It's easy to run out of school lunch ideas, especially healthy ones. Here's a list of some new ideas to keep you going all through the school year, plus my 2 key concepts for packing a healthy lunch. Thank you to Horizon for sponsoring this post.
It's official ladies and gentleman...
I now have a school aged child.
Jackson is starting preschool this month!
He's been going to the child development center where I work for the past several months but only a couple of days a week. I'm so excited for this next chapter for my little guy. I know he's ready to be around other kids every day, be challenged by new experiences and grow in every way. It's going to be so cool to see how he changes this year.
Let me tell you what I am not excited about though:
Making school lunches every day.
Does that surprise you? It kind of surprises me too, but I just don't really enjoy the monotony of the daily lunch assembly. I find it challenging to be creative and not get in lunch ruts -- making the same 'ol thing every day.
I could start researching on Pinterest, but I'm really not that interested in making elaborate lunches that look like art. At 8 or 9 pm at night, I don't have the energy or creativity for that. Plus, I don't think Jackson would even really care (the double edged sword of having boys).
My other challenge is that Jackson, being my orderly slightly OCD oldest child, prefers consistency. Every day he asks me for "ham and cheese and mustard" for lunch meaning a ham and cheese sandwich. Seriously, I think Jackson would eat ham and cheese sandwiches twice a day with no problem. His need for consistency is so strong that last week I gave him a leftover, homemade empanada in his summer school lunch (of which he ate 2 the night before at dinner), and he didn't eat it because it wasn't ham and cheese. ARGHHHHH!!!
We have also entered the strong food preference stage.
{I prefer not to use the word "picky" because I do not want Jackson to believe that about himself. I have to remind myself daily that exerting food preferences in a normal part of child development.}
Another challenge I face in the lunch department is recently I have noticed that Jackson has stopped eating his fruit and veggies that I put in his lunch. Talk about a topic that burns me up! I don't know what's going on but he doesn't eat even his favorite fruits like blueberries.
I knew this day was coming, as food preference changes are part of normal development, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating for me. Some days I just want to blame the peer pressure of his fellow 4 year olds that likely have all kinds of "exciting" lunch items. I hear about those exciting items when we are grocery shopping together.
"Mommy, so-and-so has those in his lunch at school. I want that…" Aaaaannnnnd we just keep moving along in our shopping cart to the next isle.
Hmmm, maybe some help from Pinterest isn't a bad idea after all…
But before I go looking for other ideas, I want to share some inspiration of my own for easy and healthy school lunches.
I've always been a believer in two key concepts for feeding kids:
#1 - Provide a selection of foods that are all healthy choices for kids and allow the child to choose how much they eat. Exposure to healthy foods is just as important as them eating the healthy foods (from a long term healthy eater perspective). At our family meals, our guiding principle is that everyone takes a taste of all the offerings. You don't have to eat all of it, but you do have to taste it.
#2 - Enjoy a reasonable amount of "fun" foods, trying to find as many fun foods that are also healthy. This could be making creative art from food or just including an item that lights up their eyes when they open their lunches. I know I look forward to my lunch when I know there's something exciting in there.
Applying these concepts to school lunches means providing Jackson with a few options in his lunch that are all healthy and letting him choose what he eats. If it's just his "ham, cheese, and mustard" sandwich, I make sure to always put lettuce and tomato on that sandwich, incorporating fruits and veggies in every component of his lunch. It also means giving him some "fun" healthy foods that make him excited to eat his lunch.
One of these fun items that we've been trying lately is Horizon Super Squeezes.
My boys both love "squeezies". They are a regular snack for us. Even though I like that they are just fruits and vegetables, I really wished they had some protein in them. My boys need some protein for the shear fact that they need to feel full, and protein helps with that.
These Horizon Super Squeeze blend organic skim milk and real fruit puree to provide 5 g of protein, 2 g of fiber and 20% of the daily value for calcium. For me, these are good reasons to consider throwing one of these puppies in J's school lunch.
Another food my boys love are "bars". There are an assortment of kinds that they like but come school lunch time, I'll be making a double batch of my Hidden Honey Bars to put in their lunch boxes. I love this recipe because it's whole grains, sweetened only with honey, and has 2 veggies in it. You can also customize the add-ins to whatever you and your kids would like.
While I still feel like such a newbie to the school lunch scene, here's a few other ideas of healthy foods that Team Braddock enjoys for lunch:
Olives: These are a low calorie, healthy snack that provide good fat and a lot of fun.
Avocado wraps: Lay out one piece of lunch meat and spread 1 teaspoon of hummus on it. Lay a half of piece of sliced cheese on top of the hummus. Place a slice of avocado at one end of the ham and cheese and roll it up. Leave whole or cut in to pieces. I usually give Jackson 2 of these.
Grapes and watermelon cubes: On hot days, including fruit with a high water content helps keep kids hydrated.
Healthy Lunchable: I'm basically obsessed with lunch bento boxes. I can't help but buy them whenever I see them at a store or online. They are perfect for lunches because you just fill the spaces and it's easy to determine if you've included healthy foods. I also think kids like to assemble their own food. I'll do whole grain crackers, cheese, deli meats, hummus, tomato and cucumber slices, avocado slices, and/or shredded carrots. You can also do a healthy yogurt parfait "bar" with yogurt, granola and fresh fruit.
I have tried a lot of lunch containers and bento boxes. So far my favorites are this Quad Stainless Steel Food Container (picture above left), this LunchBlox sets with the ice tray (pictured right), this sandwich box, and this split snack container (pictured above with grapes and avo wraps). Please leave me a comment and let me know if you like any of those or have another brand I've not discovered.
Hopefully one of these ideas gives you some "new material" this year. I would love to hear what you make for school lunches. The more real-life ideas we share, the better. Leave me a comment or visit my Facebook page to share your ideas.
Also follow Horizon as they share tons of back to school ideas with the hashtag #HorizonBTS on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook .
To Making Lunches Our Kids Will Actually Eat,