Does your child take a packed lunch to school? Are you receiving feedback as a parent that your child is fed up of those ham sandwiches already?!  It may be a struggle to keep lunches interesting and tasty without compromising on the health factor.   By the end of September, parents usually run out of ideas and need inspiration to compile a more varied school lunchbox.  

A Healthy & Balanced Lunchbox

• A complex carbohydrate e.g.  wholegrain bread, pitta pockets, rye crackers, a wrap, wholemeal bagel or make a salad base from cooked pasta, noodles or couscous. Rice cakes, breadsticks and oatcakes are other occasional alternatives.
• A dairy product – e.g. yoghurt, cheese sticks/cubes, cottage cheese. You could even include some low sugar custard so they can have fun dipping their fruit.
• A serving of protein-rich food – e.g. lean meat (chicken, ham,  turkey slices or leftover roast beef fillings to sandwiches), tinned fish, hard boiled eggs or a snap pot of baked beans. You could try including kidney beans or chickpeas into a pasta salad, or why not make hummus (easy to make using a can of chickpeas) for your child to dip in their veggie sticks.
• At least one serving of fruit – this could be fresh fruit, dried fruit, or tinned fruit in natural juice (drained). If your child doesn’t like fresh fruit, why not grate some apple into a pasta salad. Grapes, clementines, and berries work nicely in packed lunches – invest in some little pots to portion them up and avoid mess.
• At least one serving of vegetable or salad item – this could be salad or vegetables in a sandwich, wrap or bagel, a side salad to accompany the lunch, an addition to a pasta salad, or some pre-prepared carrot, pepper, celery, spring onion and cucumber sticks. Including healthy dips like hummus or low fat cream cheese is a nice option.  Tip use sliced meat or lettuce leaves to sandwich sliced tomatoes this preventing soggy sandwiches!
• A drink – it’s best to stick to water or milk. Pure unsweetened fruit juice (not from concentrate) or no added sugar cordial. Fruit juice should not be given neat to under 5’s; it should be diluted as 1 part juice, 10 parts water.

What to Avoid?

• Crisps – even baked crisps are high in fat. Beware of advertising and marketing ploys with taglines such as ’30% less fat’ – crisps are high in fat to start with, so even 30% less will still be high in unhealthy fats.
• Sweets, confectionary  – these are high in fat and/or sugar, and will often leave kids climbing the walls in their classrooms after lunch in addition to long-term health consequences of poor dental health and higher risks of childhood obesity.
• Cakes – these are also high in saturated fat and sugar.  Why not include some healthy home baking once a week instead? Home made carrot cake, flapjack or banana bread  made with part wholemeal flour, oats and rapeseed oil are great for energy on PE days.
• Fizzy drinks – these are acidic and contain lots of sugar. Even the diet varieties contain acids which are harmful to developing teeth. 
• Nuts – most schools have a no nut policy, so it’s best to avoid these, as there could be nut allergy sufferers present
• Rice – rice, e.g. cold rice salad should be avoided due to the potential risk of food poisoning.