Back To School: Healthy Packed Lunch Ideas

School-aged children need a healthy and balanced diet that includes food from all food groups and sufficient amounts of vitamins and minerals to maintain their health, but also to be able to concentrate on all the things they are learning. 

A good breakfast sets a child up for the day, and home-cooked family dinners offer a bonding opportunity as the chance to ensure that the whole family gets the nutrition they need. But how about lunch, that one meal your kid is going to eat at school?

Many parents will have the choice between high-fat, low-nutrient cafeteria meals, pre-packaged products from the grocery store, or a healthy lunched prepared and packed at home. The good news is that the option that is clearly best does not have to take a lot of your time. 

Nutrients Your Child Needs

Whatever lunch options you prepare, try to make sure that they contain the essential nutrients your child needs. Carbohydrates and healthy fats help the brain to function optimally, and they improve the child's mood, too. 

Protein builds and maintains a healthy body, and while proteins can be found in many vegetable sources, meat and dairy are the go-to proteins for many people. Look out for foods that are rich in calcium (milk, sardines, tofu) and iron (meat and leafy green veggies). 

Adding a handful of walnuts, chia seeds, or pumpkin seeds to your child's lunch will boost his intake of essential fatty acids, which improve school performance.

Since the school week lasts five days, we've prepared five healthy and balanced packed lunch ideas for you. 

Bite-Sized Veggies With A Dip

If you have ever tried to take a dressed salad to work in a lunch box? You'll know that it goes soggy in no time. Besides that, most kids are either not naturally inclining to eat classical salads or will be pressured into not eating by their peers.

A handful of cherry tomatoes, a small cucumber, some baby carrots, celery sticks and a boiled egg or two for added protein will look extremely cute together. This combination will give your child a balanced, veggie-rich lunch, and it will take you less than 10 minutes to prepare. 

To make this lunch a lot more appealing, make to sure to provide a dip to go along with it in a small plastic container (Tupperware or similar). Easy dips use mayonnaise as a base. You can add yogurt, sour cream, blue cheese, some balsamic vinegar, a few chopped spring onions and some salt and pepper. Instead, you could simply opt for sour cream, minced onions, and salt. 

More School Lunch Ideas

Sandwiches — A Timeless Solution

Tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil leaves — caprese salad is a timeless, classic salad that goes well with any Italian meal. It can also be turned into a great caprese sandwich that tastes even better if you toast it and cut it into little bits. Use ciabatta bread for the best results. 

Egg and cress sandwiches are popular in the United Kingdom. They're tasty and will give your child a perfect mix of carbohydrates and protein that will allow him to keep on working. 

The classic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are now shunned in many schools because peanuts have become associated with adverse effects. If your child isn't allergic, peanuts aren't banned at her school, and you can count on your kid not to share her lunch with others, PB&J sandwiches are still a great option because peanuts are a wonderful source of monounsaturated fats that are heart-healthy. They also offer plenty of antioxidants and have a high protein content.

Vary the breads you use as well, and try to opt for wholegrain at least some of the time. A small container with blueberries, strawberries, a kiwi or some other fruit will make a sandwich lunch even better. 

Tortilla Mexicana

Like sandwiches, (wholewheat) tortillas provide carbs, but in a new form. Tortilla fillings can can include legumes like kidney beans or chickpeas, are great with corn, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and other veggies and are fantastic with chicken or pumpkin bits. To make a tortilla lunch extra healthy, make sure to include a side of guacamole, that avocado dip that goes with most Mexican foods. Avocado is rich in vitamins B6, C and A and has plenty of magnesium as well as some iron.  

Many kids love the look of tortillas — if you place tortilla wraps in your child's lunch, other kids are going to want to swap! 

Vegetable Or Fruit Muffins

Muffins are really easy to whip up and are also rather versatile. You can use white flour but can also choose to go for wholegrain or corn flour instead. Savory muffins with some fresh fruit like an apple or orange for desert are a great option, but you can also make blueberry and chocolate muffins, or some other sweet variation, as a treat. Some ingredients you may want to put in your savory lunch muffins are:

• Cheddar and leek

• Sun-dried tomatoes and olives

• Spinach and feta

• Carrot, walnut and apple

• Zucchini and blue cheese

A batch of muffins can serve as lunch for the whole family, and making these healthy treats is surprisingly addictive!

Sushi

Making sushi yourself isn't that difficult, and let's face it — there are going to be days when you do not have the time to prepare a healthy packed lunch from scratch, but you still want to make sure your child doesn't eat junk food for lunch. Sushi might be the perfect solution here.

You can buy ready-made in many places, and it offers a pretty healthy lunch whether you go for fish or vegetarian options. Vegetarian sushi often contains avocado, squash or cucumber. The rice offers the carbs your child needs to get through the rest of the day while the nori has protein, dietary fiber, iodine, iron, and vitamins A, B and K.