by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: June 17, 2009

It is imperative that nutritious lunch box ideas also be perceived to be tasty and interesting. The main reason why people are put off nutritious food is that it often appears bland and even boring by comparison to its less nutritious counterparts. A little thought in this respect can go a long way to ensuring that the nutritious lunch box ideas are also seen as exciting lunch box ideas.

The first inclusion in the lunch box should be some form of carbohydrate. Pasta is an excellent idea in this respect. Try making a basic tomato sauce by gently simmering some de-seeded and skinned tomatoes until they form a lush and thick sauce (usually around twenty minutes) with some crushed garlic and torn basil leaves added just before the end of the cooking time. Mix with some cooked pasta shells and refrigerate when cool. The pasta mix can then be transferred to such as a Styrofoam cup or plastic tub and added to the lunch box. It can either be eaten cold or re-heated if convenient and preferred.

Bread is of course one of the simplest carbohydrates of all. Most of us in these times have access to a whole host of different freshly baked bread varieties, either in a small local store or the bakery department of the local supermarket. Choose a bread freshly baked that day on the premises, rather than a packaged one, and add such as a chunk of French loaf to the next day's lunch box.

Coleslaw can very easily be made at home and added to a lunch box to accompany such as stalks of fresh celery or carrot. Shred some uncooked white cabbage and julienne some carrot and green apple. Mix with low fat mayonnaise and a delicious and nutritious coleslaw is ready to eat. This too can be transported in such as a Styrofoam cup.

Chicken legs are very popular in lunch boxes and of course extremely simple to cook beforehand. Chicken legs can often be bought raw from supermarkets, independent from the rest of the bird. Try poaching, steaming or roasting them and then allowing them to cool before refrigerating them and adding them to the following day's lunchbox.

A piece of fruit is always a good and nutritious inclusion in a lunchbox to round off the meal. Apples and bananas are old favourites but such as fresh strawberries or raspberries provide a nutritious and welcome alternative. It is often a good idea to avoid such as oranges as the peeling process of same can be messy and it may not always be possible to wash up properly after lunch.

Nutritious lunch box ideas can therefore be just as exciting and tasty as less nutritious ones, provided one simply puts a little bit of thought in to the process of developing them.

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