Last week I shared my typical after school snack “formula” and since it’s that time of the year, here is my lunch “formula.”
My kids won’t eat school lunches (and I sure don’t blame them) which is great for their health, but does mean I have to pack lunches everyday. To make life easier for me, I came up with a little formula to ensure they have a nutritious, filling lunch everyday. I just repeat it in my head each night as I prepare the lunch for the next day and I know they are getting a good variety of nutrients!
Lunch Formula = Fruit + Veggie + Protein + Treat + Drink
Pretty simple right? And so much of it can be done ahead of time. Making dinner (or after school snacks)? Chop up extra fruits or veggies. Leftovers from dinner? Probably a perfect protein – just package it up in small portions before you put it in the fridge. Easy drinks? Keep your water bottles on hand (like my drink station here) and you’ll remember to fill them up in the morning.
I do try for variety each week – at least two or three fruits and veggies to rotate between each week, and a mix of leftovers (hot and cold), sandwiches and cheese/ cracker or hard-boiled eggs for the protein. The treat is often a small piece of dark chocolate, but sometimes just a note or joke too. Once in a while I’ll add crackers, granola bars or baked chips for variety – but those typically aren’t everyday.
In the picture above I included cut watermelon, tomatoes and cucumbers, some kale salad leftover from dinner, a hard-boiled egg and this lunch also had a piece of dark chocolate and water (not in the picture). Simple, colorful and delicious!
Do your kids each school lunches? If so, what do you pack for them? I’d love to hear about it in the comments, so please share!
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Shared on Works for Me Wednesday, Tasty Traditions, Friendship Friday, Empty Your Archives, The Mommy Club and Real Food Wednesdays.
I like your formula! In our family Daddy is the lunch packer, but I recently packed a week of lunches and had fun with it. At times I’ve been concerned that my son’s lunches look too starchy, with not enough fruits and veggies. I like the idea of including a fruit AND a veggie every day.
My son doesn’t want to eat the school lunch, either. He comes home with dramatic tales of the horrible foods the school-lunch kids are eating!
Becca, love it – my kids will tell me the same things – veggies are tater tots or the whole lunch is brown . . . they much prefer me packing it!
How do you get your kids to eat kale salad? My family eats pretty healthy, and they never get junk, but even my first child, who used to eat everything, has begun to turn his nose up at anything too earthy. So frustrating!
Shannon, I’ll be honest I just serve it over and over. It took my son TWENTY times trying cooked spinach before he would eat it. Our rule is they have to try a small bite of something – they don’t have to like it, they just have to try it. Then they can eat the rest of their meal. I also introduced things slowly. For instance, first they would eat uncooked spinach (over and over a bite at a time – now they both like it). Next they would try a bite of it cooked in something else (soup or pasta). Neither of them liked that for a long time, so they’d pick around the spinach – okay by me as long as they tried that bite. Finally I started putting sauteed spinach on pizza. My son decided he liked that – and it was a small step to move from on the pizza to off the pizza. My daughter still doesn’t like cooked spinach. So, when we have spinach, she tries one bite cooked and then eats the rest raw as a salad. So, I can’t tell you it’s easy and it does take a LOT of patience, but it is possible. Education and getting them involved in cooking and growing the veggies are also great. My daughter grew Kale for 4H – that helped her decide to like it as well as zucchini this year. And when all else fails – lots of cheese – that salad in the picture has a ton of freshly grated parmesan cheese in it!!!