Remember your lunchbox? The one with your favourite cartoon on it? Then you know the school lunch drill: when the bell rings, the goodies come out and the bartering begins. Make sure your child doesn’t want to trade his lunch with help of these tips and recipes that will make your lunches the envy of the whole school.

Lunch Box Tips

• Kids are more likely to eat lunch when they had a hand in making or choosing it.
• Variety is the spice of life, but don’t be surprised if your kids have a few favourites and request them week after week.
• Save your sanity, pack lunches the night before and keep them in the fridge.

A note on food safety: lightweight, freezable cold packs or frozen juice packs make it possible to send the kids to school with perishables such as pasta salad, meat sandwiches, yogurt, tuna, etc.
Get your kids into the habit of washing their hands before eating. 

It’s a Wrap
To make a change from ordinary bread why not try savoury croissants, pitta breads, bagels or flour tortillas filled with pretty much anything you would put in a sandwich.

Filling Ideas

• Tuna Mayo
• Cream Cheese with Ham
• Savoury Cheese (grated cheese, grated carrot, grated onion and mayo)
• Spinach Dip (defrosted/drained frozen spinach mixed with cream cheese and grated onion)
• PB+J (as expected, peanut butter and jam) NB: Some schools do not permit nuts or nut products (due to pupils with nut allergies)
• Grated cheese and pineapple pieces
• Chicken chunks and grated lettuce with mayo
• Roast beef with horseradish mayo
• and so on….
  

Junk Food Doesn’t Have to be Bad
Obviously it is easy to put a bag of Walkers  in the lunch box but if you wanted something a little healthier how about a snack pack of dried fruit* like raisins, apricots or tropical mix or an individual portion of cheese.

1 in 5
As we all know we are supposed to eat 5 portions of fruit or vegetables every day and children are no different. In a small tub you can put carrot or cucumber batons, cherry tomatoes, grapes, melon balls or pineapple chunks. To make it easier some fruits come in their own handy wrappers, how about a banana, apple or pear.

Liquid Refreshment
Children love fizzy drinks but if you have ever seen a tooth dissolve in a glass of Coke you might want to consider the alternatives. You could try diluted no-sugar squash, individual cartons of fruit juice*, bottles of flavoured water, yogurt drinks or fruit smoothies.
* This counts as one portion of fruit towards the 5 a day target

Growing kids need plenty of starchy foods to fill them up and give them energy.
Nutritious meals packed with fibre, protein, carboyhydrate and vitamins will also help your child's growing bones and give them a healthy dose of brain power for the afternoon ahead.