Lunchbox Ideas
Lunch is one of the most important meals in your kids’ day. It helps restore energy levels and boosts their concentration for the rest of the afternoon. Lunch provides about 30% of your children’s daily intake. The exact amount they need varies by age but it’s vitally important to have a good mix of food types and make sure they’re getting plenty of nutrients and energy.
The right Lunchbox
Your kid’s daily lunchbox should contain the following:
- Carbohydrate foods for energy
- A small amount of protein – vital for healthy growth
- Dairy product(s)
- 2 portions of fruit and/or vegetables
- Water/fluids
- A snack
Top Tips for a Healthy Kids’ Lunchbox:
1. Always include fresh fruit and vegetables. Vary the selection to keep it interesting.
2. To keep some variety try using different breads each day; whole grain breads, rolls, pitta bread and flat breads.
3. Use reduced fat dairy foods. Cheese and yoghurt are ideal lunchbox snacks.
4. Protein is a very important part of any lunchbox. Ensure you include lean meat, egg, peanut butter, chickpeas or tuna.
5. Add a chilled bottle of water an limit juice.
6. A small fruit salad is a perfect lunchbox addition. Kids like fresh fruit cut an ready to eat and it´s colourful, easy to eat an busting with vitamins.
7. Again, try and mix up the fruits you gibe them. They´ll get bored eating the same thing every day. Try and go with fresh fruits that are in season.
8. Peel and slive or cut fruit if possible and choose seedless varieties of grapes, watermelon and imperial mandarins.
9. Mild tasting and crunchy lettuce varieties like Iceberg and Oak leaf and Lebanese cucumbers are ideal for kids and go great in sandwiches.
8. Peel and slive or cut fruit if possible and choose seedless varieties of grapes, watermelon and imperial mandarins.
9. Mild tasting and crunchy lettuce varieties like Iceberg and Oak leaf and Lebanese cucumbers are ideal for kids and go great in sandwiches.
10. Make salads or salad sandwich fillings interesting by using a range of vegetables like grated carrot, snow pea sprouts, lettuce or rocket or baby spinach, sliced celery, tomatoes, avocado and cucumber. One again, variety here stops them getting bored with their food.
11. Use a vegetable peeler to slice cucumber into thin ribbons for sandwich fillings.
11. Use a vegetable peeler to slice cucumber into thin ribbons for sandwich fillings.
Sugar Free Lunch Treats
Sweet snacks are great in lunchboxes. Kids love the flavour and it’s nice to give them as a reward or treat. It also helps kids to look forward to their lunch. But we all want to be careful about the amount of sugar we give our kids.
Sugar can be hard to spot in children's food as it's called many different things. All the following are forms of sugar, which is only needed in small amounts: sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, dextrose, fruit syrup, molasses. If you’re trying to figure out how much sugar your child’s food contains be sure to check for all of these.
Sugar can be hard to spot in children's food as it's called many different things. All the following are forms of sugar, which is only needed in small amounts: sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, dextrose, fruit syrup, molasses. If you’re trying to figure out how much sugar your child’s food contains be sure to check for all of these.
Kids´ Weekly Lunchbox Plan
Use the plan below to help you plan out simple, healthy and tasty lunchboxes for your kids. Tailor the plan for your own kids depending on what they like and mix things up now and then so they don’t get bored at lunchtime.