Packing a healthy lunch

Ensuring your children have a healthy packed lunch every day is very important. Your children need nutrients and nourishment to help them grow and to keep them fuelled for all their activities.

READ: Healthy chicken meals for 2019

School sports, extracurricular activities, and intense learning schedules mean kids need fuel to keep going, and packing them an unhealthy, heavy, and sugar-filled lunch is not going to cut it.

Ensure your children have the energy needed to complete all the school tasks without hitting a sleepy slump with these healthy lunch tips.

• Get creative. Ask your children what they like and don’t like in their packed lunches and try and make healthy versions of it. Boring and bland lunches will see your kids in that tuck shop line faster than they can open their lunch box. Make sure you keep it exciting, tasty, and appealing to them, while keeping it healthy.
  

• Plan and prep ahead. Ensure your children have a balanced lunch by planning. The morning rush can be a nightmare if you’re unprepared. Take some time to plan the week’s lunches and to buy everything you need beforehand so that you’re not reaching for your purse rather than the lunch bag. Preparing the food earlier is also a big time and money saver. Simple tips like roasting a whole chicken to use in different lunch treats like wraps and sandwiches will make your life easier. Also, check out Riversmead Chicken Farm’s lunch box friendly products like chicken and cheese grillers, and crumbed mini fillets. They’ll make lunch prep so much easier and the kids will love it.
  

• Keep it fresh and healthy. Fresh fruits and veggies are always a winner in any lunch box. Sliced apples, grapes, and strawberries are just a few kid favourites for a winning lunch box. Also slice up raw carrot, celery, and cauliflower into easy-to-handle pieces for a fresh and super healthy lunch snack. Don’t forget to add a little dip like hummus to make it even more tasty. Also make sure that their lunchboxes represent all or most of the food groups. While a lunch filled with fresh fruit and veg is great, don’t forget the importance of a protein like chicken and carbohydrates like bread or a wrap.
  

• Don’t forget to hydrate. An important part of lunch that we all sometimes forget is ensuring that your children have something healthy to drink. Forget the sugary sodas and juice, create your own water-based drinks to help keep your children hydrated. Keep jugs of water in the fridge and infuse them with fresh fruits like berries, peaches, and a little mint. These drinks are refreshing and super delicious. Get your kid a water bottle that helps keep its contents ice cold and that allows you to add some fruit to the water. Alternatively, consider making drinks like home-made iced tea with fresh fruit and honey rather than store-bought varieties.
  

• Include all important food groups for healthy children. Many lunch box combos neglect including protein - an important food group for healthy, growing children. A great protein option for a packed lunch is chicken. Chicken can be versatile and is always a winner. Here are a few great ideas for healthy chicken lunchbox treats to try out.
  

Mini chicken quiches

Easy to hold and eat, cheesy and delicious, the kids will love this, and you’ll love the easy prep:

Chicken wraps

Chicken wraps can be exciting and delicious. It’s an easy way to add vegetables and salads to your kid’s lunchbox without them even noticing.

Chicken sandwiches

Nothing beats a delicious chicken sandwich for lunch. There’s also so much you can do to make your chicken sandwiches delicious and fun. Have a look at these super easy chicken sandwich recipes.

Make sure you give your family the best by using Riversmead chicken. Riversmead Farm chickens are of high quality and are always delivered fresh to grocery stores. With strict quality standards and sustainable and green farming practices, you can be assured of tasty, fresh, and ethical products which are good for you and the family. 

ALSO: Winner, winner chicken dinner!

Visit www.riversmead.co.za for more information. Riversmead also has some easy lunch box products like their Chicken & Cheese Grillers and their Crumbed Mini Fillets which are worth looking out for in store. 

Main image courtesy of iStock/iuliia_n