Brown-bagging-it does not have to be dull - make healthy and interesting lunches for your child to eat during the school day!
Packing a child's lunch for school every day can become a tiresome challenge. Parents want food that is both quick and healthy. Kids want food that tastes good and has variety. With a little creativity by mixing and matching some of the food choices below, your kids can have both. Explore some of these options and make some great lunches to revive your kids at midday and help them succeed.
- Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches: How to make it easy - make them all on a Sunday night and freeze them. Then just slip them into their lunch boxes each morning. How to make it fun - use different shaped cookie cutters to cut out the sandwiches into shapes such as dinosaurs or leaves for fall.
- Trail mix: To avoid lunch meats, which are heavy in nitrates, give them protein through nuts. A trail mix can include various nuts, fortified cereal, raisins, dried cranberries, and granola.
- Hard boiled eggs: Another great option to avoid the tired old sandwich. They are easy to boil a batch ahead of time and dole them out one at a time each morning.
- Veggie wraps: Spread a little salad dressing on the inside of a soft wheat tortilla, then add a lettuce leaf, carrots sticks, and cucumbers cut into spears. Roll into a sandwich wrap.
- Pasta salad: Kept cool, this dish can comprise an entire lunch with pasta, cheese cubes, turkey pepperoni, and small chunks of cucumbers and celery.
- Chili: Nothing tastes better on a cold winter day than chili from a thermos. Send crackers with a bean and veggie chili to give it some crunch.
- Veggies on the side: Carrot and celery sticks - Send them with small containers of peanut butter or salad dressing for dipping. For the more adventurous kids, try radishes, raw green beans, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, asparagus, broccoli, and cauliflower.
- Fruit options: Place fruit into a plastic cup and send a toothpick for spearing pieces. Try any kind of berries, grapes, seedless orange sections, pears, peaches, star fruit, mango. Send apples and bananas whole to avoid them browning in the lunch bag before it's time to eat.
- Mini muffins, mini bagels: Add grains through small portions of home-baked whole grain muffins in smaller portions or miniature bagels. Keep in mind children do not generally have a long time to eat lunch, and anything that does not get eaten generally gets thrown in the trash. Using small portion sizes helps reduce food waste and save on your budget.
- Cheese and yogurt: String cheese is another kid pleaser that can be frozen beforehand or just kept in a cooled lunch bag. Yogurt cups can be spiced up by adding their own favorite fruits and granola. Yogurt also makes a great dessert for lunch. Treat the kids by mixing in a few fruit snacks into the yogurt.
Keep your pantry stocked with the basics, such as healthy cereals, raisins, and whole-grain breads. Fresh fruit, veggies, and dairy products should be purchased once a week. Mix up your selections to keep it interesting and to keep your kids from getting bored. They will have healthy food that they look forward to eating!
The copyright of the article Ideas for Filling Your Kid's School Lunch Box in Healthy Cooking is owned by Kelly Whitt. Permission to republish Ideas for Filling Your Kid's School Lunch Box in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
