lunchboxes

articles

• Healthy food tips for your schoolchild.
• Cheese & Onion Drop Scones
• Back-to-school lunch box tips
• Healthy kids lunchbox ideas
• Lunchbox ideas for school

By Christine Phillips, mother of 3. Loves spending time with her family and enjoys the fulfilment of running her own business. She is the owner of Little Cooks Club.

I don’t know about you but I find that as my children get older, their days have become filled with more activities, responsibilities and homework.

I can definitely see my kids begin to flag around 2pm if they haven’t eaten well up until that point in the day. I know a lot of children who, at the age of 10 are already doing sports activities that run until 6 or 7 at night during the week.

We, as parents, need to be sure that we are providing our children’s bodies with enough fuel to sustain this kind of energy output.

How to begin?

A good breakfast

muesli or cooked oats is a good place to begin.

keep the sugary cereals for the holidays or

allow your kids to mix the good with the bad if that is what will work better for you – a little bit of the sugary cereal mixed into a bowl of porridge or muesli.

encourage honey as a sweetner instead of sugar. My kids love to use the wooden honey stick to pour honey onto their cereal.

chop some fruit into the cereal bowl too.

Remember to start slowly with any changes to children’s food routines as they can be resistant  if the change is too drastic.

Next, let’s tackle the packed  school lunches.

Lunchboxes: Take your child to help you choose the right lunchbox. Kids usually have a good idea of what they want and for younger children this could mean the difference between eating the lunch or leaving it. Choose an airtight lunchbox to keep food fresh and if it has compartments , all the better. I find a largish lunchbox works well and then I buy smaller containers to place inside, for hummus to dip carrot sticks or yogurt to dip strawberries or low fat mayonnaise to dip chipolatas. It doesn’t have to be expensive, check out any of the huge plastic warehouses that have opened.

Now that you have your perfect lunchbox, what to pack?

A sandwich? Boring? Not really. Think of all the cold meats, varieties of cheese and bread that are on the supermarket shelves these days.

You could cook up a batch of soup (or simply buy fresh soup from the supermarket) which you can heat and pour into an insulated coffee mug for those wintry days

Make up a fruit smoothie with yoghurt and honey and pour into a liquid tight drinking cup.

There are endless variations of pasta salads that hold up better in lunchboxes than lettuce type salads.

My kids love it when I add anything that can be dipped such as chipolatas, home made crumbed chicken fillets, slices of sausage or vienna, home made bread sticks and carrot sticks. For dips try hummus and any flavoured cream cheese for a change.

How about spending half an hour over the weekend making popcorn or baking a batch of seedbars, cupcakes or muffins to add to the weekly lunchboxes as a treat.

With a bit of planning, you could save yourself the cost of expensive shop bought sandwiches and snacks and avoid the temptation of packing chips, sweets and other high calorie, no good food into your children’s lunchboxes.

Little Cooks Club runs classes for moms that include ideas for simple, healthy weeknight suppers and more ideas and recipes for snacks and lunchboxes.

provided by Diane Vaubell,  a work-from-home-mom to 2 small picky, vegetarians. She is an amateur blogger with obsessive addictions to food, photography and online social networking. Visit her  blog or catch her on @dirott

These Cheese & Onion scones are super delicious and because you don’t need to rollout the dough they’re super easy too. I usually shake things up by adding red pepper or corn to the onions as I fry them up. Baby spinach also works well. What I love about this recipe is that the scones can be frozen and can be whipped out the freezer in the mornings for lunchboxes (I freeze two per mini-plastic reseal-able bag).

Makes 12

Ingredients:
1 1/5 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons margarine
1 cup of cheddar cheese (grated)
1/2 cup chopped onion (a bit chunky)
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat over to 200 C (400F).
2. Grease a muffin tray.
3. Sauté the onions in some olive oil until clear.
4. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt.
5. Cut margarine into blocks (or make little blobs) and add to flour
6. Using the tips of your fingers rub the margarine into the flour until the flour is quite crumbly.
7. Add HALF a cup of the grated cheese and make a well in the middle of the mixture.
8. In a separate bowl beat the egg and add the milk and onion you cooked earlier.
9. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and combine until all the ingredients are mixed together and you have a soft wet dough.
10. Spoon the dough into the muffin tray.
11. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over each scone.
12. Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese has melted and crisped and a sharp knife comes out clean.

provided by Diane Vaubell,  a work-from-home-mom to 2 small picky, vegetarians. She is an amateur blogger with obsessive addictions to food, photography and online social networking. Visit her  blog or catch her on @dirott

If you have a school-going age child then you’re no doubt in the swing of Back-To-School preparation. I thought I’d share some school lunch ideas to help break the monotony of the usual suspects (ham and cheese sandwiches, peanut butter and jam and marmite and cheese).

Warm lunches:
Insulated bags and containers now mean that you can send supper leftovers to school with your child and the meal should stay relatively warm until first break.

Pick ’n Pay sell a Fuel-branded insulated container, which I use to send pasta’s, stews and left-over veggies to school. I don’t put it in the dishwasher and it generally lasts for about a year or two. Well worth it for the ± R40 price tag.
In Winter you could send soups in a thermos flask with a bread serve on the side.

Salads:
The idea of lettuce wilting makes the idea of taking salads to school unappealing. But what if you replaces the lettuce with pasta or couscous? The carbohydrates would make the meal more substantial and the starch wouldn’t wither under the weight of the dressing. If you’re making pasta for dinner just keep some aside and add cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, onions and some dressing.

Crudités:
Crudités are a great way to boost your child’s 5-a-day and as long you’re packing fresh, crisp veggies they enjoy with a dip they like then you’re sure to get empty lunch boxes at the end of the day.

Veggie ideas:
Cucumber sticks
Carrot sticks
Cherry tomatoes
Baby corn
Sugar snap peas
Mange tout
Raw cauliflower florets
Lightly steamed baby asparagus
Quartered mushrooms
Celery sticks
Green Beans

Dip ideas:
Hummus
Sour cream dip
Low-fat cream cheese
Tzatziki
Guacamole
Cottage cheese
You can also include Melba toast or Provita as an accompanying carb.

Freeze Ahead:
I’m a huge fan of freezing lunchbox snacks and pulling them out the freezer in the morning . As long as you’ve individually packed your portions then you shouldn’t have issues of sticking.

The following snacks freeze well in mini-plastic bags (most plastic shops sell re-sealable bags in batches of 100 at very reasonable prices).

Muffins (savory or sweet). Make your own or buy trays and freeze in plastic bags.

Onion and Cheese scones (see recipe)

Crumpets (sweet or savory)

Banana Bread

If it’s summer I don’t worry about defrosting as the snacks defrost within an hour or so. In Winter you may want to take your snack out the freezer the night before.

When packing lunches try remember that a little effort will go a long way to creating a meal your child will look forward to. Here are some tips:

A mini ice-brick in a insulated lunch bag will keep yoghurts, cheese, cold meats and fruits cooler for longer

If you’re adding sliced tomatoes to a sandwich then avoid the bread from going soggy by placing a layer of lettuce leaves on each side of the bread with the tomato in between. This acts as a “waterproof” barrier against the tomato juices.

Where possible, peel and cut the fruit.

Include plastic cutlery for yoghurts, salads etc.

Sandwiches don’t have to be boring. Alternate fillings and bread type (brown, whole-wheat, Omega 3, linseed, rye, bagels, English muffins, wraps, rolls, pita etc).

Here’s to a year of empty returned lunchboxes!

provided by Matthew Ballenden, dad to Isabella & owner of the Fresh Earth Food Store, an organic health store and vegetarian restaurant with a  great online store.  Visit their website to find out more.

Lunch boxes are a priority in our book because the home is where a childs nutritional foundation is made. The home is where the child is taught how to eat, what to eat and the connection between themselves and the food they eat. Creating tasty, happy lunch boxes is so easy. Involve your child in the process and give them options to choose from.

Please be aware that actual time for eating lunch at most schools only lasts for 15-20 min and is filled with distractions. Make sure the lunch foods you pack are easy to eat, packed in easily opened packages, and don’t require peeling or special tools.

Things to take note of while packing a lunch box for your kids:

Invest in a good quality lunch box with different compartments to separate the food.

Pack a little ice pack with the lunch box to keep the food cool

Kids are more likely to eat fruit or vegetables when they have been cut up for them.

Plan your lunch box the night before to avoid the last minute panic

Involve your child in putting their lunch box together by giving them options

A healthy lunch box is a balanced lunch box, which means little to no ‘pick-a-pack’ food (food in packets from manufacturers with loads of preservatives and no goodness.

If your child wants the same thing day after day, go ahead and pack it, as long as the overall meal is nutritious and you are sure your child eats it. Kids don’t like a lot of change in what they eat. Did you know that it takes 10 to 12 introductions to a new food before a child is usually willing to even taste it?

When choosing bread for your childs lunchbox read the ingredients carefully. Stay away from preserved breads and buy bread from small scratch bake bakeries.

Keep the food as close to nature as possible It can be tricky to come up with new lunchbox ideas day after day.

Here are some more lunchbox ideas examples that you can try:

Lunchbox idea 1:
Sliced apple (squeeze a little lemon juice to stop it going brown)
Cheese and Cucumber Wrap
Mixed nuts, raisin and mango pack
Water

Lunchbox idea 2:
Carrot sticks and baby tomato
Brown English muffin pizza
Dried fruit balls dipped in carob or chocolate
Carrot and apple juice (2/3 apple 1/3 carrot)
Water

Lunchbox idea 3:
Banana
Dried organic mango strips
Avocado and hummus with cheddar cheese sandwich on a low GL brown bread
Mary-Anns Seed bar
Homemade ginger beer (sugar free)

Lunchbox idea 4:
Celery & cucmber sticks
Chunky cream cheese dip
Cooked mielie
Potato Salad
Natural corn nachos
Carob Cocoons (Free Food)
Homemade lemonade (sugar free)

Lunchbox idea 5:
Sliced watermelon
Mini Vegetable fritters
Banana bran muffin
Water

Lunchbox idea 6
Mixed dried fruit and nut mix
Egg and Cucumber sandwiches
Oat Crunchie
Apple Juice

It can be tricky to come up with new lunchbox ideas day after day. So here is a Healthy lunchbox ideas template that you can print and stick on your fridge.

Recipes supplied by  Richard Rust , a fabulous, 5 star trained, gourmet chef. He has cooked for, amongst others, British royalty, Woolworths and written for Taste magazine. His company Gourmet Gurus caters for children’s parties; lunch boxes; private/corporate functions and dinner parties.

The moment we think of lunchboxes the dreaded soggy sandwich appears. Below are ideas that can be made a couple of days in advance to add variety to a lunchbox that are easy and cost effective whilst adding important nutrients.

When making sandwiches vary the types of breads, try using rolls, wraps, croissants. Ifusing fresh tomato always make sure that the tomato does not come into contact with the bread as this will cause them to go soggy.

Mix cooked chicken with mayo the day before for an easy option.

Stir fry strips of beef with strips of vegetables and use in a wrap.

Mix mayonnaise with grated cheese and cooked bacon bits.

Try pasta salads, mix cooked pasta with mayonnaise or a dressing plus your child’s favourite things.

Add portions of dried fruit or fresh pieces of carrot etc instead of chocolates for a healthier option.

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

Makes: 30
Preparation time:10minutes
Cooking time: 10minutes
Ingredients:
60g salted butter
125ml Crunchy Peanut Butter
100g brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 extra large egg
140g cake flour

Method:

Lightly grease 2 baking sheets and pre-heat an oven to 180ã

Cream the butter and peanut butter together. Gradually add the sugars beating well.

Beat the egg into the mixture until light and fluffy. Sift in the flour mixing well.

Shape a teaspoon of mixture onto the trays and bake for 10minutes.

When cooked allow to cool on a wire rack.

QUICHE

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 45-50 minutes
Ingredients:
125g butter (unsalted)
250g flour
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt
60ml milk
150g spinach, steamed, squeezed and chopped (optional)
150g bacon, cooked and chopped
150g cheese grated
2 eggs
250ml cream

Method:

Mix salt and flour thoroughly.

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine bread crumbs.

Mix in the egg and milk.

Knead briefly.

Rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Roll out and press into a pie dish.

Pierce and bake blind without colour (approx 20 minutes)

Baking blind is the technique that requires the filling of the pastry shell with foil or parchment paper and dried beans.

The beans help to keep the shape of the shell while cooking it empty.

Remove the beans.

Mix the spinach, bacon and cheese together and place in the pie shell.

Mix together the eggs and cream and pour into the pie shell to fill.

Bake at 180ºC for 25 minutes until the filling is just set.

SMOKED CHICKEN BACON AND RED PESTO PASTA SALAD

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
300g penne pasta
100g smoked bacon rashers
2 smoked chicken breasts
1 tub Woolworths Fresh Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
Handful basil ripped
15g fresh parmesan, shaved with a vegetable peeler

Method:

Cook the pasta as per instructions.

Cook the bacon until crispy.

Thinly slice the chicken and chop the bacon.

Mix the pasta with the bacon, chicken, pesto and basil.

Recipes supplied by Gourmet Gurus. Caterers for children’s parties; lunch boxes; private/corporate functions and dinner parties.
Contact Richard (former Woollies chef) on 074 1722312 or gourmetgurus@live.co.za
Share your favourite lunchbox recipes with us please.