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A Protein-Packed Lunch Option: No Bake Energy Balls

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Back-to-school time is creeping up on us, which means that it will soon be time again for bed times, homework, lots of new school supplies (and you can get a chance at a $100 Walmart gift card to help with that below!), and life falling back into more of a routine.  One of those school time routines that Molly has grown to love is taking her lunch to school.  While she eats the majority of her lunches as school hot lunches, she meticulously plans out her days of taking her own lunch to school at the beginning of each month when the school lunch menus come home.

Even though Molly tends to enjoy the school lunches, she loves deciding on what she’ll eat and then packing up her lunch.  She tries to come up with lots of creative ideas to make her lunch fun, and I often find her grabbing out things like our special sandwich cutter (that turns a regular sandwich into two dinosaurs).

A Protein-Packed Meal Option: No Bake Energy Balls {easy enough that even kids can make them!}

One of her complaints, however, is that she enjoys drinking milk with her lunch, but then that means waiting in line with the kids getting hot lunches just to get and pay for her milk.  This means that, sometimes, she opts to take a juice to drink just so she can head straight her lunch table.  She was very excited when we got to try out the perfect-for-lunch boxes, and other single serving situations, 12 oz Shamrock Farms on-­the-­go mmmmilk bottles, which include a choice of chocolate, white, and strawberry milk.

Shamrock Farms milk-on-the-go

Shamrock Farms also has some awesome, protein-packed recipe ideas on their site, perfect to go with their protein-packed milk.  (Each bottle offers more than 25% of the daily recommended value of protein.)  Molly and I tried out some of the ideas that we thought would be perfect for packed lunch or for lunch at home.

One of the recipes we made were the No Bake Energy Bites.  Molly decided on a couple of modifications that she wanted to make.  Yep, that’s right.  She checked out the recipe and decided that she wanted to make it all on her own.  To make that happen, we used regular flake coconut that was not toasted.  She also decided on mini chocolate chips instead of regular ones.  Lastly, she decided she wanted to add some chia seeds.

A Protein-Packed Lunch Option: No Bake Energy Balls {plus fruit kabob skewers - all easy enough for kids to make on their own!}

Molly’s Modified No Bake Energy Bites

Ingredients

  • ½ cup mini chocolate chips
  • 1 cup flaked coconut
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup peanut butter (though any nut butter would work)
  • 1 cup dry oatmeal
  • 1 tablespoon chia seeds

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl until well blended.  These can be difficult to blend well, but I suggested to Molly that she mix it with her (clean!) hands when she was running into difficulty.

2. Roll mixture into balls.  You may need to add another tablespoon or less of the nut butter, if you have too much difficulty binding dry ingredients together.

3. Chill the energy balls in the refrigerator until they are firm.

We thought that another fabulous addition to the lunch were the fruit kabobs on Shamrock Farms’ website.  To make them easier to fit in a small plastic storage container, we opted to thread fresh fruit onto 4-inch sucker sticks that we had.  This also meant there were no pointed ends.  Score!

A Protein-Packed Lunch Option: No Bake Energy Balls {This recipe is just part of this protein-packed lunch!}

In addition to the No Bake Energy Balls and Fruit Kabobs, we rounded out the meal with string cheese, a few crackers, and a 12 oz Shamrock Farms 2% Strawberry Milk.  Although we are sharing the meal by showing it on a plate, these are all things that could be easily packed up in Molly’s insulated lunch bag with a cold pack.

If you’d like to pick up some of your own Shamrock Farms single serving milk bottles, they can be found in 1,250 Walmart stores across the country.   They’re available this summer at an everyday low price of $1.00.

To celebrate this expanded distribution, Shamrock Farms is launching Roxie’s Ultimate Back-­To-­School Sweepstakes.  One lucky winner will receive nearly $5,000 in gift cards to stock up on back-­to-school supplies, groceries, and a new wardrobe. You can enter online at www.shamrockfarms.net/walmart from NOW until August 20.

A Protein-Packed Lunch Option: No Bake Energy Balls

That’s not the only chance to win though!  Here on the site, you have a chance to win a $100 Walmart gift card.  Just share your answer to this question in the comments section for a chance to win: What do you like to pack in your child’s lunchbox?  (If this doesn’t apply, you could share what you would love to pack for yourself for a lunch.)

If you’d like to follow Shamrock Farms on social media, you can check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Entry Instructions:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

  1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
  2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
  3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
  4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older (or nineteen (19) years of age or older in Alabama and Nebraska). Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher.com email address. You will have 2 business days to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 7/27/15 – 9/4/15.

Be sure to visit the Shamrock Farms brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

Angie Angie, a domestically challenged nerd and mom of three very fun kids, is the founder of Real Life at Home.  Angie also listens to music every chance she gets, writes eBooks, podcasts, loves Pinterest, documents the little moments in life on Instagram, and occasionally sleeps.

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Angie Kauffman
Angie, a domestically challenged nerd and mom of three very fun kids, is the founder of Real Life at Home.  Angie also listens to music every chance she gets, writes eBooks, podcasts, loves Pinterest, documents the little moments in life on Instagram, and occasionally sleeps.

Comments

  1. I like to pack a sandwich, piece of fruit or raisins, a juice box, milk, or water, cheese crackers or cheerios, maybe nuts or pretzel sticks.

    Reply

  7. I like to pack fresh fruit, especially apples, yogurt and crackers for lunch. If I want a more substantial lunch I love to pack a turkey sub or chicken wrap!

    Reply

  11. I pack: a sandwich, yogurt, fruit, chips, granola bar, veggies and a dessert

    groogruxking40 @ gmail dot com

    Reply

  14. I like to pack a cheese sandwich, a box of raisins and some fresh veggies with a dip. I also like to pack a frozen yogurt tube to help keep everything cool and it makes a great snack.

    Reply

  21. My kids like homemade cookies, they take after me! I usually make monster cookies or chocolate chip.

    Reply

  23. I like to an orange,carrots and usually some type of sandwich for my son….and he really loves kale chips too.

    Reply

  25. I like to pack Mac & cheese bites and mini chicken pot pie in my child’s lunchbox.
    tcarolinep at gmail dot com

    Reply

  27. I like to pack a sandwich or meat, cheese and crackers with a veggie and a gogurt and some fruit.

    cshell090869 at aol dot com

    Reply

  29. I usually pack a sandwich or soup, vegetable (they love carrots/celery with ranch), fruit (oranges, grapes, melon), with a Thermos of ice cold water. For fun, at times, a Hershey kiss or other small candy. Thanks for all the ideas and contest!

    Reply

  32. I love making lunch fun for my kiddos, they tend to eat it all if it is fun to eat, so bite size, fun size shapes or pieces! They love when I pack olives, and healthy sandwiches that are in a shape. I do veggies and dips, fruits and yogurts, bottled water. My kiddos are now 2nd and 6th, and they still look forward to finding out what Mom packed, and sometimes I also include a fun, loving note. My kiddos have food allergies, so this has always helped them look forward to eating, instead of it being a chore and uncomfortable. It’s helped them develop the right habits for eating and we don’t eat processed food. 🙂

    Reply

  34. For my lunch I love eating salad, sandwiches, or leftovers! For sides I usually stick with fruit, veggies, yogurt, or pretzels.

    Reply

  36. I like to pack turkey roll ups – a big hit with the kids!
    Add crackers with hummus and fresh fruit.
    thank you

    Reply

  40. We love to have salads with cheese sticks or a sandwich with all the fillings but not the bread. We try to have more veggies and less fruit with lunch but my youngest definitely has a sweet tooth.

    Reply

  41. I like to pack easy, paleo-ish, gluten-free items like these energy balls!!! Thank you for the recipe and giveaway!

    Reply

  42. I tweeted this:

    No Bake Energy Balls @RealLifeAtHome + a giveaway! reallifeathome.com/protein-packed… #SweepstakesEntry

    But I don’t know how to get the url! 🙁

    Reply

  53. I like to pack fruit every day, either a muffin, wrap with turkey and cheese or a mini sub with turkey and cheese and milk/juice

    tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

    Reply

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