- [Raven] Special thanks to Target
for sponsoring this video.
(upbeat music)
Hey guys, what's up it's Raven and Ziya.
Welcome back to another vlog.
Today's vlog is just gonna kinda be
what we got going on this Sunday,
what we typically do every Sunday,
which is grocery prep, so
Sundays are kinda like my days
to get ready for the upcoming week
and I do have a preschooler
who goes to school three-times a week
so that's three packed lunches mixed in
with the rest of the
regular lunches at home
and snacks and everything,
so I always like to just make
sure that on every Sunday,
I have my groceries,
I have everything I need for her lunches
So it kinda varies depending on
what I got going on that week
but sometimes I will just
get my groceries delivered
cause it's super convenient
and other times I will
actually go into the store
and kinda see what new products they have
and check things out, and that way I know
kinda what different things I
might wanna order next time.
So today is going to be
more of an "in-store" shopping kinda day.
We're going to be going to Target.
You guys know I love Target!
I'm always in there so I'm excited
because we're going to Target
to check out Good & Gather,
which is new and only at Target.
It is their brand new
flagship grocery brand.
So for all the Good & Gather products
there are no artificial sweeteners,
no artificial flavors,
no synthetic colors,
and no high fructose corn syrup,
so that all sounds really good to me.
That's the type of stuff
that I look for in the foods,
especially that I'm
feeding to my daughter,
so this is just a win-win situation for me
because y'all know I love Target.
In case you don't know,
I love Target and I'm always there,
so if I can get some really nice groceries
while I'm there as well,
or even order them on Shipt,
because Target is on Shipt.
You guys have heard me talk about Shipt,
the grocery delivery app, before.
That's the app that I use
so I can also get this stuff
delivered through Shipt.
I'll put all the info down below
if you guys want to check out Shipt
or the Good & Gather products online,
but yeah, we're just gonna go to Target,
we're gonna check out these new products,
see what they have, get
our groceries together
and when we come back I'm
gonna actually do a haul
and show you guys some of the ideas
that I do for Ziya's lunch.
There's some really easy
preschool lunch ideas
or just lunch ideas in general
if you guys are packing lunch
for any little kids or making
lunches for your kids at home.
- [Raven] You ready to go to the store?
- Yes!
- [Raven] We can get some groceries?
- Yes!
- [Raven] You wanna go to Target?
- Yes!
- [Raven] Let's go
♪ This is our party, this is
where the beat goes down ♪
(upbeat electronic music)
♪ Feel the music on the stereo ♪
♪ As we let the rhythm take control ♪
♪ We gonna dance like we don't care ♪
♪ Keep on popping bottles
like we're millionaires ♪
♪ And we're just getting started ♪
♪ Living for the weekend ♪
♪ Shame on me, I'm a fool for the melody ♪
♪ I don't wanna stop right now ♪
♪ All I need is a drum with a heavy beat ♪
♪ Hit me with that feel-good sound ♪
♪ It's time to let go,
when I get home they know ♪
♪ This feeling I can't live without ♪
♪ So shame on me, I'm a
fool for the melody, ♪
♪ This is our party ♪
♪ And this is where the beat goes down ♪
♪ - [Raven] Are you
gonna help carry stuff? ♪
Here.
(grocery bags rustling)
(upbeat music)
- Snacks!
- Okay so we are back from Target now,
we got all this stuff from Good & Gather.
Shout out again to Target
for sponsoring this video.
I'm super excited to try
out all these new products,
and I wanted to kinda
just do a little haul,
and little taste test,
and have Ziya try out some of these snacks
that she hasn't had before.
So can you help me take
everything out of the bags, Ziya?
- Yes
- And I do recycle and
reuse the plastic bags.
Ziya actually uses these
bags everyday at school,
so, imma go and put these away.
(jibber jabber)
Always recycle y'all.
Okay, so here is our big grocery haul.
(upbeat music)
- I want to try the snacks.
- Hmmm? You wanna try the snacks?
- Yes
- Which snack do you
wanna taste test first?
You wanna try that one? Okay.
So, Ziya wants to taste test these snacks.
These are the Good & Gather
Fruit and Vegetable Strips
in the Berry Blend.
These come with 25 strips in a box.
So these are like you know
for a snack type things,
but it's basically got
hidden vegetables in there,
which I always look for stuff
that have hidden vegetables
for stuff that I give to her.
Okay, you wanna taste one?
(chewing)
- [Raven] Is it good?
What does it taste like?
- It taste like strawberries
- Ummm, yummy
Should I put some of those
in your lunchbox for school?
Okay, so we got a winner
with these fruit strips.
Now, let's see, what else
we should taste test?
Ooh, I think we should
taste test some of these.
These are the sea salt popcorn.
These are actually organic, gluten-free.
Then we also got these Veggie chips.
These actually have
flaxseeds in there as well
These are like a good alternative
to regular tortilla chips,
and then also for Ziya,
these cheddar puffs.
These are also organic white
cheddar baked corn puffs.
So out of these three,
which ones should we taste?
Which ones you wanna taste?
(bag ripples)
The popcorn?
So there's the popcorn.
Can you taste them?
I'm gonna taste some too, this
is a good gluten free snack.
(chewing)
Mmmmmm.
Is that good, you going in for more?
So this popcorn is definitely
a winner for both of us.
Another good snack that we have
are all these different
types of freeze-dried fruits.
So we've got freeze dried mango slices,
freeze-dried strawberries
and freeze-dried apples.
I don't think you've tried the mangos,
so let's taste test this.
So this is what it looks like
it's like a very light and airy
fluffy little piece of mango.
You like it?
What does it taste like?
- It tastes like mango
- [Raven] (laughs) Of
course it tastes like mango,
cause it's just mango.
I like these too.
I love freeze-dried fruit,
it's like a really good snack.
Okay Ziya, I think that's
enough taste testing.
I think I've got all
the information I need.
Are you ready to go take a nap
so I can finish putting
all this stuff away?
And then I gotta make your
lunch for school tomorrow.
(music plays)
Okay, so while Ziya is down for her nap
I wanted to kinda show
you guys how I would
pair these things together,
or what I would do with these things
for some really easy
preschool lunch ideas.
Of course, this is not
just for preschoolers,
but any small kids, picky
eaters, stuff like that.
So I'm gonna show you
some packed lunch ideas
that are quick to throw in the lunchbox
to take to school,
and I'm also gonna show you
some more hot lunch at home lunch,
but still really quick and easy.
So I'm gonna show you a
variety of different ideas
(intro music)
Okay, so starting off with
one packed lunch idea.
First things first, is
that Ziya always takes
ice water to school in her water bottle.
That is her main source of hydration.
Sometimes I don't even
put any extra drinks
or juice boxes into her lunch,
because at her school they really focus
on just having them drink
water throughout the day,
so she always has that.
And then basically the
way that I pack her lunch
is that I always kinda start
with the main course type thing
and I fill in a bunch of different types
of snacky type things.
So of course the really simple thing
would be to take one of these
Good & Gather lunch kits,
whether it be like the pizza
one or the one with crackers,
just which ever one she asks for,
or I'm feeling like putting in there,
and that is a good thing to start with.
Then I always try to add in
some type of source of fruit,
usually like two sources
of fruit I would say.
So these little organic
apple strawberry banana fruit pouches
are a really handy size.
I can put that in there
and again you can also freeze these,
if you want these to double as an icepack
and stay nice and cold,
and normally if I do some sort of
pre-packaged fruity type thing
I also like to put in
some sort of fresh fruit
so that's where these
apples come into play,
just to kinda of have
that like that balance.
So of course, I can just take
one of these honey crisp apples
and slice it up for her.
And she is only three,
so a lot of times basically half an apple
is more than enough for her,
and I'll just save the
other half for the next day
or I'll just eat it myself.
So I can put these in a little container,
and then something good
to pair with apples
just to kinda like jazz it up a little bit
is any kind of nut butter.
So since I got this honey
creamy almond butter,
I'm actually going to
scoop some of this out
and put it into the other
side of the apple container.
So we got our main thing,
got our fun fruity thing,
we got our fresh fruity thing
and then lastly I would
add in like a salty snack.
So I am going to go ahead
and take some of these
organic white cheddar corn puffs
and just put them in a little baggie,
and a good tip if you buy
big bags of snacks like this,
but you need to pour some out for lunches,
you can just go ahead
and pre-portion them out
in a bunch of different baggies
and just keep them in
your pantry like that.
That way when it's time to pack the lunch
they're already ready to go.
I also feel like the
snacks stay fresher longer
if you do it like that
just cause they're in
their own little sealed up pouches.
So I'm not going to do too many of these
I think that's definitely
more than enough right there.
I could also add in a
juice box if I wanted to,
but like I said, she
always has her ice water
and I usually just try to encourage her
to just drink water if I can.
So here is one finished packed lunch,
super easy and quick to put together
and since today is Sunday,
I can actually zip this
up, put it in the fridge,
and it'll be ready to go
tomorrow morning for school.
And then just as another quick example,
another combo that I would do
is just another one of these lunch kits
and then I'd take
another little container.
I would add in some of these veggie chips,
just a few little handfuls into one side,
and then for some fruit on the
other side of the container,
I would do a mix of all these
different freeze-dried fruits,
you can of course do just one type
but I think it's fun to just mix them up
and make a little fruit
cocktail, like that.
So she's got a little bit of
veggies, a little bit of fruit,
then for a little extra
treat to throw in here,
I would add in one of these
twisted fruit ropes that we got,
the strawberry mango
fun little fruit snack,
just for a little extra treat.
And then she would, of course,
have her water bottle with that as well.
So here's just another little idea
a combination of things
that you can put together
So then of course another
classic packed lunch
is just the classic P B and J,
but it's always a good
idea to switch things up
and make sure your child
is not getting bored with their eating,
or if you want them to try
new things, like I said.
So Ziya has not had this
Honey Almond butter before
so I am going to use some of this
instead of just regular
creamy peanut butter
just to see if she likes it.
And then also to switch it up
I'm just gonna use the
triple berry fruit spread.
I already know she's gonna love this
cause she loves anything with berries.
So it's actually kind of easy to jazz up
a regular PB and J with all
the different jams and spreads
and nut butters that you can use.
Plus you can like add in bananas,
sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on there.
There's lot of different
ways you can do it.
So boom, there you go simple enough.
But I always wanted to do something cool.
I've seen all the moms on the internet
doing these cool shapes
with their sandwiches.
I've actually never tried it before,
so I got this little star
cookie cutter basically,
and I just wanna punch a
little star into the sandwich.
It's all about getting them excited
to eat their food and finish their lunch.
So I'm actually going
to leave it like this
cause of course I don't want to just waste
the rest of the sandwich,
but I just wanted to put
that design in there,
just so when she opens up her lunch
she's just kinda like, excited to eat
and like I said, that
will maybe encourage her
to actually want to
eat and finish her food
since she is a picky eater.
Then like I said, I always
like to pair her main thing
with some sort of fruit or veggie snacks,
so I want to try the sugar snap peas
and the baby carrots with the hummus.
This is something new, I don't
want to give her too much,
and then on the other side
of her little container
I'm gonna put some hummus.
This smells good, I
personally love hummus,
so hopefully she'll like it too.
So then there's that.
And then for the fruity
aspect of this lunch,
I'm gonna go with the
dried cranberries and also
one of these Berry blend
fruit and vegetable strips,
just cause these two are kinda smaller
so I just want to make
sure she has enough snacks
so I think that will
be the perfect amount.
And again she will of course
have her water bottle with this.
And that is the third
really quick and easy
packed lunch option.
So a quick overview, again,
of the three different lunch options,
and for me this is actually
a full week of lunches,
'cause she only goes to
school three times a week.
So these are all really quick
and easy to put together,
a nice balance of
different types of foods,
and I'm pretty sure Ziya
is going to love all of these lunches.
Okay, so those are all of
the packed lunch ideas done,
that was super fast and easy.
I literally got her whole
week of lunches packed
in 15 minutes or less.
I'm super excited about
all these new products
and new lunch ideas that I was
able to come up with today.
Now I'm literally just
standing here snacking on these
dark chocolate covered
freeze dried strawberries.
This is my first time
having anything like this.
This combo, dark chocolate
and freeze-dried,
I literally am about to finish
this whole bag right now.
These are so good, you guys.
Please try these.
They're so good. (laughs)
But that is the packed lunches done,
but I also wanted to show you
guys some hot lunch options.
So these are things I would
make at home for lunch,
that would also basically double
as a dinner option as well,
or you could very easily
put these hot options
into some sort of thermos or something,
and you can also have them
taken to school as well.
Especially for the colder
months I think it's nice
to be able to take a hot
lunch to school sometimes.
So basically there's two
combos that I wanted to try
are the white cheddar mac and cheese
with the savory chicken bites.
I think these would go
really good together,
for like a lunch, or a
dinner, or a school lunch,
as well as the tri-color cheese tortellini
paired up with the Italian meatballs.
So I'm actually going to
make this for dinner tonight,
and that'll let me know if I should add it
into the lunch rotation as well,
and then we'll get Ziya down here
to taste-test it for dinner
and see what she thinks.
Okay, so it is almost dinner time now,
so I'm about to test out
this tortelli and
meatball idea that I had.
So these are super simple.
Literally on the bag it just says
"Boil salted water and then
cook these for three minutes."
So that's what those look like.
Super fun colors with
the pink and the green.
I think that's also going to
get Ziya to want to try it.
Fun colors and fun shapes are always good
for little kids and picky eaters.
And then for the meatballs,
it just says on the
back to remove the film,
cover with a paper towel,
and microwave for two to three minutes.
So this is literally going
to be a five minute meal.
So here are the cooked cheese tortellini,
and then I heated up a
few of the meatballs.
I'm just going to place those on there,
and then to top it off,
I'm just going to add a little bit
of tomato basil sauce on top,
I know Ziya likes this sauce,
and usually I can get
her to try new things
if I put something familiar with it,
like topping it with a sauce
I know she already likes,
and then I also got some of
this shaved Parmesan
cheese from Good & Gather,
so I'm going to sprinkle
some of that on top too.
Wow, look at that gourmet
little preschooler meal!
It's so cute!
So now let's see what Ziya thinks.
Okay, now time for the taste test
of the tortellini and meatballs.
(upbeat Latin music)
(children cheering)
Okay so it looks like
the cheese tortellini and
meatballs idea is working out.
Ziya likes it, she's eating it.
She says it's good, so that's good.
So now I can add that
into my lunch rotation.
And shout out again to Target
for sponsoring this video,
I've really been enjoying all
these Good & Gather products
that I've been trying today.
I highly recommend that you
guys go to your local Target
and check out Good & Gather.
I'm excited to see what
other types of products
they come out with as well,
because they will be launching
more items going into 2020,
so definitely check out Target
and see what they have
at your local store,
and keep an eye out for
new products as well.
But yeah, we got a lot
of good stuff today,
our groceries are now taken care of,
I got Ziya's lunches all packed.
I hope you guys enjoyed
all of the lunch ideas
and grocery ideas that
I showed in this video.
If you did, make sure to
give this video a thumbs up,
and subscribe to my channel
if you haven't already,
and I'll see you guys in my next one.
Bye!
