One of the best ways to love your children well is to send them to school with foods that promote good energy levels and mental alertness. This year, as you prepare for a busy school year, take a couple steps in the right direction to improve those lunch boxes and snacks for the kids. Every lunch box should have a piece of fruit and one raw vegetable! Eliminate a couple processed food items such as traditional bread, popcorn, gold fish and chips as well as high sugar foods in exchange for whole foods. Buy appropriate, good quality containers to make packing lunch easier (check out www.lunchbots.com as an example). Then plan ahead. Fruit salad, tossed salads and meat based mayo salads as well as many other items can be made on Sunday and packed up for the week ahead. Here are some food swap ideas to help you get organized.
Instead of traditional or whole grain breads, try Organic Corn Tortillas or homemade Wheat Belly Basic Bread recipe (Wheat Belly Cookbook by William David, MD, Rodale 2013).
Instead of a sandwich, try Meat Roll-ups – use a piece of deli meat, spread with mayo, mustard, guacamole or hummus, add lettuce or field greens and roll it up.
Instead of a sandwich, try Chicken, Egg, Tuna or Salmon salad in a bowl.
Instead of a sandwich, try left over meat bites, hummus and veggie strips.
Instead of high sugar yogurts, try Stoneyfield YoKids Squeezers or 4 oz yogurts.
Instead of potato chips, try Mary’s Gone Crackers Pretzel Sticks, Central Market Exotic Vegetable Sweet Potato Chips or Beanito Chips.
Instead of granola bars, brownies and cookies try Lara Bars or KIND Bars.
Instead of soft drinks, fruit juices or smoothies, try Bottled Water, Fruitables or Honest Kids fruit drinks.
Instead of cookies and brownies, try homemade trail mix with 60% cocoa dark chocolate chips, raw cashews, peanuts and almonds and add in some roasted pumpkin seeds and unsweetened coconut flakes and a few organic raisins or dried cranberries.
For more breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack ideas to feed healthy hungry kids for a busy school year, schedule an appointment with me by calling 281-298-6742. We can help with picky eaters and children’s weight management concerns.