Packing Healthy School Lunches Year Round

Saturday, September 03, 2011

It’s September, and for a lot of us that means it’s back-to-school time. Pencils, erasers, notebooks, new clothes . . . it can get exhausting after a while! One of the things that you might not be thinking about is your child’s lunch box. And no, I don’t mean whether it should be Hannah Montana or Ben 10. Rather, I mean what you’re going to fill that designer tote with every day for the next several months.

Buying lunch at school every day is costly, and you won’t always know where that food is coming from. Even though schools are cracking down on nutrition for school lunches, cafeterias do not always place emphasis on locally grown produce. One way to ensure that your children are eating healthy foods grown locally is to pack their lunch yourself!

If your children are picky, as mine are, it can be tricky to find the fruits and veggies they crave year round. But getting them to eat seasonal selections doesn’t have to be a fight; it can be fun and full of adventurous eating. Here are a few tips to get your kids eating healthy options every day.

• Dip it! Kids love dipping just about everything from sweet fruits and crunchy veggies to breaded chicken or mozzarella sticks. Providing a “fingers only” lunch to your little one is a fun way to get them eating healthy options. Julienne your veggie selections and provide ranch dressing or hummus to dip with. Offer different cubed fruits and cheese with caramel dipping sauce. And, if your child likes chicken fingers, you can bread and bake enough small pieces of chicken for a week’s worth of lunches Sunday night. Cold chicken tastes just as yummy as warm and it’s easy to transport to school! Store your dips in reusable containers for easy cleaning and no-mess transportation.

• Pasta salad can be a great way to “hide” fresh veggies from picky eaters. Chop your fresh veggies teeny-tiny, almost small enough to make a slaw, and mix with whole wheat pasta, olive oil, and spices. Just a little bit of seasoning will turn a veggie salad into a new and flavorful food for your child.

• Tuna boats, anyone? Take a halved bell pepper and stuff with tuna salad. If you want to be creative, you can include a toothpick and a triangle-shaped wedge of cheese for your child to “raise the sail” on their boat. Little touches like these have kids clamoring for more!

• Is apple picking on your September agenda? Prepare in advance for the fresh fruit so that you can store and enjoy their fresh crispness for months at a time. Gather black and white newspaper pages (avoid colored print as these contain hazardous chemicals that could leech into the fruit) and quarter them. Wrap each apple individually so that when you store them, they won’t touch each other. You don’t have to exclude air from their environment; a slight twist of the newspaper at the top will do the trick. Store them in a cardboard box in a dark, cool area where the apples will not freeze. You could use an unheated basement or an enclosed porch. Taking these few extra steps will ensure that your apples stay fresh through February. Think of the happy smile when your child sees a crisp apple in the middle of winter.

These are just a few suggestions, but if you think about it, I’m certain you can come up with more inventive ideas on how to include local produce into your child’s lunch each day. Not only will it save you some much needed cash, you will be providing healthy, fun food choices for your children—which is always a bonus!