Live Colorfully: Eat the Rainbow (& Giveaway!)

The following post was sponsored by Munchkin. Thanks, Munchkin!

One of the things my mother taught me as a child (what's up, WWW!) a la healthy eating was to "eat the rainbow," and I have held on to that through my life, introducing my kids to colorful foods that look beautiful-- not only on their plates but in their bodies... inside and outside and insideoutsidealloftheabove. Colorful foods make our bodies beautiful. They make us healthy and strong and empowered and, yes, even happy.

My kids are not perfect eaters by any means and I do not love cooking. We do easy meals most nights like "taco night" and "spaghetti night" and "chicken breast night" which I have only recently learned to cook without gagging. (Tamara eased me into cooking chicken before she left and it has become a weekly go-to main course for everyone in my house except Revi. And me. Revi won't touch meat or fish of any kind which I, of course, respect. She, like me, gets the majority of her protein from legumes, almonds and eggs.) 

Bo and Archer, on the other hand, are carnivorous. Bo will eat two entire chicken breasts in one seating. She's like a professional athlete in that she craves meat, so I have learned to cook chicken. (No beef or pork, though. I will never have the stomach to touch that. No sir.)

ED: For those of you who live in LA and are looking to buy humanely raised meat, I buy my chicken from a food vendor at my farmer's market, who also delivers to your home. Here is his order menu.  He's THE most passionate food vendor I know. Also, his website is currently under construction.

Anyway, for today's post, I want to focus on meals-on-the-go, especially when you're setting off on a family adventure day (which is what we do once a week in order to stay sane.) Somehow, leaving the house makes everyone not want to kill each other, which I find refreshing. I used to pack sandwiches but then it became a massive undertaking to make six sandwiches, each made slightly differently, and then they got all mixed up and everyone was bent out of shape because I marked Bo's sandwich Fable's and Fable's Bo's...

So my NEW thing is to pack fresh fruits and veggies and let the kids pick out their main course when we go out because it's never hard to find a PB&J or pizza or noodles on the road but it's ALWAYS a challenge to find fresh fruit and veggies that aren't, you know, apple sauce in a thing or a banana. (We were at Disneyland over the weekend and I packed an entire backpack full of apples, almonds, cucumbers and carrot sticks. The kids ended up eating pizza for dinner but at least they had some veggies and fruit, as well.)  

Here are two bento boxes that I recently filled with rainbow snacks for on-the-road munching: 

Every Sunday, I take a girl or two (or three) with me to the Farmer's Market. It's my one constant every week and it makes me feel like I have some order in my court.  It also gives me the opportunity to have one on one time with my kids (or one on two or one on three). The kids pick out our weekly flower bouquet(s), sample the merch, and help me pick out all our fruits and veggies.

Here is a selection from a recent Farmer's Market Haul:

(It's the same picture as above, just... rotated to look... like it's not the same picture from above.)

Also, a little something about the cabbage and eggplant -- both of which filled my purple quota. The kids will not eat these. They will eat everything else in this spread, save for the radishes, but I want to call attention to the eggplant and the cabbage because last night I cooked stuffed eggplants (for Hal and me) and they were delicious. All you have to do is slice them in half, spoon out some of the flesh, and fill them with whatever sounds good to you. We did herbs and goat cheese and it rocked. 350 degrees for an hour and BAM.

As for the cabbage, I cut it into steaks and fried them in olive oil and garlic until they browned--which took about three minutes. They fall apart, sure, but taste delish.

Also, just after I took these pictures, I left the room for a few minutes and came back to this scene:

Bo ate both Bento boxes full of fruit and an entire plate full of carrots. Girlfriend puts. it. down. 

***

Munchkin is generously giving away one "Eat the Rainbow" lunch-packing kit full of rainbow amazingness that includes:

The Miracle Sipppy Cup(s) that don't leak:

(These cups are truly miraculous and I wish they existed ten years ago because we spent many a day dealing with the angst of leaks in backpacks and beds. These are the only cups I let Bo and Revi sleep with and they are completely leak proof and you can hold them upside down for ten hours and nothing will happen. Good news.)

- A Bento Box (pictured above)

- Munchkin multi plates (also pictured above)

- Multi Bowl Set ( " ")

- Multi forks and spoons (ditto.)

- And, of course, to-go snack bowls which are toddler necessities:

Oh! And? A toddler lunch bag: 

To win, comment below with your healthy eating tips. I'll pick one winner next Monday, December 1st! And while you're at it, you can follow Munchkin on Instagram, here and Facebook, here. Thanks in advance and happy rainbow... eating! Thanks, guys! And thanks again to, Munchkin for sponsoring this post. Check them out at Target, Babies R Us and and Amazon. Heart.

GGC