Healthiest Foods for Back to School

Whether we want to admit it or not, back to school is coming. Adalyn won't be going to school quite yet but my husband will! He is starting his sixth year as a teacher and this year, is teaching honors physics, earth science, regular physics and astronomy. With 4 classes to prep, during the school year is very busy for us.

Therefore, I like to stock up our fridge, freezer and pantry for back to school to make cooking and healthy eating as easy as possible. I pack our lunches every day, we both bring a breakfast from home and then eat dinner together as a family. Healthy eating is important to me year round and to make the back-to-school hustle easier, I make sure that I have most of these foods on hand.

Refrigerator

-Milk- we buy 2% for Adalyn and for our coffee, cooking, etc.
-Fruit- any kind of fresh fruit will do
-Salsa- we make a lot of our own salsa or buy fresh salsa
-Hummus- I often buy pre-made hummus or whip up a quick batch of my own. It takes 5 minutes or less.


-Vegetables- I like to keep a ton of vegetables on hand for loaded salads, stir-frys, for grilling, etc.
-Yogurt- I usually buy Greek yogurt. For Adalyn, pouches and tubes are awesome for on-the-go
-Shredded cheese- we always keep shredded cheese for nachos, pizza, tacos, egg sandwiches, etc. Made healthy at home of course.

Rainbow Flatbread Pizza

-Leftovers- during the school year, we make large quantities of food when we cook so that we have leftovers for lunch. Troy used to take sandwiches most days but now, he usually takes leftovers because they are healthier and taste better.


-Flatout wraps- We absolutely love Flatout wraps because they are whole-grain, healthy and taste great. We use these for so many different things including wraps, pizzas, quesadillas, salads and more. We love making sandwiches and wraps for lunch packed with all kinds of nutritious foods using Flatout wraps.

I also like to use them in uncommon type recipes such as my Pizza Panzanella Salad, Easy Pizza Soup and Fattoush Salad. My daughter, husband and I all like them.

Make these Mushroom Black Bean Burgers ahead of time and store them in the freezer.

Freezer

-Frozen fruit- frozen fruit is great for a cold snack or for smoothies
-Veggie burgers- We love veggie burgers and can get dinner on the table in 10 minutes or less with these!
-Chicken breasts- chicken is so versatile and one of our favorite forms of protein
-Fish- salmon or tilapia mostly


-Frozen vegetables- peas and corn mostly- I use frozen corn for my Texas Caviar black bean salad.
-Venison- well, my husband is a hunter so we always have venison in steak and ground meat form in our freezer
-Homemade applesauce- in the fall, when my dad's apples do well on the farm, I make a big batch of applesauce and freeze it to bake with, eat and to give to my daughter

Try this Salted Caramel Baked Oatmeal for a delicious, homemade breakfast before school!

Pantry

-Nut butters- you knew that I was going to say this, right? I only write about nut butter at least weekly. I love having a variety of kinds including peanut, cashew, almond, sunflower seed and pistachio butters.
-Whole-wheat pasta- we always have a bunch of this on hand for a quick meal
-Brown rice- the quick cook kind is especially helpful for fast meals
-Low-sodium canned beans- black beans, garbanzo, pinto and kidney beans are my favorite

Homemade pasta sauce

-No-salt added pasta sauce, canned tomatoes and tomato sauce
-Healthy (or semi-healthy) snacks such as nuts, dried fruit, popcorn, whole-grain crackers, etc.
-Oats- I eat oatmeal most days at work for breakfast and also use it for cooking a ton
-Applesauce and pouches- Adalyn loves these for snacks.

Make these Butterfinger Protein Bars for the perfect after-school snack

-Protein powder- great for smoothies and baking with
-Coffee- probably the most important thing on this list!! Can't start the day without coffee. Troy brings his mug everyday to school full of hot coffee
-Wine- after a long week at school, a nice glass of wine is perfect on Friday night!! ; )

Check out all of my recipes using Flatout wraps:
Rainbow Flatbread Pizza
Easy Pizza Soup
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Flatout. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make The Nutritionist Reviews possible.