How to Pack a School Lunch Kids Will Actually Eat.
What can be more tedious than preparing school lunches? You try to be creative. You try to make it healthy. And then the whole thing comes home uneaten.
Here are three easy ways to make lunches fun, healthy and easy.
1. Include Healthy Choices.
Choose a simple, kid-friendly beverage such as milk, water, or fruit juice. Freeze water or juice and by lunchtime, it will be cold and ready to drink.
Select a sandwich kids like and you approve of nutritionally, such as those containing peanut butter, cheese, turkey, or tuna tuna salad. Vary the bread choices (English muffin, bagel, pita, tortilla, etc.) to make old favorites seem new.
Vary veggies until you find the key combination your kids like. Best bests include broccoli, carrots, celery, jicama, pepper sticks, radishes, raw squash, zucchini. (These are more likely to be consumed if you pack a little container of ranch dressing for a dip.)
Find fab fruits that your kids actually like.
Apples, pears and oranges hold up best in lunches. Bananas, plums, grapes, cherries and peaches may get a bit squished.
Be sure to protect fruit in plastic or other crush-resistant containers. Cube cantaloupe, watermelon and honeydew; applesauce is another hassle-free kid-friendly option.
Smart snack options include granola or fruit bars, dried fruit, raisins, pretzels, goldfish, nuts, trail mix, cold cooked pasta, popcorn, dry cereal and rice cakes.
2. Make it Easy.
Make an assembly line of school lunch options, devoting a shelf in the refrigerator to lunch box foods.
Plan to make sandwiches the night before and put them on the shelf alongside beverages.
Cut up veggies into fun shapes. Use a cookie-cutter to dice them into kid-friendly portions.
Pop them into plastic snack bags, pour ranch dressing into a small container and add that to the shelf lunch mix.
Create a snack and dessert station of one-serving size treats. Be sure to have a good selection. Change it around each week for variety and to keep the kids looking.
3. Make It Fun.
Let your child pick out her school lunch box and decorate it is she wants.
Cut sandwiches into fun shapes with cookie cutters. After all, the more appealing the main attraction, the more likely your little lunch-bunch participant will find the offering.
Always include a note from home. It can be short and sweet - the idea here is to remind her that you're thinking of her.
Finally, add brightly colored plastic utensils and napkins - and maybe a crazy straw.
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