Back to School

Monday, 24 January 2011

School mornings are busy enough without worrying about what to pack in the school lunchbox. Parents all around the country are facing the same daily dilemma, so take heart and read on for some of our top lunchbox tips to make your school mornings a little easier.

Lunchbox Tips:

• Pack the school lunches the night before and refrigerate overnight.  The food will stay cooler longer, especially if you are using an insulated lunchbox.  Or alternatively use a small frozen gel pack to keep the food chilled.  Another option is to freeze half a drink bottle of water and add cold water in the morning.  Add to the lunchbox to help keep the food cool.
• Keep an ideas list handy in the pantry, and split it out by sandwich/sweet/savoury/fruit.  This is great for keeping track of who likes what especially if you have multiple children all with different likes and dislikes.
• Get the kids to help prepare their lunch.  They can plan their own menu from the options you provide.  It's also a great opportunity to talk about which are good food choices and why.
• Buy some disposable plastic forks and spoons to save your kitchen cutlery accidentally going walkabout.
• Plan for a bought lunch occasionally and get the kids to choose what day they would like to have it.
• If your kids come home with uneaten food, sit down with them and find out why.  It may be more than that they don't like the food.  Many kids are keen to get playing straightaway and will skip lunch in order to get immediately into play. 
• Personalise their lunch. Use stickers to hold together the paper lunchwrap, or write little notes to include in the lunchbox as a neat lunchtime surprise for your child.
• Protein at lunchtime is important.  Choose cheese, cold meats, a hardboiled egg or nuts. Be sure to check if your school has a nut policy before including in the lunchbox.
• Let the kids 'dip and dunk' using small containers packed with hummus, cottage cheese, dip or yoghurt.
• Add variety to the standard sandwich. Swap your plain sandwich bread and try something different. Ideas include croissants, pita bread, rolled tortillas, bagels, or club sandwiches cut into fingers.
• Make a batch of home-baked slice.  Cut and freeze for easy retrieval.
• Every kid loves a treat in their lunchbox, and an outright ban rarely works, so pack a treat every so often. Try popcorn, pretzels, scroggin, seeds, toasted pita chips, potato chips, or dry cereal mix.
• Use peer pressure to your advantage.  Find out what other kids have packed in their lunchboxes and use that for inspiration.  Not only does it give you some good ideas for the lunchboxes you are packing, but it may encourage your child to try new and unfamiliar foods.
• Snack items are great little space fillers.  Try small items like baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, baby corn, dried fruits, nuts, raisins.
• Some kids love variety, and others will happily eat the same lunch every day for a term!  The important thing is that they are eating a balanced lunch, so if you are blessed with an unadventurous eater, don't worry about variety as long as they are eating well.
• Use a thermos for keeping temperatures steady.  This will work for either hot or cold dishes. 
• Apply the 80/20 rule.  If the kids are eating well 80% of the time, you won't need to worry quite so much about the other 20%.  Remember lunch is only one of three meals a day, so there's plenty of opportunity to manage a healthy breakfast, afterschool snack and dinner if it seems like your best lunchbox efforts are still not coming to fruition.

Here are a couple of our lunch box favourites to get you started.  As an alternative to sandwiches, or for morning tea try our Gregg's Savoury Muffins, they're easy to make ahead and freeze well too. Nothing beats opening a lunch box to find home baking - Instant Dessert Biscuits are always popular, or try making our Spice Biscuits and getting  the kids help cutting out their favourite shapes.