back to school..

New month, new school... There is no question that food is the highlight of my day, so one of the most exciting things for me about starting school is packing a delicious lunch. Packing lunches is always the sensible & money-saving thing to do -- also, you can control your portions and know exactly what you're putting in your tummy, so it's usually a lot healthier than buying lunch at your school. For my first week I decided to veer off the normal sandwich lunch and made wraps! I made a quick little video of the assembly of my last wrap of the week, enjoy.

On a green spinach & herb tortilla, I put: dijon mustard or chipotle mayo, baby spinach leaves, roast beef/turkey/both, mashed up avocado, pepper, red cabbage, carrot, and pickled red onions.

I really love pickled onions - the sharpness that you get from raw onions disappears but you still have that wonderful onion flavor present. Basic recipe for pickled red onions: I used 2 medium red onions and the juice from 2 small lemons.

1. Slice red onions any way you'd like, just make sure they aren't too thin. I like to chop them so that they are like semi-circle shapes.
2. Sprinkle with salt, toss to cover onion slices and leave for 5 minutes.
3. Rinse onions and transfer to a tupperware container that you can store them in.
4. Add fresh lemon juice and toss onions to coat with juice. Cover and put in fridge; they will turn this beautiful magenta color. Enjoy a half hour later or days later! These are good with pretty much anything!

In addition to the wrap, I also packed a mini babybel cheese, (you know, the kind that comes in the red wax that is oh-s0-fun to unwrap and play with) a small bag of Terra Chips (my favorite have to be the sweet potato and taro ones), with either a bottle of vitamin water (dragonfruit flavor!) or iced green tea. This was a lot of food, I usually wasn't able to finish the chips. Haha, speaking of portion control.. :) And I have to say, my lunch pals were very jealous when I pulled out my lunch this week -- but I think it gave them ideas for what they want to pack for their own lunches. I'm excited to see what they'll bring next week, and I'm thinking about making pasta for week 2. We'll see how I feel when I go to the grocery store on Sunday!

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Another quick back-to-school related thing -- make up! It is important to look good but no one has that much time to get ready in the mornings.. this is what I've been using:

"Get a tint" tinted moisturizer by mark (in buff/natural, SPF 15), Hipness blush by mac, Sexy Curves mascara by Rimmel (in black), E.L.F. eyelash curler, Revlon Colorburst lipstick in Peach, L'Oreal Colour Riche lipstick in Fairest Nude (obviously I don't wear the lipsticks together, I've been alternating them)

I hope everyone had a good first week of school, and if you haven't started yet... lucky you.. For everyone else, have a great labor day weekend full of yummy foods!!!

-J