With the nutrition in school lunches facing scrutiny, many parents choose to send their children to school with packed lunches from home. However, prepackaged snack food items often contain the same fat and sodium parents are trying to avoid. A little creative thinking will ensure your child's lunch box is packed with healthy foods she will like to eat.
Hybrid Fruit Snack
Hybrids are all the rage. Hybrid cars blend electric and gas power. Hybrid paper products use both new and recycled paper fibers. And hybrid fruits combine two or more fruits into a fun snack. To make a hybrid fruit, use two apples of different colors or an apple and an orange that are similar in size. Slice each fruit horizontally into 1/2- to 3/4-inch slices. Stack the slices in an alternating pattern to make a stripy fun fruit full of vitamin C, complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber.
Balls of Energy
School snacks need to be portable and tasty. Balls of Energy combine one banana, 1/2 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup of wheat germ and chopped peanuts to make a snack rich in potassium, protein and complex carbohydrates. Mix the first three ingredients and roll into 1-inch balls. Then roll the balls in the chopped peanuts to coat. To customize the snack, use sugar-free peanut butter, add raisins or roll the balls in chopped cashews.
Chicken Salad Split
If your child does not like mixed salads like Waldorf chicken, split the ingredients and serve them individually. Before chopping chicken breasts, cut a few pieces in to cubes or sticks and set aside for your child. Pack grapes and apple pieces together, and pack walnuts on the side too. Your child still has a healthy lunch, and you do not need to make separate entrees for you and your child.
Applesauce
Applesauce is a staple of childhood. However, traditional sweetened applesauces are sweetened with too much sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Natural applesauces, with no sugar added uses the natural sweetness of the apple to appeal to kids, and tastes more like real apples.
Cheese Sticks
Fun and nutritious, mozzarella cheese sticks are a healthy addition to a kid's lunch box. String cheese is fun to pull apart, which means your kids are more likely eat it, and when made with low-fat or skim milk, they provide calcium and are a lower fat alternative to high-fat diary products. Pack cheese in a cooler-style lunch box with an ice pack to maintain its chill through morning lessons.
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