by Olivia Emisar

Created on: October 14, 2010

School lunches offered at schools vary across the United States.  Some school districts have made a concerted effort to remove vending machines from their schools; others are filling them up with bags of carrots or healthier fare than potato chips and sodas.  Other schools only serve fresh and organic foods that either taste great or are so bland that kids throw them away after tasting them, or just looking at them. 

However, some of our schools have their meals prepared at central location and food gets microwaved in a multi-purpose room.  The food looks and taste awful according to students and they end up not getting the nutritional punch they so badly need in the middle of the day. 

Bagging lunches at home can also become routine and boring without proper planning and the necessary supplies.  To avoid this glitch in an otherwise perfect system, planning the school lunches ahead of time to maximize the nutritional levels of our young students is the first step to delicious and nutritional lunches. 

The following tips can be adjusted to suit the child’s likes, dislikes or allergies.  All of these ingredients make for easy recipes that are fast to make and pack a nutritional punch that will help your child to develop healthy habits for life.  Step by step instructions on meal preparation based on ingredients on hand can be found throughout the web.

Basic tips 

♦ Use whole grain bread when making healthy sandwiches.

♦ Use tuna, sliced chicken breast, peanut butter, vegetable and hummus.

♦ Hot refried beans in a thermos with melted cheese is rich in protein and calcium. Include pita chips for dipping.

♦ Invest in a meal thermos to send your child to school with a hot meal made from the previous night’s leftovers or freshly made soup in the crockpot the night before.

♦ Side dishes should alternate between salads with a dressing your child will enjoy and fresh fruits.

♦ Instead of potato chips, pack baby carrots and celery with a dipping sauce.

♦ Replace crackers with sliced up apples, bananas and grapes that have been drizzled with lemon juice to keep the apples from turning brown and add a “sweet and sour” taste the kids associate with favorite candies.

♦ Pack organic yogurt in their favorite flavors.

♦ Apple sauce that only contains apples is available and affordable at most supermarkets.

♦ Forgo fruit juices and insist on water they bring from home. 

Other considerations 

If you have purchased a good thermos, the possibilities are endless when sending your child to school with a hot or cold lunch.  A wide mouth thermos can hold cold salad as easily as beef stew. 

Learn about the nutritional benefits of Quinoa and make it part of your child’s meals throughout the week.  

Hot oatmeal made of steel cut oats will fill him up and provide excellent nutrition.  Add a yogurt or apple sauce to the lunch box, or cut-up fruits. 

Buckwheat is also known as Kasha.  A pilaf made with sautéed vegetables and chicken is a complete meal that packs a nutritional punch. 

Whole wheat wraps containing vegetables and cold chicken is refreshing.  Spreading cream cheese to hold the wraps together will also add calcium and moisture. 

Remember that every bite counts, the more nutrition packed into every bite, the healthier your child’s development and  life-long habits that will add quality to every year of his life.

Related reading: Quinoa fact sheet  Recipes: gluten-free  Wolff's Kasha recipes  

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