Healthy lunch ideas for every day of the school week
Every parent knows there’s an art and science to packing the perfect lunch. Of course it needs to be healthy and balanced to power your kid through the school day. But, there’s something that makes us secretly beam with pride when one of our creations are the talk of the cafeteria and generates the most interest when there are trade discussions. (But … of course your kiddo won’t want to swap any of these lunches).
Meatless Monday: Keeley McGuire has a whole blog full of yummy, healthy lunch box ideas. Here, in this video, she teaches us how to make veggie nuggets (you’ll save a ton of money making them from scratch as opposed to buying them). They’re loaded with potatoes, broccoli, carrots and corn. She shows off a lunch box with the veggie nuggets, organic ketchup, a mini sandwich and fresh fruit.
Taco Tuesday: Jamie over at This Lunch Rox offers the perfect solutions for healthy lunch ideas for kids. In fact, the whole idea of her site is “healthy lunches made fun.” She offers this taco-inspired lunch, complete with homemade taco cups made from tortillas. She packs all the fixings needed for tacos — cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and taco meat.
Silly Face Salad for a Wednesday: We head back over to Keeley McGuire’s blog for a funny face salad that is sure to make your little one smile. She uses the egg white portion of a boiled egg to make the face. For some dairy and protein, she made little ham and cheese roll-ups. The lunch is complete with a side of grapes.
Bagel sandwich for a Thursday: If you ever get in a sandwich rut, consider using mini bagels. For this lunch from Veggie Kids, a whole-wheat bagel is covered with mayo, hummus, cream cheese, chopped greens and bell peppers. Side dishes include black olives and strawberries.
Peanut butter and jelly ‘sushi rolls’: This is especially great for kids who want you to cut the crust off their sandwiches. The traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich is reinvented and “rolled” into little miniature sushi-like rolls. The idea is courtesy of Food.com and is said to take just five minutes. Serve with some fruit kabobs.
Save money when you’re packing lunches this school year with grocery coupons from ShopAtHome.com.
And, if you’re in the market for a new lunch box from Target.
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