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Dropping out of school dinners? Follow these tips for packed lunches that'll do your kids a power of good.
Make crisps a once–a–week treat, and choose low-fat varieties. Instead, give them breadsticks, rice cakes, a handful of dried mixed fruit, some unsalted plain peanuts (if the school allows them) or a few walnuts or almonds.
Avoid sliced white bread, and make sarnies out of granary, wholemeal or poppy-seeded bread. Try wholemeal pittas, bagels or small baguettes. Whatever you use as butter, spread it thinly. Go easy on the mayo and choose low-fat fillings like cottage cheese, turkey, ham, tuna or banana. Always add a bit of salad to a sandwich.
A cup of hot soup is very welcome on a cold day. Buy a small-size vacuum flask and fill it with vegetable-based soup, homemade if possible. Add a granary or wholemeal roll. Make sure it stays good and hot until lunchtime by warming the flask first with boiling water and leaving it to stand for a couple of minutes.
Instead of a sandwich, give them a filling salad packed in a clip-top plastic tub. Use a mini cool-pack in the lunch box to keep it chilled. Try chicken and sweetcorn with cucumber and tomato; brown rice with red peppers and ham strips; cold cooked pasta dressed with pesto and mixed with cubed cheese or tuna; couscous with shavings of feta and cherry tomatoes.
A slice of homemade pizza always goes down well in a lunchbox. Make one bigger than usual for the night before, and save a piece or two for lunches. Use wholemeal or stoneground bases if available. Top with tomato purée (counts as a vegetable portion), mozzarella and a good selection of veggies. Try red, yellow and green peppers, mushroom slices, sliced spring onions, courgettes, diced celery, canned asparagus spears.
Make a little pot of fresh fruit salad. Try to have an apple just once a week, and on other days choose something more interesting: a melon wedge; a couple of kiwis (pack a teaspoon); a juicy chunk of mango; a pot of mixed blueberries and raspberries. Stew up fresh apples or dried fruits, and pack into a tub. Choose fruit breads, scones or hot-cross buns instead of chocolate biscuits or additive-laden muffins.
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