Looking for some ideas for your kid's lunches? Here are five strategies to help you pack a lunch that just about any kid will eat and even enjoy.
One: Make it a mini and then dip it. It just adds a minute or two to your prep time to slice and dice a lunch's components into smaller pieces. For protein, think huge cheese, chicken, salami, or even hard-boiled eggs. Or make the "dip your protein source" with humus, Greek yogurt-based spread or black bean dip. Cut any veggie your kid will eat, into chunks, or spears and do the same thing with fruit. Add a few mini cookies as a treat, and you're good to go.
Two: Not every kid likes sandwiches at lunch time, so switch it up by experimenting with different kinds of starches; breads or tortillas with your child's favorite fillings rolled up and cut into pieces to look like sushi. How creative.
Three: Much like the "smaller is better" idea, there's just something about stacking food on a stick that makes the same old options more appealing. You can stack all kinds of fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and even chunks of sandwiches on to a short stick. You can even wrap the cheese and turkey slices around the thicker pretzel rod for an inside-out meal.
Four: Leftovers. Yes, I said it, I love a good leftover. You worked hard to prepare a healthy evening meal that your family would eat, well, why not make it do double duty? If your child liked the meal at dinner time, pack up some leftovers to go or reformulate it as a soup, salad, or sandwich, whichever of those options hold the most appeal to your child.
Five: And muffins to the rescue. Both sweet and savory muffins can be stuffed full of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats add to the fact that you can make a big batch in advance, throw them in the freezer, grab one or two at a time for lunch boxes and you'll see that muffins are a lunch box superstar.
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