Healthy Kids Lunchboxes

With term 2 back into full swing, and in the hope of deterring back-to-school-lunchbox-despair, we have put together this post – to help inspire you with lots of ideas so you can enjoy packing lunchboxes full of goodness, kids (and adults) will love!

Many lunchboxes have little compartments or containers to separate the food, so our suggestion is to assign each of those little sections with its own purpose and then vary some (not all) of the options every other day or week.

As a guide, when you’re choosing items, select something from every food group; proteins (egg, a bit of cheese or some meat), complex carbohydrates (wholegrain bread/wraps, root vegetables, rice), healthy fats (avocado, nuts, seeds) and fruit and vegetables. This will keep them sustained through out the day.

To get you started, here are 5 top tips to packing a healthy lunchbox.

Create a favorite lunchboxes list– One of the most important steps to getting your kids to love lunch (and eat it) is encouraging participation from the very start. Before school even starts, sit down together and create a “My Favourite Lunchboxes” list and put it on the fridge. Some ideas may include (which are all freezer friendly), pizza pinwheels, bacon and egg bakes, bliss balls, blueberry muffins, energy bites (all out of our award winning cookbook, 21 Day Marvelous Lunchbox Makeover cookbook)
Include healthy lunchbox extras to fill those additional spaces – These could include toasted nuts and seeds (or raw), chopped vegetables, prunes, peanut butter and celery, hummus and crackers
Be prepared and organised – Spend a couple of hours in the weekend making some things off that list to fill the baking tins and the freezer
Serve in a different way to keep up the interest – for example, serve sandwich fillings on a kebab stick or filled in a toasted wholemeal pita bread, or instead of a piece of fruit, offer a fruit salad
Think ahead – Make as much of your lunchbox the night before and then make the fresh items in the morning

Sandwich Fillings and Alternatives

If you have included separate veggie/protein snacks in their lunchbox, a simple sandwich or corn/rice cake/cruskit filling such as vegemite, cheese or nut butter (if allowed) should suffice.

Alternatively, include the veggies or protein as your filling – such as cucumber + cheese or egg.

You may wish to swap a sandwich for a wholemeal or gluten free pita pocket or wrap and fill either with shredded lettuce, grated carrot + cottage cheese or hummus.

For a sweet option, a banana + cinnamon filling is often enjoyed by children. This works well as an after school snack.

Other alternatives to sandwiches can include: homemade pizza, sushi, frittata or fritters or what we’ve mentioned above.

Rice is also a great option for gluten free lunchboxes – you can have it savoury combined with ingredients such as grated carrot, diced capsicum, peas, spring onion and feta cheese; or sweet combined with diced fruit, yoghurt and cinnamon (like a rice pudding).

Head to RECIPES on our website for loads of different ideas for sweets, savoury, dips and bread alteratives.

* Exciting Announcement *

Just incase you haven’t heard, I’m really excited to announce my 2^nd cookbook, “The Healthy Lunchbox Cookbook” is currently being created with a release date of the end of May (fingers crossed). I will be offering exclusive bonuses for pre-sales only so please join my newsletter (The Weekly Wick) HERE if you’d like to be the first to know when it’s available (no need to sign up if you’re already receiving it).

Beginners Baking and Healthy Kids Lunchboxes Cooking Workshop

If you enjoy a small interactive group whilst experiencing a live cooking demonstration, join us at our “Beginners Baking and Healthy Kids Lunchboxes” cooking workshop on Saturday, 6th May from 2-4.30pm. You’ll be able to get all your questions answered on the spot, and you’ll leave with a full stomach after tasting everything we make, along with loads of inspiration and excitement to get home to create them yourself.

On the menu is:

Healthy Afghan Biscuits
Homemade Potato & Kumara Chips (these are AMAZING)
Quinoa Chocolate Brownie (trust me on this one, they won’t even notice!)
Seedy Crackers
Coconut, Date & Almond Slice

Click HERE for more information and to book. Only 6 places left (maximum of 10).