avoiding the lunch crunch
By annemarie on September 8, 2010 | Filed Under faces & places, guest bloggers
We’re always looking for inspiration when it comes to cooking for kids, so we asked Kia Robertson from Today I Ate A Rainbow for her top tips:
September is here again which means it’s back to school time and for most of us parents, it also means back to making school lunches. It can be quite the challenge to create a lunch that is healthy, well-balanced, and something that your kids will enjoy eating! Does that combination sound too good to be true? I think it can be achieved with some planning, team work and creativity!
I think one of the best ways to ensure success is to get your kids involved! Include them as much as possible when planning, preparing and packing lunches. Sure it might be faster for you to just make the lunches yourself however there are so many benefits to getting your kids to participate in making their lunches. Here are a few of those benefits:
- It’s a great opportunity to spend some time together! This gives you a chance to sit down and talk about healthy food choices and how the food they eat can help them in school! It’s also a great chance to talk about their particular likes and dislikes when it comes to food. Just imagine what it would be like if someone was serving you lunches without getting your input and suggestions as to what foods you enjoy! Asking your kids about their food preferences shows that you respect them and gives you the opportunity to come up with healthy lunch ideas together!
- It gives your kids a sense of choice and responsibility! Being able to have choices is a great feeling for kids. Getting to help decide what goes in their lunch is something that a lot of kids enjoy. By providing them with healthy options to choose from, you’ll know that they are putting together a great lunch that they will eat. However don’t give a huge list of options or you’ll be there all day, for example when it comes to veggies, you could give them two or three options to choose from. This gives them a sense of ownership and it also takes away the excuse that you made them a lunch with foods that they don’t like!
- It teaches them kitchen skills! Helping out in the kitchen by washing and preparing their food gives your kids the opportunity to learn valuable life skills! Knowing their way around the kitchen and learning how to put together healthy lunches is something that will last a lifetime. So much of parenting is about passing on skills and knowledge so that your kids will become fully independent successful people. Slowly learning how to provide healthy meals for themselves is a big part of becoming that successful, independent, healthy person that you want them to be! Besides, do you really want to be making their lunches forever?!
- It gives you a chance to get creative! Since you know that making lunches is something that has to get done, like it or not, you might as well try to have a little fun with it! See if you and your kids can put together a lunch with as many colours as possible…think Rainbows of fruits and veggies! You can use little cookie cutters to make fun shapes out of produce. Serve fruits and veggies with yummy dips or skewer them into kabobs. There are a lot of great bento style lunch containers that turn a regular lunch into something fun! You could write a little notes with jokes on them, or just pictures for younger kids. There are a lot of ways to get creative with lunches, especially if you get your kids involved, it makes it more enjoyable for everyone when you put a little fun into it!
Making lunches with your kids is actually a great time to connect, learn and have a little fun! If you can take the time to make lunches the night before rather than in the crazy rush of the morning, this make the process more enjoyable for everyone. Kids grow up so fast, before you know it they’ll be off on their own, so try to turn lunch making into a special time with them!
Kia Robertson, is a Mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A RainbowTM kit! The kit contains an interactive chart that helps parents and kids keep track of the fruits and veggies eaten everyday as well as a rhyming children’s book called The Rainbow Bunch! Eating a Rainbow is a fun and easy way to get kids thinking about the importance of eating a variety of colourful fruits and vegetables everyday: www.todayiatearainbow.com
