There are lots of different things you can do to brighten up the, often mundane, school lunch but you don't always need to include the obvious ...
Ideally a lunch should contain a serving of fruit, a serving of protein, a serving of whole grains and a drink, however, if you have a fussy child allow your child’s unique tastes to be your guide, you can always ensure they get their food varieties at other meals.
Don’t limit lunch choices to sandwiches. How about rice cakes (keep toppings separate or the rice cake will be soggy before lunchtime!), cold chicken, pasta salad, quiche, homemade pizza slices, sausages, or hard boiled eggs.
If you do make sandwiches don’t limit to plain white bread. Try multigrain, rolls and buns, bagels, wraps, pita bread, scones or pikelets. For variety cut the sandwiches out with a cookie cutter.
Keep portion sizes small - a small sliced carrot, half a small sliced apple, a small bunch of grapes, mandarin segments, raisins, a small banana, sliced cucumber. How about a fruit kebab.
Proteins and grains at lunch will help your child concentrate in the afternoon, particularly the very young. If you struggle with their tastes try and get these into your fillings such as ham and lettuce, cream cheese with finely chopped celery and grated carrot, tuna, egg and mayonnaise, ham and pineapple, banana and honey, shredded chicken.
Why not cook a little extra dinner the night before and save for lunch the next day. Roast chicken, pasta salad, quiche, homemade pizza slices and sausages are just a few examples that are delicious cold for lunch.
Use different fillings – some that are “filling fillings” include banana and honey; mashed egg and mayonnaise; ham, cheese and tomato; cream cheese, tuna, cucumber and carrot.
Add a little hand written message in their lunchbox!
