Knowing that our children consume over 3000 school lunches throughout their school years really puts it in perspective how important nutrient dense and diverse school lunches are to ensure your children’s physical needs are met.
Packing a healthy lunch box daily that will be enjoyed and fully eaten is easier said than done.
Peer pressure, being a fuzzy eater or having a social child that loves to play at lunch time, are just a few challenges that can stand in the way of getting your child to eat the healthy lunch you prepared with so much thought and time invested.
Here are my 8 tips and tricks to help you fuel your child with nutritious wholefoods.
Have a trial run by trying out new foods on days off. You want to ensure your child likes the new foods packed on school days.
Get them involved in packing their own school lunch box. It could be that they help you cutting the vegetables for morning tea or let them place the foods into the lunchbox themselves. Even little involvement increases the chance of the school lunch being eaten.
Communicate with your children about what they want to have in their lunchbox. Children want to feel in control. Give them healthy choices of what to include without overwhelming them. If they bring home food ask them why. Was it too much? Where they busy playing? Would they prefer a warm lunch in a thermos? Also let them know that you expect them to eat what you pack, as a sign of respect. If my boys bring home some of their lunch they eat it for afternoon tea and then they can have something else. In our house food does not get thrown out.
Variety is the Spice of Life. Our children get bored very quickly, if I give them the same foods too often. Write down their favourite lunchbox foods and create a meal plan for it that you rotate and keep adding to.
Use a well-designed lunch box that your child likes and is easy to wash up for you. We love bento style stainless steel boxes in our house because of their longevity and low toxicity.
Make it easier on yourself and use leftover that you recreate for the lunchbox or cook something in a batch on the weekend that you can freeze. It has to be simple. We like making fermented carrots in batches, as well as muesli bars, protein balls, use dinner leftovers such as chicken drum sticks, meatballs, chicken balls or make vegetable frittata cups, omelettes, sushi or spelt pizza scrolls in the afternoon to use for the next school day. I would use sausages to make sausage, cheese, vegetable skewers, add left- over meat to a salad or add it into a grain free egg wrap or make a sushi roll with it. Click here to access some of my favorite, healthy school lunchbox recipes.
If you have a fuzzy eater then you have to think quality over quantity. Even if your child wants just a ham and cheese sandwich every day purchase high quality bread (e.g. organic spelt sourdough), organic cheese and nitrate free organic ham, make your own mayo, add a salad lef to ensure its nutrient dense and of highest quality.
If you have a busy kid who loves to play at lunch time, again communicate with each other to see, if you could prepare something quick that your child would eat before playing. Again, quality over quantity applies here as well. Ensure your child eats a very good breakfast, containing protein and goods fats as well as carbohydrates (e.g. eggs and smoothie bowl with home-made granola) and provide a big nutritious afternoon snack.