Healthy School Lunches for Active Kids
Category News
We all want to give our kids the best in life, and a healthy diet is high on the list of what we think they deserve. The problem comes in with time and convenience, many of us don’t have a lot of time to prepare healthy school lunches, and the school tuck shop is very convenient. There are a few things that can be done to help you prepare healthy school lunches that don’t take up your morning hours. Here are a few tips to help keep school lunches healthy without being inconvenient.
Plan Ahead
One of the best pieces of advice for healthy eating, whether it’s for active kids or busy adults, is to create a healthy meal plan. This doesn’t mean going on a diet or restricting the foods and snacks your kids love, we just mean knowing what you’ll be eating when. A healthy meal plan allows you to know what food you’ll need to buy when you go grocery shopping and what to prepare each day instead of spending time trying to decide.
Know What to Pack
Kids can be very picky eaters and sadly a lot of food in school lunches tends to go to waste with uneaten and thrown away food. Make your kids finish their healthy snacks after school if they don’t eat it during the school day. If they know they have no choice but to eat the healthy snacks it will instill healthy eating habits from the get-go.
Include All Food Groups
A big part of eating healthy is eating a balanced diet. Including all the food groups will ensure that all the essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals are in each meal. Each school lunch should have enough protein, carbohydrates, and fruit or vegetables to give your kids what they need to get through the day. Some ideas are cut cucumber, biltong, peeled carrots and raw peas.
Make it Fun
There are many ways that you can make school lunches fun for kids. One way is to have themed lunched like tuna mayonnaise sandwiches cut into fish shapes or slumber party themed lunches that include popcorn. Kids also love to cook themselves so giving them a deconstructed pasta salad in separate containers to mix themselves before eating will let them enjoy the food “they” make.
Prepare
Many parents leave packing school lunches until the morning, but in the morning rush, a healthy and balanced school lunch is the last thing you want to worry about. Making and preparing lunches the night before saves you time and ensures that your kids’ lunches are healthy, yummy, and even a little fun. Let the kids help with preparing lunches with you in the evenings when they are younger, as they get older, they will continue to prepare their own lunches by themselves. This will take the stress of school lunches off your shoulders and teach your kids responsibility and self-reliance.
School lunches don’t need to be a chore for parents or kids and they can easily be healthy with a little forethought and help from the kids. Remember that kids need hydration throughout the day so don’t forget to pack a bottle of water or healthy, low sugar fruit juice to accompany their new and healthy school
lunch meal plan.
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Author: Lillian Rencken
