Back to School - Healthy Packed Lunches For The Kids

Hopefully, more and more children are now being educated into healthy eating habits.  Many of the families I know are now really proud because their kids willingly snack on fruit rather than crisps, and eat pasta rather than chips.   Hopefully we are moving to a society where the children with a healthy packed lunch happily shun the influence of the burger and chips brigade because they know they are fitter, slimmer, and more energetic than their fast food eating classmates.

Tempting kids to enjoy their packed lunch is one of the keys to success.  Thinking ahead is step number one.  Every Friday, plan their lunches for the coming week and then look at how you can reduce the pressure on the morning ‘rush hour’ by preparing fillings and snacks the night before, having a baking session to produce nutritious lunch box fillers like flapjacks, and planning your Saturday shop so you have all you need for the week’s lunches.

Also – variety is so important.  Make sure they have a different lunch every day so there is an element of surprise.  And think about presentation.  Colour theme the contents of your lunch boxes so one day they are red, one day yellow, and one day green.  Or use presentation techniques like kebabs, colourful pasta salads with a brightly coloured fork to eat them with, batons of colourful fruit and vegetables with dips.

Make sure that your lunch box has the right balance of nutrients for growing children.  They need a big slug of starchy food to create energy and to fill them up, but not a lot of sugar.  A lunch box packed with fibre, protein, carbohydrate and vitamins will help their growing bones and give them a healthy dose of brain power for the afternoon.

So some kind of sandwich or other combination of carbohydrate, fibre, protein and vitamins should always be the main constituent.  Use trendy alternatives to the absolutely not-to-be-used flaccid sliced supermarket bread – pitas, bagels, tortilla wraps, or chunky whole wheat or granary bread cut horizontally into long slices and then into fingers.  Think up interesting fillings – like chicken and mango dressed with lime juice, tuna and sweetcorn with a dash of chilli and chopped tomato, roasted Mediterranean vegetables with hummus, slices of turkey ham with low fat coleslaw shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes, cured salmon with cucumber, lettuce and light crème fraiche, chopped egg with chopped roasted red peppers and light mayonnaise.  All these are fillings you can prepare the night before.  Or, if you use the finger sandwich idea, give them a mixture of fillings so they have three or four different fingers to savour.    At least one day a week, introduce an alternative main constituent like a pasta, rice or couscous salad, mixed with roasted Mediterranean vegetables, or tuna and prawns with tomato and cucumber, or Mexican beans and red peppers – all dressed in olive oil and lemon or lime juice.

Top up your lunch box with interesting nibbles like vegetable batons and a little pot of a healthy dip – like our own home made tomato ketchup or aubergine puree or pesto or a puree of roasted red peppers and chillies.   Add chopped fruit threaded on wooden sticks to go with a yoghurt.

Wash it all down with a smoothie or a fresh fruit drink and if your kids have a really sweet tooth, add a home backed flapjack, or a muesli bar or a very small bar of top quality dark chocolate.

Home made everything is best, but if you are really strapped for time, look at Sainsbury’s new Kids range.  Lots of tasty foods and drinks which are free from artificial colours and flavourings with a strictly controlled salt, fat and sugar content.

Worth also looking at the Quorn range.  Quorn is a manufactured protein made from a fungus which is part of the mushroom family.  It is a superb source of low fat, high energy protein which can take on many flavours.  The Quorn range includes sliced ‘meats’ – slices of Quorn flavoured like ham, chicken, turkey and even beef.  There are Quorn ‘chicken nuggets’, kebabs, Quorn scotch eggs, and even Quorn Pork Pies.  Quorn products are easily available from delicatessens and some supermarkets.

For more inspiration, read ‘Feeding Kids – -Netmums Cookery Book’ which you can buy from Amazon

Finally – do bear in mind that many schools now ban nut based foods being brought in via lunch boxes and some others also ban cling wrap because of the possibility of choking.  All in all – best to invest in a really funky, fun kids lunch box – it adds even more to the attraction of your healthy Phyto packed lunch.

Don't forget the old saying - an apple a day keeps the doctor away - it's very true, apples are good for you so pack one in the lunch box.