School Lunch Box ideas

Kids school lunch boxes is probably the most stressful part of being a parent. Like what the Hell do you put in it EVERY SINGLE school day, that is nutritional, that they ACTUALLY eat and that doesn’t make you cry thinking about it.

Lyndsay from ieatmypeas.com held a back to school lunch box ides workshop to help us mamas out and honestly, she just blew my mind. The 3 main rules are:

1. Keep it simple.

2. Keep it fresh

3. Keep it colourful

1. Simplistic lunches are the best because if you over complicate things, you are just adding extra stress on yourself and will become emotionally involved if they don’t eat something you spent hours making. Kids don’t have a fixed palate like us adults, where we would eat mains first and then fruits, they will eat a little bit of everything, so keeping it simple just helps them eat how they want.

2. Freshness of course is key, if it’s not fresh it won’t taste good and therefore they won’t eat it. Use good quality fruits and veg for example and use ice packs to keep lunches cool in the Dubai heat.

3. Not only does colourful lunches look pleasing.. Different colored fruits and veg hold different nutrition kids need. Similar colour fruits generally have the same kind of nutrients.

Lunch box idea 1:

• Cream cheese sandwhich, avocado and salmon rolls
• Homemade flapjack, strawberries

Lunch box idea 2:

• Roast chicken (from night before), couscous, cucumber and carrots, dried apricots, strawberry and banana
• Yoghurt can do on the area where there is nothing there.
• Tips: only give dried fruit once or twice a week as they are sugary and can get stuck in their teeth, causing issues.

Lunch box idea 3:

• Tacos made from tortilla wrap, meat balls, avocado, cheese
• Banana, blueberries and popcorn
• Tips: Freshly popped popcorn are better than ready made and a thermos keeps them from going soggy

Lunch box idea 4:

• Casadilla with cheese inside, Hummus with whole chickpeas
• Carrots, cucumber, strawberries, kiwi, blueberries
• Tips: cookie cutters help make it fun to eat

Lunch box idea 5:

• Boiled pasta (can add whatever you like on top)
• Apple, kiwi, raisins and a babybel
• Tip: don’t give too much packaged food as they will get used to everything that comes from a packet which isn’t that healthy.

Seriously, how colourful does it all look, definitely makes me want to eat it all!

Other tips include:

• Have to find the type of lunch box that works for your child, eg. Separated food, big or small etc.
• Experiment with only one new food at a time
• Use the lunch boxes at home so they get used to opening it and eating from it

Well there it is. Simple, fresh and colourful.

Event held at Just Kidding, a one stop shop for everything baby and sponsored by Kibsons. You can order over at Kibsons.com for fresh quality food.

#goodluckmamas

#backtoschool

#lunchboxideas

#thestruggleisreal