10 Lunch box tips!

The idea is, over the school term I will share 10 lunchbox tips that have helped me with creating real food lunchboxes. One each week, encouraging you to make small, but sustainable changes to the lunchboxes you pack to make them even healthier. I will collate them all here so if you have missed any you can find them all in one place.

Tip #1
Take a look at hidden sugars!
So, you have come a long way, and there is hardly any packets in the lunchbox anymore. Lunch consists of: sandwich, apple, banana, yoghurt and a biscuit and / or muesli bar. Sounds ok huh? 

What if I told you that there could be up to TEN hidden teaspoons of added sugar in this lunchbox? The recommended daily intake of added sugars from the World Health Organisation (WHO) is 4 teaspoons for a 5 year old (and a maximum of 8) this has just blown the sugar intake through the roof in just one meal!

Let me explain;
Fresh and fruity fruit yoghurt: just over 4 tsp sugar*
2 superwine biscuits: 1 tsp
Muesli bar: around 3 tsp on average depending on the bar
Jam or honey in a sandwich: 1-2 tsp
And just like that you have 8-10 tsp of added sugar all packaged up nicely in a healthy looking school lunch.

Marmite and even some peanut butters have added sugar in them, it's everywhere and unfortunately we have to become detectives to scope this out! So what could you do about this? The trick is not to change everything at once, not only would that be hard work for you, your kids would probably be feeling pretty overwhelmed too if their lunchbox suddenly changed overnight. Make the changes small, easy for you to manage and sustainable - something you can do, and stick to, so you don't look back.
Some small, simple tips (choose one):

• Replace the sandwich filling to something like ham, salami, egg or cheese

• Spreads: We slowly got rid of things like marmite and jam from the house, so they are not even an option. Next time you run out of jam or Nutella, don't replace it. We make homemade jam by blending up berries and adding some chia seeds and a tiny bit of honey. Read the labels, make sure you get a peanut butter with no added sugar. 

• Try using plain Greek yoghurt instead of flavoured and add some fresh fruit to it, berries are perfect for that this time of year. Even stirring a teaspoon of honey through plain yoghurt will have nothing on the sugar content of a brought flavoured pottle, you could try this with the intention to reduce it completely after a few weeks. 

The lunchbox I described is one of the better lunches Ive seen in the classroom, but just because it's what everyone is packing, does it make it ok? (I'll leave that to you to decide). There is no protien, fat or vegetables in this lunchbox - some ideal forms of fuel for little bodies to learn and grow. I will share my tips on how to add these in, in the coming weeks.
*one teaspoon of sugar is about 4 grams

My kids lick the bowl has a fantastic resource which shows how much sugar is in everyday items and how it correlates to WHO's recommended daily intake. It's been expertly calculated and put into easy to read visuals! I used this to help me with my lunchbox example. I highly recommend checking it out! In fact you should lock yourself in a room for half an hour (I may have done this) and have good read of some of the articles on there! Some great explanations of concepts around health and nutrition and all things feeding kids.
My kids lick the bowl

Tip #2 

Take some time to cut up fruit and veggies to make them more appealing and easier to eat.I can't tell you the number of times I've seen a whole carrot or a big hunk of cucumber in a lunchbox that unfortunately goes uneaten (I have however seen carrots used as swords). Kids need small food, FAST, if you want them eat it instead of play with it, that is. There is a lot of play to be had, and spending time peeling, nibbling or trying to attack a fruit or vegetable the size of their arm gets in the way of play or takes up the valuable time slot allocated for lunch eating.

• I Peel mandarins, slice oranges, carrots and cucumber, I even peel and slice kiwi fruit - because the less time Chef Ashton spends spooning out kiwi fruit, the more time he has for eating his carrots!

• Make sure they can easily get into all containers, the lunchbox and any wrapping - less time spend doing this is more time to eat good food. Most schools allocate a mandatory 15 minutes to sit and eat lunch before play - think about how much food can your child realistically eat in 15 minutes, surrounded by a group of mates? Chef Ashton is a s.l.o.w eater - so I like to make the process as quick as possible for him. I also love his bento style lunchbox - its easy for him to open and get into. Before this he was opening wrapping or several containers to get his food out. 

• If you are feeling really fancy, you can get some cookie cutters and cut up fruit and veggies into fun shapes in the hope they might appeal even more. We got our set from Mitre 10 mega for $10 and I can tell you it has definitely earned its keep. I love the compact little tin to keep them in too. The cookie cutters I think are more for me, chef Ashton doesn't seem to give a toss about them, but I feel like it might also deter nosey class mates from making fun of his radish and cabbage if it's a cool shape (yup - it happens!).

This is our cookie cutter set

So the take home message is - the less time spent unwrapping, opening and trying to manoeuvre large portions of food - the more time there is to EAT it! Cut and peel fruit and veges so they are easier to eat and manage :-)

Tip #3

Add some protein to the lunchbox

Most lunchboxes are missing protein. Protein is seriously important for growing bodies, to help fuel us, build muscle and help us feel satisfied, so we are not reaching for a snack in an hours time or experiencing a 3 o clock slump after blood sugar levels have peaked from a lunch heavy in refined carbohydrates and sugars.

 You can do this by adding protein to a sandwich or wrap, like egg, ham or chicken. I actually replace the need for a sandwich with protein in Chef Ashton's lunchbox. He has things like meatballs, patties, sausage, chickpeas (roasted or as hummus), falafel, eggs - boiled, omlette, scrambled, chicken - drumstick, nibbles, wings, shredded, nuggets, or any leftover meat, nuts (if allowed - i put peanut butter on crackers when possible), seeds, salami, ham, biltong (dried beef). If you can tolerate dairy, then cheese - sticks, sliced, grated, shapes can be useful too.

I pop a small ice brick in his lunchbag to keep protein cool (in anticipation that summer might arrive in Stratford this year!)

Tip #4.

Replace one packaged item like muesli bar, biscuits or chips with a single ingredient item. 

When I first started transitioning Ashtons lunchbox I started with taking out one packet at a time. He often used to have a horrifically expensive and elaborately marketed gluten free muesli bar with 'no added sugar', but skip to the ingredients and nutritional panel it had about 3 teaspoons of sugar in the form if concentrated fruit, ugh! 

I started by replacing this with plain nuts and seeds or popcorn. 

I replaced raisins with fresh grapes - while raisins are only one ingredient (though sometimes they have added preservatives and vegetable oils - check the pack!) there are about 30 raisins in a pack, giving a toddler 30 grapes would look rediculous so I decided to replace the raisins with the real deal or just some sort of seasonal fruit. 

Chips can be replaced with home popped popcorn, crunchy carrot sticks, seeds or nuts.