Making Healthy school lunch for kids

My older daughter Cbear started German kindergarten since September. There are several American kids and few we already have relationship with through church, so it wasn’t too hard for Cbear to adjust to her new routine, in fact she looks forward to going to kindergarten every day. I have been packing my husband’s lunch since the day we got married. I have been making most of the meals and snacks for my children at home since the day my children started solid food. I wanted to make healthy meals and healthy snacks for my kids, so I would go to farmers market to get the freshest ingredients possible to make meals for my family. I used to pack all Cbear’s snacks and meals every time we had to eat out because she became a picky year as soon as she turned one year old. Thankfully she grew out of that phase by the time she turned two years old. I often tell other moms that it takes time and keep introducing new food along with the meal and ingredient that child is already familiar with. One study shows that children need to be offered a new food as many as 10-15 times before they will eat it.

When it was time for me to make Cbear’s first packed lunch, I panicked because I didn’t know what to pack. I wanted to make sure it is something she will eat, and still wanted to promote that healthy eating habit. Below picture is the picture of her lunch box on the first day of her kindergarten. Whole wheat bread with Peanut butter, fresh raspberries, sliced avocado, and toasted pecans.

 

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Cbear enjoyed her lunch on that day as all the ingredients were her favorite and she loved her new lunch box.  Lunch box i used for the picture is call, yumbox container, i liked it because it is leak proof, dishwasher safe, and light weight. You will see different type of containers and tools i use for different meals throughout the posts and i will make a post about what type of materials i use to make the meal.

Making healthy lunch for your kids is easy and quick. It only takes less than 10 minutes to do so. I will be sharing more healthy lunch ideas as Cbear enjoys her German kindergarten.

Whats on the plate?

I have been happily married to my husband for 7 years, and have promised him to cook 3 meals a day for the rest of my life. Don’t get me wrong, i often regretted my promise especially when i found out we were expecting the surprise third child. I used to cook three different types of meal for our family: One meal for Meat lover husband, One kid friendly meal for children, and one meal for myself. I got tired of cooking different types of meal for every meal, so i decided to combine some of the menu so i am not spending several hours a day in the kitchen.

Some people ask how do i do it. I do semi-meal prep. on the weekends or whenever i do feel like cooking a bulk meal, I roast vegetables, cook pasta noodles, dice vegetables for salad or snacks, and bake breads. I often try to make it a fun activity for kids as well. I ask them to cut the vegetables, roll the dough, and wash the fruits. I noticed that my kids will finish their plate if they prepared it together. For example, my older one was never exposed to Pizza since i am not a big fan of Pizza. It made it pretty hard to eat out, so i used to carry her meals around whenever we travel or eat out. I decided to see if she would be interested in making pizza with me, and it took several tries to get her to eat the pizza. She is now a big fan of pizza. I will make a post about how to set-up the homemade pizza for children to do DIY pizza.

My older daughter started German Kindergarten on the first week of September. German Kindergarten isn’t as strict as military child development center where no nuts are allowed. Both of my children do not have any known allergy yet, so it makes it easy for me to prepare meals for them. I will also be posting lots of pictures of Kid friendly packed lunch and recipes.

I use Thermos for cold and hot meals, YUMBOX lunch box  for packed lunch. There are several different option you can choose from Amazon or i just use plastic reusable containers and dividers/cupcake liners.

 

Reflection

I always enjoyed cooking and baking until it became a job; Mother’s duty. It isn’t easy to accommodate peaky eaters’ taste buds. I have two toddlers age of 3 and 1.5 years old. My older one enjoys eating vegetables, and she has grew out of peak eater stage. However my younger boy isn’t a big fan of vegetable since he turned a year old. I am constantly looking for an idea and recipe to impress my children’s taste buds and eyes. When i posted few pictures of my older daughter’s packed lunch on my Instagram, my fellow mommy friends were very impressed with the presentation. I wanted to help other fellow mommy who is struggling to figure out what to make for their little ones.

I wanted to keep the blog simple and easy to navigate since moms do not have time to read a long narrative post. I am planning on posting lots of visual aids.