2015 has been off to a flying start (I cannot believe it is February!), and now, the kids are back to school. While the majority of us focus our health and wellbeing resolutions around ourselves, it is equally important for us to prioritise how our children start the new year, and the school term. While Emily is not quite ready for school yet at only 11 months, I am always looking to create and experiment with interesting flavours and ingredients for her; truly sharing and engraining my love of food in her. We are the first impression and relationship block that our children have with food, so it is imperative that it is solid, healthy, and consistent.
With this notion, here are some of my top tips to delivering your child a healthy and exciting lunch box this school term that will keep active kids focused and alert. Sure, we all love a vitamin B rich vegemite sandwich- but we can do better than that!
1. Fruit Kebabs– Everything is more fun as a kebab/skewer! Use paddle pop sticks to avoid any accidents with point skewers; and more some extra excitement, cut the fruit into fun shapes!
2. Popcorn– It’s a wholegrain and can be much more healthy than the cinema’s popcorn would have you believe. Pop some kernels plain in a popcorn machine, or with some coconut oil, and you have a beautiful snack for your child, and a great substitute for chips or biscuits.
4. Trail Mix– Make some fun combos of dried fruits, seeds, coconut and nuts. Get a variety, and have your children mix their own combinations. Be mindful of how much dried fruit your child is consuming as they can be packed with sugars!
5. Fruit Slinkies– Using a slinky machine, or manually with a knife- cutting around your fruit and turning it into a spiral can make fruit that much more enticing to eat for a child.
6. Muesli Bars- Making your own muesli bars is so much more economical, and it means you can pick and choose your ingredients! A fun weekend or after school cooking task for the kids, home made muesli bars mean you can decorate and customise them with nuts, seeds and dried fruit all you like!
7. Yoghurt- Full of vitamins and dairy nutrients, be mindful of added sugars, and as individual yoghurts can be a high cost per unit, purchase a larger tub of yoghurt and then divide servings into smaller tupperware containers for each serving.
8. Water- Constantly bouncing around and wearing themselves out, stock your child’s lunch box with plenty of water! For the kid who lives cordial, swap in some fruit pieces to add some colour and flavour to their water.
I hope everyone’s children enjoy their first term for 2015, and please try my lunch box friendly recipes below- sure to be a hit with your little ones!
If you have any great kid’s lunch box ideas, please share them on my Facebook page x
