Heading back to school means parents all around will recommit themselves to packing nutritious, delicious school lunches their kids will love to eat.
Eating meals together at home is important for families, but don’t underestimate the importance of the meal you send to school with your child each day. In the same way that it is important to sit down and break bread with our family, kids sit down at school and do the same with peers of their choosing.
A positive experience eating lunch at school begins with a positive experience opening up that lunch box and finding out what’s inside. The same old peanut butter and jelly, pretzels, and apple may work for the first couple of years of school, but as a child gets older and develops more sophisticated preferences, you can do better. Work together with your child to create portable, healthy meals your child will feel proud to eat.
Instead of complaints about how friends have better lunches, you’ll start to hear stories about the funny conversations that happened at lunch or who traded what for what. With a little bit of effort, you’ll notice that your child conveys a content, relaxed tone about lunchtime, exactly like the one you strive to create at dinnertime at home.
So when it comes time to whip up a great school lunch, keep these simple tips in mind:
Experiment with nut butters. Why limit your child’s sandwich to just peanut butter when there is also almond butter, cashew butter, and sunflower seed butter? Or consider a healthy brand of chocolate nut butter with whole-wheat pretzels for dipping.
Expand your sandwich-making repertoire. For variety, cut sandwiches into halves, triangles, quarters, or use a cookie cutter to make shapes. Experiment with whole grain wraps, bagels, pita or flatbread.
Send real fruit instead of fruit-flavored or artificial fruit snacks. Stock up on small, no-leak containers before school starts so you won’t be afraid to chop up ripe fruit and send it to school.
Chop up whatever veggies you have on hand on Sunday and separate into bags or containers for the week. Include a bit of damp or dry paper towel to keep veggies moist or dry—whichever helps them last.
Try homemade trail mix for snack time. You can come up with combinations that are customized for each child if you visit the bulk foods section of your grocery store and create combos to offer a week at a time.
Have “Thermos Thursdays” and send something hot to school like soup, mac n’ cheese, or pasta. Be sure to heat the food up well before pouring into your child’s thermos. Put the lid on tightly but not so tight your child can’t get it open.
Send low-fat milk in a thermos instead of sugary juice or let them buy milk at school. If you don’t want to send sugar-loaded juice, try flavored waters. In a pitcher, refrigerate water with lemon, lime, berries, or herbs. Test flavors over time to discover what combinations kids prefer.
Make homemade cookies or bars over the weekend and store properly to last all week. Freeze, if necessary—they will thaw by lunchtime. If your child is new to the school, include an extra treat to offer to new friends.
Cut fruit such as apples into wedges. A child confronted with a whole apple will take a few bites and toss the rest. Smaller bites are less daunting, will result in your child eating more over the course of the day and won’t hurt wiggly teeth.
Why not give them something to look forward to each week? Offer bonus sweets in moderation. Keep a secret stash to offer on the last day before the weekend. Just a little something to help them celebrate the weekend with their friends like a tiny bag of jelly beans or a couple of chocolate kisses.
Written by Christina Katz
Christina Katz knows better than to slack off on shopping for inspired school lunch foods or she’ll have to hear about it all the way home from school. Her latest book is The Art of Making Time for Yourself, A Collection of Advice For Moms.
Healthy lunch foods to try:
Hummus
Yogurt
Dried fruit
Nuts and nut butters
Cheese sticks
Cut veggies
Rice and beans
Granola / Granola bars
Rice cakes
Trail mix
Popcorn
Whole grain crackers
Hard-boiled eggs
Pita or bagel chips
Fruit leather
Pistachios
Protein bars
Veggie chips
Avoid foods with:
High sugar
Preservatives
High fructose corn syrup
Excessive salt
Hydrogenated fat