Pack Up NutritionWhat ARE your kids eating? Make sure they have the foods they need to get them through the day. After all, it's hard work being a kid! by Marge Bittetti
Packing school lunches is a routine but challenging activity for families. It can be challenging to make sure that children bring healthy and nutritious lunches to school; but following a few simple guidelines should make this unwelcome chore easy and fun.
Ask your child what items that would be good to bring for lunch. Never pack a school lunch with foods that the child does not like. They'll just give it away or worse yet; throw it away. As a parent; learn and know what foods your child likes and the 'icky' foods that will go untouched. It can be a challenge to get fresh fruits and vegetables into lunches; but a little creativity will help you teach your child how to make nutritional food choices. Parents need to teach children about healthy and nutritional food choices. According to the US Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid; children should receive 3-5 servings of fresh or cooked vegetables each day. Vegetables provide vitamins and minerals that kids need to release energy from proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Since vegetables contain different vitamins and minerals; it is important that children have variety to attain balanced nutrition.
Do your marketing with your children. Look at fresh produce together.Let each child pick out a particular item. In larger families, have the children take turns each week at selecting something that looks good. If the produce items seems expensive, such as a Hawaiian Papaya; buy only one fruit and cut the pieces small. Let the children know that the item is expensive but, just for this once you will buy the item as a special treat. Talk about how to prepare the item and what low-priced items such as apples or bananas would be good together. The US Department of Agriculture's recommends that children eat 2-4 servings of fresh fruit, canned fruit or fruit juice each day.
Don't forget that kids need variety. The same lunch day after day gets boring. An apple a day, might keep the doctor away, but an apple a day in a school lunch lacks imagination. Children who look inside lunch bags and daily find apples can develop a ho-hum attitude; "If it's boring it must be good for you." Nutritional food should also be fun to eat. For every vegetable that gets packed into the lunch there should be one snack such as chips, cookie, crackers or popcorn.
Clean and cut carrots in different ways, or buy sweeter baby carrots. Try using a potato peeler and make carrot curls. Use larger-sized carrots and run the peeler lengthwise down the carrot; take the strips and allow them to naturally curl as they are being peeled then submerge them into ice water.Carrot curls have a "fun food" look.
Don't force your children to be vegetarians. You shouldn't expect your child to enjoy a green salad each day just because that's what you eat.
The following vegetables are good for lunches:
- Carrot sticks or Carrot curls - Celery sticks - Cherry tomatoes - Cucumbers - Fennel strips - Green beans - Jicama slices - Peppers slices (green, red or golden) - Snow Peas or Chinese Peas
The following fruits will add variety to ho-hum lunches:
- Apples - try Granny Smith, Golden Delicious or Red Delicious - Bananas (whole or half) - Grape clusters - Kiwi fruit slices - Mangoes - Melon pieces - Papayas pieces - Pineapple slices
Pack Up Nutrition
