Lunches for Winners!
Are you flunking
lunch? Are your kids tired of always getting the same old thing?
Maybe it’s time for a crash course on creative lunch making.
With a little imagination and some planning, you’ll soon be
earning top grades for your lunches!
Great lunches don't have to cost a great deal if you shop smart. Watch for Metro flyer specials on non-perishable lunch items like tetra pack fruit juice (avoid fruit drinks which are loaded with sugar), vegetable juice or soy beverages, bottled water, crackers, canned bean salads, Merit Selection soups, Irresistible pasta, canned tuna and salmon, cookies, granola bars, muesli. They can be lifesavers when you're running out of time or ideas!
Stock up too on Irresistible vacuum-packed cold cuts: Genoa salami, Classico salami, Italian-style cooked ham, prosciutto, mortadella or capicollo ham. Unopened, these premium cold cuts keep for a long time in the fridge. Cream cheese and vacuum-packed sliced cheese also keep for a long time.
Then get in touch with your inner “Martha”! Dress up lunch boxes with colourful paper napkins, fun straws, coloured toothpicks, little notes, drawings or cutouts.
School lunches get bounced around and thrown into lockers. So you'll need plastic containers to protect the goodies and a good thermos to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.
Time to get to work! Remember that a good lunch always includes the four basic food groups: vegetables and fruit, grain products, milk products, and meat and alternatives. Your children's lunches should also provide one third of their daily nutritional requirements.
Explore various bread options: bagels, pita, ciabatta, tortillas, poppyseed or onion kaiser rolls, the choice is almost limitless. For a change, consider pasta salad or hot pasta with sauce.
Ensuring variety is easy with the awesome range of milk products on the market. With flavoured fresh cheese, yogurt tubes and beverages, cheesesticks and cheesestrings, ensuring that your children get enough calcium is easy. For a sandwich spread your kids will love, combine cream cheese with some chopped prosciutto, dried tomatoes or fresh herbs.
When it comes to meat and alternatives, thinking ahead is the key. Plan for leftovers when you cook a chicken, ham, roast, or salmon fillets. The same goes for soups, stews, stir-fries and other such dishes. Imagine little Jane or Johnny's delight on discovering that lunch is a thermos of chicken-fried rice.
For a vitamin-packed lunch, slip fruit and vegetables into everything! Combine apples and Brie in a sandwich or use them in a Waldorf salad, stuff a pita pocket with grated carrots and diced cucumber and some hummus or baba ghanouj, or toss them in a salad with chopped oranges or mango, the possibilities are endless.
All that's left now is to pack the lunches, adding a drinking box of juice that you put in the freezer the night before (a healthy, homemade slushy). You are happy as you watch the kids run out to catch the bus, with the knowledge that they truly appreciate all your work. Reality check! They'll wolf down their lunch without a thought. Although they may brag about your cooking skills if it lunch includes homemade goodies!
For more recipe ideas and tips on how to make fantastic school lunches, check out these links on our site...