On the Run Again...

Does it ever feel like life just is running past you? Or, is it that you are running past life? I never realized just how busy life could get or just how much a relaxing weekend at home is needed.

As the two kids are getting older and are becoming more involved in things, our schedule is getting increasingly busy. About a month ago, my son's baseball season started in full swing. Initially, we had just practices and now we are starting into the games. There is still some practice, but not as much. Next comes soccer. For my son, the practices have started, but the games are still a couple of weeks out. For my daughter, thankfully she is still young enough where the practice is immediately before the game, and those don't start for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, for a few weeks - we have OVERLAP. It means that for a few weeks, I need a number of creative quick to table meals for easy dining as a family before or after practice/games - which can occur two to three times on evenings during the overlap windows. For the most part, the games don't actually occur at the same time, but when it comes to Saturday, the games are scheduled back to back to back. We have games at 10, 11 and 12. This year, there is about 3 weeks of overlap in the fall (it was more like 4 in the spring this year, because of all the rain and delays that occurred in the seasons). It's not ideal, but we make it work! (to think, I once had hoped to have only one activity per child at a time.)

When we are on the go for most of the day on Saturday for those weeks of overlap, we have to have meal-time solutions to go. Having to eat lunch on the run can be a challenge. Not only do I want to offer something healthy (and want it for myself), I need to make sure that the kids are getting the nourishment needed to sustain them through the different games. There is a concession stand usually available, but as much as I love to support the sports boosters, the options don't make for the most healthy, well-balanced meal choices. By packing lunches to take along, we can pack food that is easy to eat and healthy too. My son usually eats his lunch while watching my daughter's game and my daughter eats at the baseball game.

Lunch on the run frequently consists of a sandwich, a fruit and a drinking yogurt (to go with the water that is packed for all of the games), with an occasional treat like pretzels or cookies. Many times for the sandwich, we go with the old stand-by of PB&J, but sometimes you need to mix it up. One option that works well especially for the grown ups is to make a salad in a wrap. Take some Romaine lettuce and dress it in some Caesar dressing, add some chicken and roll it up inside a tortilla shell. An easy Chicken Caesar Salad wrap. You can use leftover cooked chicken or, use Hormel Premium Chunk Breast of Chicken. I find that if you wrap that in some foil and peel down from the top as you eat, you can eat the wrap with less mess. I also like to make a wrap with luncheon meat, cheese and some lettuce. Simple, but tasty. I personally prefer to layer in a variety of meats, but my husband would certainly be fine with just turkey.

Looking for other wrap ideas, you can find recipes for things like Cranberry and Orange Chicken Wraps, Florentine Spirals and Turkey and Fruit Wraps on the Hormel Foods Recipe Site.

With a little creativity, eating healthy (and finding some variety) can be easy, even on the go.


No compensation was received for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine or that of my family. I am currently a member of the Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger Program. Each post written for this role, serves as an entry into a grand prize giveaway. Hormel provides materials and resources to assist me with my posts.