Healthy kids lunchboxes on a tight budget

My kids lunchboxes are looking good this year, with a whole stack of budget treats to keep them happy and full.

Here's what they get in a typical day:

• Sandwich: My kids get a sandwich, made from home made brown bread. I make up loaves on the weekend, and freeze them in the deep freeze. I'll post the recipe in the next few days - my recipe doesn't even need kneading!
  
  A favourite filling for my daughter is home made strawberry jam. My son loves the eternal favourite cheese and vegemite.
  
  Home made bread is so much better than store-bought bread, because not only is it much cheaper, it is more filling and doesn't have all the additives that are commonly found in store-purchased foods. And it tastes so much better!
  

This is what my kids lunchboxes look like - green for my son, and pink for my daughter (don't blame me - they chose the colours!). The boxes divide into three compartments, one big area for a sandwich, and two smaller ones for extras. I'm a fan. Available from Sistema and made in New Zealand.

• Vegetables: I try to always put a vegetable in. Both kids love carrot and celery sticks, and these great compartment lunchboxes keep them fresh. My son likes peanut butter filled celery sticks, as a treat.
  
  Other options include cherry tomatoes (we grow them), raw broccoli florets, or a few baby spinach leaves. My kids munch it all.
  
  
• Fruit: When we don't have our own fruit available, I just buy whatever looks good, is locally produced, and is in season. I usually chop the apples up into slices, when it is apples - for some reason, the kids will always eat apple pieces, whereas whole apples often come home. Go figure!
  
  
• Nuts: Neither my son's school or my daughter's kindy have a nut-free policy, so nuts are in!
  
  We grow lots of hazelnuts, so often hazelnuts are what the kids get. I pre-crack the nuts for the kids the weekend before, and load them into their lunch boxes. Fresh, organic hazelnuts are terrific, and so healthy.
  
  Any other variety of nuts are a great option for kids, so long as they're raw and unsalted. It's while our kids are young that their tastes and habits - good, and bad - are developing.
  
  Why not give our kids good habits, and a taste for healthy foods, instead of a taste for high salt, unhealthy choices?
  
  
• Eggs: When our chooks are laying like crazy, I sometimes pop a hard boiled egg in the kids lunchboxes, pre-peeled of course!
  
  
• Cookies: The kids get home made cookies in their lunch box. I make up huge batches of hokey pokey cookies, and freeze them in ziplock bags. Then I just pull a couple out for each child's lunch box every morning.
  
  Having the cookies frozen also means that I'm not tempted to eat them - if I can't see them, I won't eat them! Trust me, if they were in a cookie jar, they wouldn't last two days. In the freezer they last two weeks.
  
  
• Seaweed crackers: Both kids love these, and they're cheap and fast. They're an old standby, and a handful keeps the kids happy. I buy the home brand crackers, which taste just as good. I usually buy them on special, and keep them fresh in a container in the pantry.
  

And my kids' morning tea boxes, also from Sistema.

How to prepare for healthy lunchboxes

• Do all your baking on the weekend, and bake in BULK. I bake four loaves of bread at a time, and make 50 cookies to a batch, then pre-slice and freeze both bread and cookies. All done, and ready, in less time than a trip to the supermarket.
  
  
• Slice veggies into sticks, and store in a sealed container in the fridge, all ready. Absorbent paper or a terry cloth inside the container will keep moisture at bay, and help keep everything fresh.
  
  
• Pre-chop apples and other fruit. Toss in a bit of lemon juice, to keep them from going brown, then pop in a sealed container. If you have room for a lemon tree, by the way, they're about the most useful tree you can grow!
  
  
• Pre-boil eggs to last a week. Peeled hard boiled eggs can be stored in the fridge in a bowl covered in water, which is changed daily (this is also how you store tofu). Or you can store them in a sealed container, covered in a damp cloth or damp absorbent paper towels.
  
  
• Shell your own nuts each week. Depending on where you buy them, nuts can be much cheaper to buy unshelled. Source local farmer's markets and farm gate sales, or friends with nut trees, then crack bagfuls each weekend in advance.
  
  
• Water bottles: Don't let your child share his / her water bottle, and don't put anything in the bottle except water. Any other drink will be more likely to contaminate the bottle, rendering it unusable. More importantly, your child could get sick.
  
  
• Doubling lunchboxes and water bottles. I have two lunchboxes per child, each colour-coded and named. That way, one can be going through the wash while the other is in use. This saves the rush of having to find a lunchbox if one is left at school accidentally, or we forget to wash it until morning.
  
  I also have a separate lunchbox and morning tea box for each child. This makes it easier for the kids when they're pulling stuff out of their bag and in a rush.
  
  Rotating lunchboxes and bottles also means that they can properly air dry on the drainer (rather than just towel or dishwashing-drying them), which means they will stay cleaner and more hygienic.
  

What to avoid - the nasties!

• Individual yoghurt pots: Schools here in New Zealand are banning these, because of the waste disposal issue. They're ending up in our waterways and on our beaches, and wildlife are eating the plastic spoons they come with, and the foil lids. And they're so expensive!
  
  Young kids also have problem undoing the lids. My daughter (age four) still need assistance opening one.
  
  Yoghurt is available in tubes, but these are also presenting a waste problem, because small pieces of plastic from the torn (opened) end are ending up all over the playground, in the sandpits, and in waterways again. Also, most of the yoghurts available in this packaging are not true yoghurt, and contain huge amounts of sugar and additives.
  
  Yoghurt is a good food in moderation, but is better served at the breakfast table, on cereal. And make your own!
  
  
• Juice and juice drinks: I used to babysit a little girl when I was younger, whose sippy cup was always filled with juice. By the time she was 5, all her baby teeth had to be removed because they'd rotted out.
  
  Worse, her developing adult teeth in her gums were also deformed from the juice, and she went on to need major dental work. I don't want to think what it did to her self-image.
  
  I'm really not a fan of juice, and neither is my dentist! She's banned me from drinking it. It's acidic (ever heard of citric acid!) and will damage your child's teeth just as surely as Coke will.
  
  Juice these days has all sorts of additives (flavour packs, various chemicals, preservatives, and sometimes fish oils) put in, and is a far cry from something you just squeeze from a fruit.
  
  In short, kids shouldn't be drinking juice, and neither should adults. The only way I use juice these days is watered down, to make my own ice blocks (popsicles). I don't let my kids drink it.
  
  
• Milk: Milk doesn't belong in a school drink bottle, simply because of the refrigeration / health issue. Milk gunks up the sipper lids of drink bottles and grows bacteria easily.
  
  Give children milk at home before and after school if you want (in a glass), but not at school, and not in a drink bottle.
  
  Those UHT milk boxes that are available are expensive and can be difficult for children to open. Like juice boxes, they also have disposal / waste issues, and are not a great choice for lunchboxes.
  
  
• Deli slices: Foods like salami, pressed chicken and other, similar options are not healthy, are high in fat, and are common sources of food recalls.
  
  If you want to put meat in your children's sandwiches, save some chicken pieces or lamb from the weekend roast. Give them real meat, not the fake stuff. Leftovers are also much cheaper than buying pressed, processed meat slices.
  

Benefits of a healthy lunchbox

• No packaging! - Real food doesn't need packaging. It also doesn't need preservatives, additives, colours, flavours, stabilisers, or any of those weird "E numbers".
  
  We're people, not machines! Isn't it about time our children got to eat real food?
  
  
• Real food is cheaper: Real foods are a lot, LOT cheaper than packaged foods and pre-made treats that you can buy for your kids in the supermarket. You will save a lot of money.
  
  Likewise, you don't need luxury superfoods, specialist food "extracts", organic "health bars", low fat "probiotic baby yoghurt health drinks" or other rubbish. That's marketing. None of it has been proven to do anyone any good.
  
  Real healthy food comes from the produce section, and is affordable. Just choose what is cheap and seasonal, and make your own as much as possible.
  
  
• Real food is quicker and easier: I know the processed stuff has been sold on the "quick and easy" line, but that is NOT true. How many hours do you have to work to pay for it all?
  
  How much time will you spend nursing a child whose immune system is down because they're not eating properly?
  
  And young children especially often find the little packets and plastic spoons and cups hard to open and manage. With real food, you just need to get organised, do big bake-ups, and plan your shopping around what is in season.
  
  
• Real food will make your kid SMARTER: Childrens brains develop better with real, healthy food to support them. You are what you eat.
  
  Children who eat whole natural foods perform better at school, sleep better, and are less likely to have behavioural problems. Same with adults too - so why not pack yourself a healthy lunchbox when you do the kids'?
  
  
• Kids who eat well are more likely to grow up to be adults who eat well. Good habits are developed while we're young.
  
  The kids who learn to prefer healthy food will probably grow up to be adults who do the same, while the kids who love junk will probably grow up to be junk-loving adults.
  
  In a world riddled with obesity, diabetes and heart disease, I think we we have the responsibility of teaching our children how to eat well, choose food wisely, and look after their bodies.
  

My seven year old son has just spent a month with his grandparents, and the report back was that he ate everything that was put in front on him, and wasn't fussy at all.

I'm so pleased - he's the only seven year old I know who is eating broccoli and brussels sprouts, cabbage and spinach, feta cheese and olives.

Healthy habits start early. Our generation really got led astray by all the tempting foods around us, but I like to think that with our kids, we'll do better.

It's time to get back to basics, with real good food that brings health, wealth and happiness.

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Have a lovely day!