With one out of three children considered overweight in the US, it’s more important than ever to teach children about nutrition and healthy eating habits. And, the perfect place to start is your child’s school lunch. With the proper planning and the right tips, you can create healthy lunches for your kids in your apartment kitchen in no time at all.
Healthy staples to put in lunches that kids love:
1. Lunchbox Staple: Cheese - Never underestimate the power of cheese. Most kids love cheese, and it’s full of calcium for growing strong bones. In fact, most brands of string cheese have up to 20% of your daily value of calcium in each serving. If you’re kids will eat low-fat cheese, that’s even better.
Mix it up: You can easily find single servings of cheese in your grocery store like string cheese, cheese sticks, cheese cubes and tiny wheels and wedges of cheese. These are fun to eat, easy to throw in a lunchbox and healthy. Mix it up with different flavors of cheese like swiss, gouda, cheddar, mozzarella or colby jack every few days.
2. Lunchbox Staple: The crunch factor - Kids like salty chips, buttery popcorn and crispy chicken nuggets because they are crunchy and flavorful. If you want to add some veggies to their meal, add some carrots, sliced cucumbers or celery for a little crunch.
Mix it up: Your kids will get bored with these veggies fast, so mix it up by adding a little low-fat peanut butter, cream cheese or ranch dressing to give those veggies a little kick.
3. Lunchbox Staple: Sweets - Finding a sweet, creamy filled cupcake in a lunchbox is certainly a treat for a kid, but this kind of treat can’t make a daily lunchtime appearance. Those individually wrapped sweets are high in sugar and fat and low in nutrients. They will only send your kids crashing rather than boost them up for the rest of the school day. Instead, there are fruits that will give your kids that sweet and tangy flavor they crave.
Mix it up: Try a different fruit everyday. An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but it becomes boring after awhile. Try grapes, chopped pineapple, strawberries, bananas, chopped watermelon, peaches or pears.
4. Lunchbox Staple: Sodas and Juice - Kids love juice boxes and especially sodas, but these drinks can be full of useless calories, caffeine and sugar. Instead of putting one of these sugary drinks in their lunch, put in a bottle of water to aid in hydration.
Mix it up: Not all kids like to drink water. In fact some kids and adults hate water’s lack of flavor. Look for the individual packets of powdered water flavorings at the grocery store. These have less sugar and calories than sodas and come in any flavor you can think of from fruit punch to green tea. Some brands even offer packets containing servings of vitamins. Stock up on a few different flavors and brands to change it up during the week.
5. Lunchbox Staple: Sandwiches - What’s a brown bag lunch without a sandwich? Well, it’s easy to get in the habit of whipping up a PB&J for the kids’ lunches, but kids need variety in their diets and will get bored with the same sandwich everyday. You can break up the boredom and send your kids a healthy sandwich they’ll love.
Mix it up: Pick up several different types of lunch meat at the grocery store to change up the sandwiches every few days. Sliced turkey and chicken are lean, low in fat and are a great source of protein. Make sure you use whole grain bread or tortillas; whole grains are healthier and have more flavor than white bread. If you have a picky eater who will only eat PB&J, try different types of jellies or add chopped up bananas.
Easy Planning Tips
- When making the grocery list, include everything you will need for the kids’ lunches for the whole week and pick it up all at one time.
- Pack lunches the night before and keep them in the refrigerator. They will be just as good the next day, and you won’t have to rush to make them in the morning.
- Chop and wash fruits and vegetables when you come home from the grocery store. If you buy a whole pineapple, don’t wait until you’re packing lunches to chop it up. Do it when you get home and keep it in a plastic container in the fridge ready for use. If you purchase strawberries, however, washing in advance can cause them to mold faster.
- Have the kids help. Give them a few healthy choices to select from so they feel like they had a say in what they have to eat.
Things to Avoid
- Individually wrapped sweets or chips. These can have anywhere between 10 to over 20g of fat per serving and are chalked full of preservatives.
- Condensed soup. Don’t throw a can of soup in a kid’s lunchbox thinking they’ll be able to heat it up later. Heat the soup at home and put it in a thermos to keep it warm. Try to avoid other foods that must be warmed because most kids don’t have access to a microwave.
- Sandwiches and foods with mayonnaise. If kept at room temperature for any period of time, mayonnaise can spoil. Be sure to put a freezer pack in the lunchbox with anything containing mayonnaise.
- Always keep the child’s age in mind and avoid placing items in a lunchbox that will be hard for them to open, peel or eat.
- Extra cash. This is only an invite to ditch the brown bag and pick up a plate of french fries and cookies.
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