Schools
Parent Talk: Keeping Your St. Michael-Albertville Student's Lunch Healthy
You can be healthy without be boring, right? Let's share some ideas.
It may only be the second week of school, but many parents are already in a bind. Packing those lunches (and snacks) gets old quick! It doesn’t take long to feel stuck in a rut and looking for creative, yet healthy lunch and snack options for kids.
So I took advantage of today’s social media and asked parents on Twitter and Facebook for their lunch ideas and here are some of the great tips that were shared:
-Bag lunches don’t have to have sandwiches.
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-Try breakfast for lunch. One mom suggests peanut butter on pancakes or waffles from breakfast, another mom suggests sending a bowl of cereal, all your child needs is the milk in the lunchline.
-One mom has a personal equation she follows, “I buy 2 proteins, 2-3 different fruits, 2-3 different vegetables and 2 extra snacks and switch it around all week.”
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-Another mom suggests making kabobs. Put grapes, cheese cubes, ham cubes on a toothpick. Something fun and different.
-Simple things like using a cookie cutter on the sandwich can help if you have a sandwich eater.
I also checked in with Ashley Darkenwald, personal trainer and owner at InFit/Anytime Fitness on her suggestions for parents who are running out of ideas quickly for lunch. She shared a few suggestions as well:
-Always include something your child enjoys and will look forward to at lunch.
-Always include a protein, a carb and a fat.
-Use variety in presentation. (By using some of the ideas above such as a shaped sandwich or a kabob)
-Avoid most packaged and mass produced snacks, most of them have a lot of fillers and are not very healthy for growing kids.
Two other great resources I was referred to was the website, This Lunch Rox (http://www.thislunchrox.com) and also an organizing website that shares some great ways to stay organized when packing lunches and snacks, (http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2011/08/back-to-school-organizing-packing.html)
What are some of your tips and tricks when packing school lunches? How do you creatively pack healthy food that your kids will eat?