Healthy Lunchbox
H ea lth Hu nter
Rhian Hunter
Inspiration
W ith a third of your child’s total daily food intake being consumed at school, what you choose to include in your child’s lunch box is going to have a huge impact on their health and wellbeing. It’s an enormous pressure to be responsible for making sure you’re providing foods that have all the right nutrients, vitamins and minerals needed for their energy, growth, and learning - especially when we are so busy and time poor.
School or day-care mornings are busy, often chaotic, so it’s easier to resort to pre-packaged, and processed foods in order to save time. The obvious downside to this is that our children are not only consuming excess sugars, but also not meeting their nutritional requirements. This in turn could result in long lasting negative impacts on their health. Now let’s be real here for a moment. Keeping a balance between the nutritional requirements of growing/developing children and serving up foods they will actually eat poses a whole new set of challenges, even for the most organised of parents. If you think that isn’t enough to make you throw in the towel altogether, then perhaps the list of banned lunchbox staples just might. Gone are the days when you could feel good about sending your child off with an egg and lettuce sanga, a muesli bar and a banana for lunch. With many schools forbidding nut products, eggs, egg-based mayonnaise, fish products, bananas, kiwifruit and fruits (and chocolate that may contain nuts) you might be pulling your hair out wondering what you should be packing. So here are my top tips and some lunchbox inspiration.
LUNCHBOX INSPO 1 • Fresh berries w/ squeeze Lemon Juice • Curried (“Egg”) Tofu + Lettuce Sandwich (on soy + linseed or rye bread) • Original Salted Seaweed Chips • Brown rice cakes w/tahini + date syrup* (*optional)
LUNCHBOX INSPO 2 • 2 Medjool Dates + 2 Squares 70% Dark Chocolate • Hemp Pesto Buckwheat Pasta • Sicilian Green Olives + Cherry Tomatoes • Cheesy Green Popcorn
LUNCHBOX INSPO 3 • Smoothie Bowl w/ buckwheat granola • Dinner Leftovers (salad, Bolognese, curry, soup) • Chocolate Grackles • Mini Cucumbers, Celery w/ hummus
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BE PREPARED: Pack your lunches the night before, or better still plan out what you’re going to have the week before. You can make and store some foods at the beginning of your week for 5 days, such as chia puddings, scrambled tofu, veggie Bolognese, pesto, hummus, popcorn, etc. KEEP PACKAGED FOODS TO A MINIMUM + READ LABELS: Many packaged products on our supermarket shelves can be laden with artificial colours, flavours and emulsifiers. These ingredients may affect anything from your child’s behaviour, attention span, learning development and capabilities and social interactions to allergies. The best way to reduce packaged foods is to make your own snacks, but if you don’t have the time to do this, that’s okay - just make sure you take the time to read the labels and educate yourself on any ingredient that you’re unfamiliar. FIND OUT WHAT YOUR KIDS ENJOY & GET THEM INVOLVED: If your kids show an interest in cooking, let them be part of the process (they’ll be more inclined to eat something they’ve helped to prepare). Maybe your kid loves salty snacking (I know mine does) so mini cucumbers, celery sticks, Sicilian green olives and hummus goes down a treat, or perhaps they enjoy a warm earthy veggie Bolognese, maybe you have one with a sweet tooth that would love a smoothie bowls decorated in fruit and a (nut free granola). All of these foods are possible with stainless steel Tupperware - My favourite is the tufferware trio from Seed & Sprout. These metal stacker bowls retain heat/cold and are 100% plastic & leak free - perfect for smoothie bowls and warm meals. AVOID FOODS THAT CAUSE A SPIKE IN BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS: Complex carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats and fibre will slow down digestion and will help your child feel full. Furthermore, these foods will provide a gradual supply of energy and help your child maintain concentration.
