Simple Lunchbox Ideas to Help Busy Parents
04 April 2017
Simple Lunchbox Ideas to Help Busy Parents
Ahhh lunchboxes…whether your child is at nursery, pre-school or big school, making a healthy lunchbox which satisfies them whilst also being nutritious enough to support a growing body and brain can seem an overwhelming task. How can you make your child’s lunchbox tempting enough that they’ll want to eat it all? How do you keep it fresh (in both meanings of the word) and not just make the same old easy sandwiches day after day? Luckily for you, here at My Name Label we have some top tips and tasty lunchbox ideas which will please health-conscious parents and excite hungry little ones.
The Lunchbox
First things first, the lunchbox itself. If you’re making a packed lunch for your child, you’ll need Tupperware. Lots and lots of Tupperware. Large, small, round, square, dinosaurs and polka dots…love it or hate it, Tupperware comes in all shapes, sizes and designs, but what is the number one most annoying thing about these handy plastic tubs? LOSING A LID! Hush that frustrated scream each time you find yourself searching through the Tupperware cupboard by investing in some of our popular sticker labels. Not only will your lunchboxes be easily returnable if left at school, but it will also help your child to identify his/her lunchbox amongst a sea of similar ones. And don’t forget name labels for the drinks bottle too!
Fun Lunchbox Ideas for Children
Making lunchboxes look fun can appease lunchtime battles with even the fussiest of eaters. A lunch that looks awesome will seem all-the-more-tempting to little ones and their imaginations will be inspired too. But which busy parent has time for that right? All you need to do is invest in a cookie cutter for creating simple, fun and effective fun lunchbox ideas!
Make a sandwich with a healthy filling for your little one such as tuna and cucumber or hummus and avocado, and then proceed to use a cookie cutter to turn it into a rabbit, heart, star, or whatever your little one will love. A sharp good quality cookie cutter will ensure that the bread doesn’t squash too much and will retain the shape. And you don’t have to worry about ‘wasting’ the cuttings – simply leave them in place and your child can enjoy ‘jigsaw sandwiches’! Cookie cutters are not only a good investment for making fun sandwiches… use them to make fruit and vegetables ‘fun’ too.
Packed Lunch Recipes
Bored of sandwiches and looking for some different and interesting lunchbox ideas? Try making some mini lunchbox pizzas. You can hide all manner of vegetables in a mini lunchbox pizza, and kids will love them. We like this simple lunchbox recipe from Kidgredients:
Lunchbox Pizzas
Ingredients:
- 1 cup greek yoghurt
- 2 cups self-raising flour
- tomato paste (or leftover pasta sauce)
- ½ courgette, finely grated
- 5 slices prosciutto, cut into slivers
- 2 cups grated cheese
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
- Combine the yoghurt and flour in the bowl of a mixer and mix until a dough forms
- Tip onto a floured board and roll out (30 by 50 cms works well)
- Cut the shapes you want from the dough – those cookie cutters are coming in useful again!
- Prick all over with a fork
- Transfer onto a lined oven tray then top with tomato paste/ pasta sauce
- Next top with the courgette and then the prosciutto
- Cover with cheese
- Re-roll the rest of the dough and make another lot!
- Bake for 12 minutes
- Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Freeze flat and then pop in a container or baggie.
Eggs
Eggs are packed full with protein and will leave your little ones feeling fuller for longer. Top hard boiled eggs with hummus, ham or cress for tasty and easy lunchbox snacks, or you could even make a lunchbox omelette bites which can be eaten hot or cold and stuffed full of lovely veggies.
Sweet Treats
You can’t avoid it- children love sweet stuff. And there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you try to avoid processed sugars and putting foodstuffs into their lunchbox which will lead to a mid-afternoon sugar crash. Use fruit instead of sugar and coconut oil instead of butter in sweet lunchbox recipes to ensure that your little ones are getting the right kind of healthy nutritional energy. Nuts and healthy nut butters are also great for protein and energy! Thanks to A Healthy Mum for this awesome recipe for heathy frozen berry oat slices. We’ll definitely be making up a batch of these regularly and freezing them so that our little ones have a go-to easy healthy snack for their lunchboxes.
If you have any other lunchbox ideas please do feel free to share, we love to hear what other parents do to help us mix up our own lunchbox repertoire.