If you're a parent of
school-age kids, you're probably no stranger to brown bananas and smashed
sandwiches aging in the bottom of your child's backpack. By the end of the
school year, most kids are tired of eating the same bag lunch day after day at
school. Even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches can grow old.
Summer brings a change of weather and daytime activities. Why not change what you pack in your children’s camp or summer school lunches?
These 15 kids’ lunchbox
ideas are based on four key elements. Use them when you fix your summer
lunches, too:
15 Fun Lunchbox Ideas for Kids
Try these menu items to jazz
up bag lunches.
Pasta Lover's Lunch Salad. Pack a cold pasta salad and a plastic fork, and
your pasta lover will love you, too! Make the salad with lean meat or low-fat
cheese (so it has some protein), lots of vegetables to boost fiber and nutrition, and whole wheat or
whole-grain pasta. Toss everything together with a light bottled vinaigrette
made with extra virgin olive oil or canola oil.
Mediterranean Pita Pocket. Fill a pita pocket with falafel balls and some
homemade or store-bought hummus. Some falafel balls come cooked and ready to
add.
Fruit and Cheese Plate. Fill a divided plastic container with assorted
cubes or slices of reduced fat cheese, easy-to-eat fruit such as apple and pear
slices, grapes, berries or melon and whole-wheat crackers.
Peanut Butter Fun Pack. Make a peanut butter fun pack by spooning two
tablespoons of natural-style peanut butter in a reusable plastic container,
along with whole wheat crackers or whole wheat pita pocket wedges and raw vegetables
such as celery, zucchini, or jicama sticks.
Everything Is Better on a
Mini Bagel. Whole-wheat bagels are a wonderful foundation for hardy sandwiches
that stand up to being in a backpack or locker all morning. Start with one
regular or a few mini bagels. Add tuna or lean, roasted, and sliced turkey or
roast beef. Top it off with reduced-fat cheese and fresh tomato, onion, and
Romaine lettuce or sprouts. Two mini bagels can supply 6 grams of fiber to the
meal.
Celebrate Lunch Salads. A plastic container can hold the makings of a
delicious salad lunch. For a Cobb salad, fill it with spinach or chopped dark
green lettuce, chopped hard-boiled egg, light cheese, and/or lean ham. Or toss
in the ingredients for a Chinese chicken salad: dark salad greens, shredded
chicken, shredded carrots, sliced green onion, and toasted sliced almonds.
The salad will stay fresher
if your child adds the dressing at lunchtime. Put a light dressing into a small
container, buy packets of light dressing, or use extra packets of dressing left
over from a fast-food meal.
It's a Wrap! Wraps
are a nice change of pace from the usual sandwich. Use a high-fiber multigrain
flour tortilla, available in most supermarkets. Spread on mustard, hummus,
light salad dressing, or green or sundried tomato pesto. Then fill 'er up with
chicken Caesar salad or assorted lean meats, cheese, tomato, sliced onion, and
shredded Romaine lettuce. Just roll it up and wrap in foil. Kids can eat it
like a burrito -- by unwrapping it on one end and working their way down.
Noodle Soup Cups. Many schools offer a hot water dispenser so older kids (or young kids
with assistance) can add hot water to packaged noodle soup cups. Even the more
healthful soup options can be high in sodium, however, so you may not want to
pack them in your child’s lunch more than once a week.
Some brands are lower in
sodium and fat, and higher in fiber, than others. The nutrition label tells the
story. If your child has access to a microwave, you can pack one of the more
healthful microwaveable individual soup containers now available from major
brands.
Veggie Sushi. Not all kids will go for this, but some children really like
seaweed-wrapped sushi rolls. You can now buy pre-made sushi at many
supermarkets. Choose sushi that is filled with veggies (such as avocado and
cucumber) so there's no chance that it will get a little "fishy" in
your child's backpack.
Fun Fried Rice. When made with eggs, tofu or chopped lean meat, and lots of
veggies, cold fried rice can be a satisfying noontime treat. Make your own
using brown rice. Or set some aside for the next day when you get take-out
Chinese food for dinner.
Talk About Taquitos. Taquitos are easy to eat and easy to pack. In
the morning, lay a few bean and cheese frozen taquitos on a small sheet of
foil. Pop them into a toaster oven to crisp them up. Wrap them up in the foil
and slide them in your child’s lunch bag. For a vegetarian option, bean
taquitos are available in some stores.
BBQ Chicken Sandwich. Your child can assemble a yummy BBQ grilled chicken sandwich
fresh at lunchtime. Just pack a grilled, boneless, skinless chicken breast with
some lettuce and sliced tomato in one baggie and a whole-wheat bun in another.
Add a packet of BBQ sauce and it's good to go.
Muffin Mania. Muffins can add flavor and flair to a bag lunch. If you bake them
ahead and keep them in the freezer, you just have to pull out one or two in the
morning. By lunch, they’ll be soft and ready to eat.
There are a few tricks to
improving the health value of muffin recipes. Substitute in whole-wheat flour
for at least half of the flour in recipes that call for white flour.
Incorporate other whole grains when possible. Add in summer fruits such as
berries or peaches or vegetables like corn or grated zucchini, when
appropriate. You can also cut back on the sugar called for in a recipe when you
add in fruit. Switch in smart fats (such as canola or olive oil), when
possible, and reduced saturated fat options (such as reduced fat cheese).
Tasty Spanakopita Triangles. These spinach-filled filo puffs are vegetarian
finger food that’s fun to eat. Some stores carry frozen spanakopita that you
can bake in the morning or the night before and pack in your child’s lunch.
Read the label to find a brand that's got plenty of vitamins A and C, plus iron
and calcium.
Soy Much for Sandwiches. For a change of pace, make soy the center of
your child’s lunch. There are more and more great-tasting soy-based products
available. For example, specialty grocery stores carry meatless corn dogs. To
prepare one for a bag lunch, heat it up in the microwave in the morning. Remove
the wooden stick, crisp it up briefly in the toaster oven, and wrap it in foil.
Meatless versions of chicken nuggets are also available and can be prepared
just like the corn dogs. The trick is finding a brand your child enjoys that
isn’t too high in sodium.
Tasty Side Dishes
Add some of these to round
out your child’s lunch:
- Fruit cups (with no sugar added)
- Applesauce in flavors such as pomegranate or
cranberry-raspberry (also with no sugar added)
- Nuts or seeds in a shell (if age and allergy
appropriate), such as walnuts, pistachios, peanuts, or sunflower seeds
- Raw veggies (ready to pack) such as carrot
sticks, sugar snap peas, celery, or jicama sticks
- Cheese sticks -- available in 2% sharp cheddar,
part skim-milk mozzarella, pepper jack, and more
- Healthy snack bars (individually wrapped) with 3
or more grams of fiber, less than 10 grams sugar, and no more than 1 gram
saturated fat
- Yogurt in individual containers (keep it cold by
packing them with a reusable ice pack or a small water bottle that has
been frozen.)
Best Teen Diets recommends healthy well balanced eating that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein and low-fat or fat-free dairy. We offer nutrition information for teens, parents and educators that emphasizes the importance of healthy eating for teens. For more information visit www.bestteendiets.org
