So it’s back to school. This year, I’d really like my seven-year-old to start making her lunches. While she can come home for lunch sometimes, packed lunches are the way of things most days. I’m no fan of making lunches, and I’ve been known to be notoriously un-creative at times. In grade three, when I made my own lunch, I ate peanut butter sandwiches for an entire year. I still can’t eat a plain peanut butter sandwich without gagging. Enough said.
Children have their own ideas about what makes a good lunch. If you’re aiming to have them make a nutritious one without constant supervision from you, here’s an idea that I’m going to try. It’s the lunch shelf, a fridge and cupboard area dedicated to nutritious lunch-making materials.
In our house, lunches involve fruits and / or vegetables, a carbohydrate, and some protein. Here’s what I’m putting on those shelves:
The Protein Shelf involves fat and protein-rich seed butters like sunflower seed butter. If your child can take peanuts or nuts to school, this is the place to put almond or peanut butter too. I also like to stock up with nuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds for trail mix. In the fridge, meat and cheese can go on this shelf as well, as can yogurt and cream cheese. Prepared foods such as boiled eggs and chopped up, seasoned tofu can also go here.
In the carbohydrate area, there are wraps, whole-grain breads, and occasionally a fancy bread like raisin bread. This week, we have homemade muffins and braided bread that we made this weekend. If you’re not into bread, fruit like bananas and apples can go into this category as well. They are fruit, but they’re also full of energy.
The fruits and vegetables available depend on what your child likes to eat and what is in season. For us, it’s a selection of fruit that doesn’t bruise, such as pears, apples, and bananas. I can also add cut fruit or smaller fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines and apricots, but these are best packed in a container. Vegetables that work for us include carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, and raw beans. Remember the dip! Having a dip like hummus or cream cheese helps kids enjoy their veggies if they’re not normally very keen.
And oh yes, the dessert area. Dried fruits go here. I figure that they’re terrible for the teeth, so they should be a dessert item. My daughter likes to bake, so any cookies or other goodies we bake can head to this section for distribution over the week.
What do you think? Would this idea work for you?
Image Credit: Naich
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