Back to School with Real Food (Week 3 & Giveaway!)

Riley
August 15, 2017

Challenges, Recipes

It’s week 3 of our Back to School with Real Food challenge! Some of you have started school already, and some are embracing those last few days of summer before the busyness of this new season begins. Whether you’ve begun school or not, it’s never too late to start a plan to make this the easiest year yet.

(If you don’t see the above video, click here to watch it)

Join us For Back to School with Real Food!

One of the best ways to get more organized is to start with the first meal of the day: Breakfast! Starting the day with healthy foods is essential for focus and concentration. It may seem too easy, but starting my week with a good idea of what I can feed my family before they head off to school and work helps me feel like I have a better grasp on the week ahead! We’ve partnered with Easy Real Food to bring you all of the recipes in this challenge and here are a few that can be prepared ahead of time for busy mornings, all of which are available to you in your Plan to Eat account when you join the challenge:

Baked Oatmeal Cups

My Kid’s Favorite Overnight Oats

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones

If you are new to meal planning, start small. Plan your easiest meal of the day (for me it’s breakfast, but it could be lunch or dinner for you) for just one week at a time. Keep that going for a few weeks before you add additional meals. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you’ll be a meal planning pro!

Pro Trick: Menus

Once you have a few days, weeks, or even months of meals planned, you can save them as a Menu. Menus allow you to reuse your previous planning with one simple drag-and-drop onto your planner. This makes future planning a breeze! Read on for more details about Menus.

Win 1 free year of Plan to Eat!
(and a few other goodies!!)

To help you take on another year of school, everyone participating in Back to School with Real Food can enter to win a few extra goodies. On September 1, one lucky winner will receive:

1 Free year of Plan to Eat
($39 value)
Stay organized by knowing what’s for dinner! Having a meal plan will help you save money, lower your stress in the kitchen, and help you eat more meals together as a household. Plan to Eat is a great tool to help you keep up and running all year long, even after the grind of after school activities set in!

1 Plan to Eat shopping bag
($19 value)
Our sturdy canvas shopping bag can handle the heaviest of groceries! We evaluated dozens of tote bags before finding just the right one. Not too deep, not too shallow, not too large, not too small…. It’s just the right size for a gallon of milk and some fresh produce.

2 ECOlunchbox Three-in-One Stainless Steel Food Container Set
($62 value)
Designed by an experienced lunch-packer and mother of two, this 100% stainless steel lunchbox set works great for packing a small sandwich on the bottom plus a wet and dry side dish in the top container. Each winner will receive 2 sets!

2 Silcone 6 cup Muffin Tin
($20 value)
Muffins are fantastic for on-the-go lunches — three of the recipes in the challenge include the use of a muffin tins! These silicone muffin pans are great for turning out muffins quickly (and cleanly!) and are super-easy to wash. Each winner will receive 2 muffin pans to bake a dozen muffin all at one time.

1 Free download of Real Lunches, Real Easy
($15 value)
Why did we ask Kiran to host this challenge about going back to school? Because she has partnered with 100 Days of Real Food to write a book about it! Real Lunches, Real Easy includes recipes, lunch-packing tips and tricks, and 3 months of school lunches that you can use again and again all year long! The book will be available later this month and our winners will receive a free copy.

This swoon-worthy $155 prize package can be yours! Simply enter by joining Back to School with Real Food and filling in the form below. After confirming that you have joined Back to School with Real Food, you will have opportunities for additional entries.

Enter Here

The Facebook Group

Looking for other back to school tips and tricks? Come join us in the Back to School with Real Food Facebook group! In the group you will find friends, discuss tips and tricks, and share recipes to help you get ready to start the school year. Ask Kiran for tips to make your school lunches great!

Affiliates

If you participate in the Plan to Eat Affiliate Program and would like to use Back to School with Real Food as an opportunity to spread the word about Plan to Eat, you can do that!

When you log into your Promotional Tools page you will see your referral link:

This referral link will take people to the regular Plan to Eat page using your referral code. The referral code is the “bcwg6yhack” at the end of the URL in this example. Yours will be different.

If you change the URL and update your referral code (I’ve bolded the referral code at the end of the line) to this:

https://www.plantoeat.com/welcome_from/back-to-school-with-real-food?ref=bcwg6yhack

You will send your audience to the Back to School with Real Food landing page and receive the referral!

A few other resources:

125 Healthy Lunchboxes for Kids

Best Lunch Boxes (a Review from 100 Days of Real Food)

School Lunches from 100 Days of Real Food

Real Food Lunches for Real Kids from Live Simply

I also want to leave you with one of my personal go-to breakfast recipes (see below)! These muffins are so tasty, packed with veggies, and easily reheated. I usually make a big batch in advance, so that we have them all week long. I hope you enjoy them too.

Join us!

Let’s make this school year great by with lunches and dinners that both nutritious and easy.

Join us For Back to School with Real Food!

Print Recipe

Easy Breakfast Muffins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Main Ingredient: Eggs

Serves: 12

Ingredients

12 pieces Wheat Bread torn or cut into pieces
1 lb Breakfast Sausage cooked
12 Eggs
¹⁄₄ cup Milk
1 cup Cheddar Cheese shredded
1 cup Mushrooms sautéed
1 cup Bell Peppers sautéed
¹⁄₂ Onion sautéed
1 canned Green Chilis drained
3 tbs Ground Mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste
crushed red pepper to taste
Egg Whites These are optional, but help expand the recipe to feed more people.

Directions

Brown the meat and when it is nearly cooked, add in the veggies to soften. While these are cooking, whisk together the eggs, milk, and seasonings. You can also add egg whites at this point too. (I typically add these when I need to make these go further and I always have egg whites on hand.)
After the meat and veggies are cooked, let cool briefly and mix into the egg mixture. Stir in cheese.
Take a large muffin tin and add cupcake liners or spay with oil to prevent sticking.
Take the pieces of bread and tear into pieces, adding one piece into each cup.
Using a 1/2 cup measure, scoop egg mixture and add it to the top of the bread. Be careful not to overfill these, as the egg will expand during cooking!
Cook at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Check frequently to prevent burning. (This time can vary based on elevation and the amount you fill the cups!)
These are easily refrigerated and re-heated for daily breakfasts or snacks!