Organize healthy school lunches
Bright ideas to alleviate the pressure of packing lunches
By Natalie Bahadur
Ask any mother about making lunch for her kids and chances are she’ll tell you that at one time or another, she’s been plum out of ideas.
Sharon Rainey of Toronto is no exception; preparing lunch for her three young girls to take to school is a daily test.
Rainey’s biggest challenge is providing food the girls will like and eat, “so it doesn’t wind up coming back home again,” she says.
Rainey also seeks to make sure the food is nutritious enough to get the girls through the day. “I refuse to give them junk food,” she says. “My kids do not get processed foods for lunch.”
Ann Douglas, a busy mother of four and author of The Mother of Allseries of books (Wiley Canada), reiterates the same challenges. “The toughest thing is trying to find something interesting to pack in my kids’ lunches,” she says. “Figuring out what to include as a protein source in this era of peanut-free lunches is a never-ending challenge.”
Make it interesting
Despite a parent’s most valiant efforts, getting kids to eat their healthy lunch can be an enormous task.
Leslie Beck, a registered dietitian and author of Leslie Beck’s 10 Steps to Healthy Eating (Viking Canada, 2002), says the solution is creativity. “Keep it interesting and provide lots of variety,” she says.
Ditch the unhealthy treats
Foods loaded with sugar and salt, such as cookies and potato chips, are not good snacks. “The worst thing we can do as parents is send our kids off with some kind of unhealthy treat,” explains Beck. “All that’s doing is reinforcing the notion with kids that these are foods they should expect every day.”
Keep it fun
Beck dishes up tasty alternatives. Instead of sandwiches, she suggests wraps made with pitas or tortillas. “Try whole-grain crackers and low-fat cheese,” she recommends. “And since vegetables are the obvious healthy snack for kids, include dip such as hummus, tzatziki sauce and baba ghanouj to spice up carrot or celery sticks.”
Surf for inspiration
The Internet is a perfect place to search for lunchtime inspiration. Though Rainey admits that finding time to surf the web outside of work is difficult, there are many resources to be found online.
- Dietitians of Canada offers cookbooks to help you prepare healthy lunches as well as links to other useful sites.
- Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating has plenty of tips and links for easy reference.
- Allrecipes also has a back-to-school section dedicated to nutritious breakfast, lunch and snack ideas.
Love their lunches
Rainey jokes that her best lunch idea is packing up the previous night’s leftovers. But using leftovers areis a smart and efficient way to solve the lunch dilemma. Meals containing pasta, rice and chicken are healthy and satisfying. Rainey says her children also enjoy wieners, beans and soup — all packed in a thermos.
Douglas’s children have their favourites: tea biscuits, veggies and dip, tuna in a pita with alfalfa sprouts, and bagels with cheese.
Get fresh
Fresh fruits and vegetables may make the best snacks for kids, but day after day, carrots and apples can get boring. Try cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and even sliced peppers as well as seasonal fruits such as cherries, strawberries and peaches.
And don’t discount packaged grocery store finds altogether. Granola bars with dried fruit or raisins, dry cereal, yogourt and fruit cups are all healthy snacks that are quick to pack.
Be organized
When it comes to organization, Beck says the only real solution is planning ahead. “Make a weekly menu that the whole family can see, and know what you have to grocery shop for,” she says. “If you write it out, it’s easier to see what you’re doing and to incorporate variety.” Draw up a schedule in Word or Excel, or use our downloadable template to get (and keep) you on track.
Ask the kids for help
“Get kids to provide their input so they can become interested in family meals and food,” she adds. More importantly, Beck suggests getting kids involved in making their own lunches. “If they participate in making it, they’re more likely to eat it.”
