Lunch Box Ideas

Lunch time is a great opportunity to sneak in some fruit and vegetables to your child’s diets.

• Include a portion of fruit every day but be adventurous and make it quick and easy to eat. Instead of setting your child the task of peeling an orange, why not pack them a bunch of grapes, a portion of fresh pineapple or fruit segments.

• There’s nothing more warming than a mug of homemade soup on a cold day. Invest in a small flask for those winter months. Equally, on a warm day a fresh, cold smoothie may be just as welcome.

• Make a salad box in the morning with fresh salad and vegetables and alternate toppings throughout the week, like grilled chicken, tuna, pulses or asparagus. This is also handy for the grown-ups who take lunches to work.
• Rice is a great base for salad, so try mixing in fruit, nuts, beans and vegetables for a tasty lunch alternative.

• If they have a sweet tooth, don’t automatically head for the sweets and chocolate. There are healthier alternatives that are just as tasty, such as dried fruit and nut mixes.

• If you’re looking for a slightly sweeter drink there’s nothing nicer than a 100 per cent fresh fruit juice to accompany their lunch.

It is important to be careful about the “healthy” snacks that you buy for the lunch boxes as all are not as healthy as they seem.

• Cereal bars: many cereal bars contain more than 40 per cent sugar and 30 per cent fat.

• Flavoured yoghurt: the once-healthy yoghurt now often comes attached to a pack of confectionery to stir in. Some of these contain more than five teaspoons of sugar in each pot.

• Savoury snacks: cheese strings and similar foods tend to be highly processed and may contain high levels of saturated fat and salt. One single snack can contain almost as much salt as a young child should have in an entire day.

• Fruit juice drinks: pure fruit juice contains 100 per cent fruit juice as you would expect. However a ‘fruit juice drink’ can contain as little as 6 per cent juice. Many so-called ‘juice drinks’ are really only juice-flavoured sugary water and contain more water and sugar than actual fruit juice. They many also include artificial flavourings, sweeteners and colourings.

With a little imagination and preparation, it may be easier than you think to give your children a healthy lunch.

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