Providing our children with nutrient dense foods that help them grow, concentrate, engage in learning and be energised is the most important thing we as parents can do, from a nutritional perspective that is!
When you are working, a domestic goddess, a mother of 1, 2, 3 or more and a wife, friend to a few or many, you feel like you spread yourself thin, and I totally understand how sometimes you just chose the easy option, because it can all become just too hard!! Right? Now that we have established that you are human, and that feeding children just on its own can be hard work, it’s important to realise that we can’t always be perfect, and it is what we do most of the time that counts.
I’ve put together some helpful tips that may help improve the nutritional value of your gorgeous childrens’ lunchboxes.
How to keep them fuller for longer
Having checked out probably thousands of lunchboxes during my time as a teacher, the key macronutrient missing from lunchboxes is protein. Protein is so important for growth & repair and it also takes a while to be digested, so keeps those tummies fuller for longer compared to carbohydrates, which seem to be the go to filler. To add more protein into your children’s lunchboxes, try adding some of these suggestions: boiled egg, make some egg muffins, baby quiches without pastry, baby meatballs (with hidden vegetables), chicken drumsticks (there are some great recipes out there), slices of their favourite meat or maybe some protein biscuits (recipe posting soon!!)
Biscuits and Slices- who doesn’t love them!!
The best thing you can do is avoid the store bought and get back in the kitchen and bake your own from scratch using good old butter. Haven’t got time?? Sure you do! Spend a few hours in the kitchen on the weekend and do a bake off and freeze.
Store bought biscuits contain sugar yes, but often a lot more like fructose, maltodextrin, high fructose corn syrup which has no biological role in the body and the liver converts to fat. Perhaps you can reduce the amount of sugar in your recipes or substitute caster sugar with a more nutrient dense sugar like rapadura or coconut sugar or even use rice malt syrup (yes it is still a sugar with a high GI, but it doesn’t contain any fructose).
Store bought biscuits also contain vegetable oils because it’s cheap, not made from vegetables and is very inflammatory to the body (NOT GOOD). So I encourage you to bake your own with butter, maybe coconut oil, macadamia nut oil or olive oil, depending on the recipe.
Yogurt (Full fat, reduced fat, low fat, skim???)
Simple, full fat always!! Full fat has almost half the sugar compare with low fat. Try buying in bulk Greek yogurt and adding your own berries.
The bread thing.
If you children love it, try moving away from white bread to something less processed like rye. Mountain bread wraps could be a good substitute, along with rice cakes or corn thins.
WATER all the way.
Children do not need juices in their lunch box (some containing 5 teaspoons of sugar!!).
Other filler ideas…….
Plain popcorn, carrot, cucumber, celery sticks, beans, any other raw vegetables they like.Make an avocado dip (that is when avos don’t cost $4.99 each like they did today!!)Hommus, plain rice cracker (read the labels), nuts if your school permits, olives, real cheese -cut off the block.
What changes are you going to make to improve your children’s lunch boxes???
Please feel free to share what your kids love in their lunchboxes. The more ideas the better!
