It is almost the start of a new school year and for many moms, the start of a new headache – what to pack for lunch?
Busy kids need a healthy school lunch to boost their energy levels and help them to learn and concentrate.
Here are some tips to help you to pack healthy lunch-boxes without breaking a sweat. The most important thing to remember, is to keep food in the lunch-box cold to inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria. To achieve this, pack the school lunch in an insulated lunch-box – with a small freezer brick or water.
Top tips for a healthy lunch-box:
– Always include fresh fruit and vegetables when packing lunch and try to vary the selection to keep it interesting.
– Offer a variety of whole grain breads, rolls, pita- and flat breads.
– Instead of using butter or margarine make avocado spread.
– Use reduced fat dairy foods – cheese and yoghurt are ideal.
– Kids need a serving of protein at lunchtime, so be sure to include some lean meat, egg, peanut butter, chickpeas or tuna.
– Limit juice by rather including a bottle of water.
Helpful tips for adding fresh fruit and vegetables to lunch-boxes:
– Fruit salad is the ideal lunch-box solution, as kids like to eat fresh fruit cut in ready-to-eat pieces. Fruit salad is easy to eat, colourful and bursting with vitamins.
– To vary the flavour, texture and colour, offer a different seasonal fruit every day.
– For summer or sport days, freeze the fruits and when you send them to school, just pop them in a resealable plastic bag or small container.
– If whole fruit is included in the lunch-box, ensure it is a suitable size for children to easily hold in their hands and eat.
– If possible, peel and cut fruit and when including grapes and watermelon, ensure they’re the seedless varieties.
– To prevent bread from becoming soggy when tomato is added to sandwiches, do not place it directly on the bread – place it between the fillings instead.
– When using avocado, mash or drizzle with some lemon or lime juice to prevent discolouring.
– Mild-tasting and crunchy lettuce varieties like Iceberg and Oak leaf, and Lebanese cucumbers are ideal for kids.
– Roast vegetables are not only rich in antioxidants and loaded with natural sweetness, they’re ideal for sandwiches, wraps or roll fillings.
– To make salads or salad sandwich fillings interesting, use a range of vegetables like grated carrot, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and cucumber.
– For sandwich fillings – use a vegetable peeler to slice cucumber into thin ribbons.
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