, I eat a pear either right before I leave the office or on my way home so that I don’t eat an entire box of crackers while making dinner.
I really love my pear packer!
So, that’s what’s in my lunch bag. That lunch bag, by the way, was sent to me courtesy of the nice people at Built NY. I love it and I throw it in my washing machine now and then when it gets icky. It holds my giant lunch and it never lets me down!
Question of the Day
What’s in your lunch bag today?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Dreamfield's, Hot Cereal, Lunch
Tags: BuiltNY, Lunch Bag
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 09:04 AM
Welcome to Trade Up Tuesday! It’s everyone’s favorite day here at A Better Bag of Groceries because I blog about a trade up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give away something for free. Today, I’m writing about hot cereal because it has been very chilly in New England for the past four days or so. Even the little man on our weather station has been bundling up. My kids thought it was hilarious to see him in his winter coat, since he was just in his bathing suit a few days ago! It was easy to talk everyone into oatmeal for breakfast this morning!
Before I went to work for NuVal, I ate so differently. Yes, I ate nutritiously, but I tended to buy the same things over and over again and I didn’t really venture into unknown brands too often. Now, when I see really high scores for different products, I want to try them. My cupboard looks completely different than it did three years ago!
Oatmeal is one of those categories where I am always trying new things. There are sooooooo many different varieties. You do have to be careful though. Those with added sugars and sodium do not score as high as those without.
Check out the great scores on these Bob’s Red Mill products:
Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats: NuVal score of 58
Bob’s Red Mill 5 Grain Plus Flaxseed Rolled Whole Grain Hot Ceral: NuVal score of 93
Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain 100% Whole Grain Hot Cereal: NuVal score of 91
Bob’s Red Mill High Fiber Oat Bran Hot Cereal: NuVal score of 99
Yum, all these Bob’s Red Mill hot cereals look so awesome – and nutritious! I want to try them all! It’s going to be hard for me to pack these up and ship them off to the lucky winner. I want to keep them for myself!
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky commenter will win all 4 packages of Bob’s Red Mill Hot Cereal. All you need to do is leave a comment below telling me your favorite hot cereal and mixin’s. Bonus – you can enter twice if you know the NuVal score of an item. For example, if you like to mix in raisins, and you know the NuVal score, enter a second time and tell me. You can find sample scores by searching this blog. Or by going to the NuVal website. I’ll select one winner at random on Wednesday September 21st at 8 am Eastern so don’t delay. Good Luck!
By the Way…
Do you all remember how much I love Lunch Box Notes? They are the best.
I put these notes into my kids’ lunchboxes often.
My kids love them! Just wanted to let you know that they are having a 48 hour 48% off sale! Check it out at www.sayplease.com. I just stocked up on some new notes myself. Enter coupon code LBL48.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Hot Cereal, Oatmeal, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Bob's Red Mill
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 06:53 AM
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday, everyone’s favorite day here at A Better Bag of Groceries. Every Tuesday, I blog about a Trade Up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give away something for free. It doesn’t get any better than this. Two areas where I’ve traded up majorly (gosh that sounded so ’80s), is in the peanut butter category and in the hot cereal category. Not only that, but I now put the two together for a totally awesome energy boosting breakfast (not sure why this post is sounding like a Valley Girl today!)
So, let’s talk about the peanut butter first. In the days B.N. (Before NuVal), I used to buy Jif Reduced Fat Peanut Butter. Because, like, you know, I thought that reduced fat was better. Well, Jif Reduced Fat gets a wicked low NuVal score of 7. Even the regular Jif gets a better score (it gets a 20). But what I found by shopping the NuVal scores is that there are some peanut butters and other nut butters with totally awesome scores – and Teddie Smooth Unsalted is one of the best peanut butters you can buy – with a score of 49. So, I traded up. And my kids did too. No more Jif in our house. It’s All Natural, all the time!
As for hot cereal, I used to be an Instant Oatmeal Kind of Girl. I mostly dabbled in the Quaker varieties, since I grew up on them. Back in my crazy traveling days, I would always bring instant oatmeal and make it in a coffee cup because it was way better than the wicked bad croissants and danish they offered at the hotel buffets. But here’s the thing – instant oatmeal is like, omygod, kind of grody – at least when it comes to NuVal scores. Like Quaker Instant Oatmeal Maple and Brown Sugar only gets a 25. And even the Quaker 100% Whole Grain Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal only gets a 25 too. That’s right – same score – even though one says 100% Whole Grain on the Box! Isn’t that kind of lame? So, I quickly traded up to some better oatmeal, like the kind you make in a pan (Quaker Old Fashioned Oats score a 57). But I love these Hodgson Mill brands. They’re totally gnarly:
- Hodgson Mill Multi-Grain with Oats, Milled Flax Seed, and Soy: 82
- Hodgson Mill Oat Bran Hot Cereal: 58
Now, what’s really The Bomb is when you put the two of these together. You take your favorite hot cereal and mix in some delicious peanut butter (or any nut butter really) and it is totally awesome.
Today’s Totally Awesome Giveaway
You can win both boxes of Hodgson Mill Hot Cereal and the Teddie Smooth Unsalted Peanut Butter (which is wicked hard to find in some areas of the country, by the way) just by leaving a comment below. Since I somehow went all ’80s/Valley Girl today (seriously, I don’t know how that happened – I will blame it on the sleep I lost on Black Friday – I’m still catching up), we’ll make this fun. You can leave me two comments (and be entered twice).
- A trade up you’ve made since learning about NuVal (this is a NuVal blog, after all)
- One of your favorite things about the ’80s (a song, a saying, a group, a show, oh the possibilities are endless)
I’ll select one winner at random at 8 am on Wednesday December 1st Eastern Time, so don’t delay. And have a Totally Awesome Day!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Hot Cereal, peanut butter, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Hot Cereal, peanut butter, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 06:11 AM
Happy Ground Hog Day! And welcome to Trade Up Tuesday, a weekly feature here on A Better Bag of Groceries, where I tell you about a Trade-Up I’ve made and give away free stuff. Today, in honor of Punxsutawney Phil, I’m giving away a Hot Cereal Round-Up. It’s a collection of hot cereals I’ve been meaning to try before the winter is out.
It seems like Punxsutawney Phil ‘most always sees his shadow. And that means six more weeks of winter. Here in New England, it’s six more weeks of winter, no matter what. However, by February, it stays light a little later, you can hear a few more birds and there’s a glimmer of illumination at the end of the tunnel. I brave the winter, embrace it at times, but like most New Englanders, I am oh-so-happy to see it go. I even have a Spring Happy Dance that I like to do on the vernal equinox. Still, at this point in the season, I begin to realize that there are only so many more weeks to squeeze in some of our favorite winter activities: we still need to go sledding, we haven’t been downhill skiing yet, and my husband and I need a good snow and a babysitter for a couple of hours so that we can break out our cross-country skis. And – I haven’t yet sampled all the hot cereal that I’d like to try. I’ve got a lot to do these next few weeks!
So this week’s winner can help me out:
John McCann’s Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal: NuVal score of 91
Cream of Wheat: NuVal score of 25
Quaker Grits: NuVal score of 70
These are the last of the remaining hot cereals I’ve been meaning to try this winter.
Now, my dear husband and I did get around to cooking up the McCann’s this past weekend.
We’ve had a can of McCann’s in our cupboard for quite some time, but I’ve been too intimidated to try making it. Must be something about that Certificate of Uniformity of Granulation. Wow! Impressive. So, Saturday, when I had enough time for the thirty-plus minute cooking instructions, we tried it out.
We topped it with some walnuts, raisins and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Yum!
But I still need help in trying out the Cream of Wheat (which scored lower than I expected!) and grits (that one is at the insistence of my Southern co-worker, Laura).
Today’s GiveAway
One lucky winner will win all three hot cereals. All you need to do is leave me a comment telling me one of the following:
- what hot cereal you’d like to try
- what you most like to put on your hot cereal
- what you still want to do before the winter is out
You can tell me more than one, if you in the sharing mood! The contest closes by midnight tonight Eastern time. Good luck!
NuVal is giving away a $100 Gift Card!
If you haven’t checked it out yet, go to www.nuval.com and take our site improvement survey. The direct link to the survey is here.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Hot Cereal, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Cream of Wheat, grits, Hot Cereal
