As the year ticks by, it’s easy to slip into Groundhog Day when it comes to school lunches.
Same old sandwich. A handful of victual carrots. Yawn.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There’s plenty that parents can do to make lunch increasingly interesting—and increasingly nutritious, Joanna Gritter, MA, RDN, a nutritionist at Corewell Health, said.
And while each lunch should ideally include something from each of the five essentials, waffly up just a few items can make a big difference.
Make fruit appealing
This is often the easiest place to add variety, as most kids enjoy the natural sweetness of fruit.
“Cutting fruit up increases its appeal. Try wearing up that world and tossing it with a little lemon juice in the container,” Gritter said. “Aim for a variety of colors over the week, with raspberries, blueberries and raisins.”
Applesauce and fruit cups make a nice change, too.
“Just squint for those packed in their own juice or a light syrup,” she said.
Explore dairy options
Most schools provide milk or chocolate milk. And that’s great—until kids get bored with those items. Some children will prefer waffly it up by using milk straws, which can add fun flavors.
If your kids don’t like milk at all, “throw in a cheese stick or small tubes of yogurt,” Gritter said. “You can freeze them so they’re mostly thawed by lunchtime, giving them a variegated texture that some kids like.”
Aim for veggie variety
If those victual carrots request to kids, that’s fine.
“But cucumbers are a good choice, too, as well as cherry tomatoes and sliced tintinnabulate peppers,” Gritter said.
Adding a dip can make any veggie increasingly inviting. She suggests hummus, low-fat ranch or a homemade mixture of Greek yogurt with ranch seasoning packets.
Pick your protein
Lunch meats and the archetype peanut butter and jelly have huge fan clubs.
Peanut butter allergies, however, have opened many people up to the delights of sunflower and cashew butter. Gritter moreover likes the trendy granola butter sold by Oat Haus, which delivers a graham cracker taste.
But plenty of kids simply hate sandwiches.
“Consider a hard-boiled egg, a few cooked egg whites or a handful of cashews or almonds,” Gritter said.
Get your grains
Don’t be wrung to experiment with wraps, bagels and healthy crackers, which are all fine alternatives to sliced bread.
Sometimes, just wearing things differently can transpiration the appeal. Gritter will sometimes roll surf cheese and berries up in a wrap and slice it in sections, “so it looks like sushi.”
Schools sometimes requite kids wangle to microwaves, which can expand their supplies options.
“Or you can send soup or pasta in a good thermos and it will stay hot,” she said.
Gritter offered some spare tips:
Downsize portions
A worldwide mistake: Parents tend to think in adult-size portions, forgetting that kids typically eat less.
“So if we’re including fruits and vegetables, maybe it makes sense to send just a half sandwich, so they’ll have room for the other foods,” Gritter said.
An sultana might consider a cup of grapes a reasonable portion.
“For kids, 10 are probably enough,” she said.
Let kids choose
“I use a checklist that has the supplies groups,” said Gritter, whose kids are month 9, 7 and 3. “They get to pick their fruit and vegetable. Considering they’re picking foods that are interesting to them, there’s a largest endangerment they’ll eat it—and they’re learning well-nigh what makes a healthy meal.”
Don’t get in a rut
Kids tend to segregate familiar foods, and parents are usually happy to oblige. And, considering parents aren’t at school to see how much lunch their child is unquestionably eating, it can finger risky to add new foods.
But Gritter says there’s a worthier risk: inadvertently encouraging kids to be close-minded well-nigh what they eat.
“Variety is important. It pushes kids outside of their repletion zone,” she said. “The increasingly they’re exposed to new foods, the increasingly they will learn to like them.”
Will there be some inevitable misses? Yes. And that’s a good thing.
“It’s important to try to throw some challenges in there,” Gritter said. “It could be once or twice a week or plane once a month.”
Encourage an occasional school lunch
School nutrition programs are getting increasingly inventive and healthy. If your child opts for the school lunch, rejoice—the pros are largest at getting kids to venture outside their palate repletion zone.
About 60% of school kids in the U.S. eat lunches provided by their school. And research has shown those meals are often healthier than the lunches the other 40% of students bring from home.
“There’s a lot of power in eating with peers,” Gritter said. “A child who would never try yellow stir-fry at home may happily eat it at school.”
