Yesterday, Iris and I discovered Pick up limes after watching Healthy Eating Hacks and now I’m hooked and inspired.

We normally have platters for snacks and lunch because they’re super easy, they look pretty and I always feel a little fancy. They used to be my pick me up now they’re just the norm. I always put at least one thing I know Clover and Iris probably won’t have but hope that with enough exposure they’ll get there. I also put things I know they will love so it balances it out.

For merienda we had strawberries, dried blueberries, vita grain, cabanossi, tzatziki with carrot sticks. Something I tried for this platter was cutting the carrot sticks last night after using half of a carrot grated in our pasta. Thanks to pick up limes I cut the rest of the carrots, placed them in a mini mason jar, filled it with water and left them in the fridge. This made prep that little bit faster.

For lunch we had wraps with ham, cheese and avocado and another with the same but with tzatziki. We had the rest of the carrot sticks, tzatziki, oranges, walnuts and almonds.

Tim made wraps for Clover’s lunch yesterday so I had to use up the rest of the wraps for the next two lunches. In Healthy Eating Hacks, Sadia prepared wraps sushi style so I gave it ago. It was a hit! There was half an orange after Tim cooked a delicious chicken and quinoa dish the other night so I cut that up and that made our fruit portion.

I added nuts thanks to the video, not sure why it’s taken this long. Clover and I made No Bake Energy Brownie Bites on Monday so they were fresh on my mind. I also moved them into mason jars and in plain view so I would be constantly reminded. Clover told me she couldn’t eat the almonds (mainly because the almonds in our museli have been too hard). She ate the walnuts then towards the end of lunch (when barely any food was left) she ate the almonds too and declared it was her favourite.

For merienda Clover and Iris has vita grain with sunflower spread, peanut butter mixed with chia seeds and pine nuts (genius!) and two cookies from their Nan an Pa. I love the hack to add seeds and nuts to peanut butter, it really does bulk it up.

I love preparing and presenting food. I always liked to cook and bake. For the past five years I haven’t made it my priority. I’ve enjoyed making lunches and merienda which have definitely boosted my confidence. This week I have to do dinners as well. And you know what? I’m getting back to the swing of things. Five years ago I don’t think YouTube was as prolific in food hacks or perhaps it just wasn’t my thing. Now I’m finding well crafted videos that are doable and inspiring.