Preparing children’s lunches is part of every parent’s reality. This is not a very difficult chore, but it may require a certain amount of imagination to avoid the famous ham and cheese sandwiches. To make sure your child eats his or her full lunch and help you prepare his or her meal in the morning, here are 20 tips to know.
1. Make delicious homemade fruit drinks
It is a well-known fact that all children like sweet drinks. You can trade sodas and other sweet drinks for a fruit-infused drink. All you have to do is put frozen berries or strawberries in water to add natural flavor to your children’s drinks.
2. Running out of ice packs?
If you run out of ice packs, don’t panic! You can make them without great difficulty. All you have to do is take sponges, soak them in water, remove the excess water and place them in an airtight bag. Once this is done, place the sponges in the freezer.
3. Make sure that the apple segments do not turn brown
Cutting an apple into quarters is a good idea. After all, it’s much easier to eat this fruit this way. However, apple quarters can turn brown very quickly. To avoid this problem, replace the apple quarters after cutting them and join them together with a rubber band. Your apple pieces will stay beautiful!
4. Encourage your child’s independence
A good way to save time in the morning while encouraging your child’s independence is to set up stations in your refrigerator. The principle is as follows: place snacks (e.g. fruit) in one tray, protein in another (cheese) and then the main meal to be taken (a sandwich) in a final tray. It will be up to your offspring to make their lunch.
5. Collect fruit cups from your youngsters’ snacks
Why throw away the fruit bowl when you can pick it up for your little one’s snack? Get some Mason jars, fill them with crackers and put dip or cheese in the fruit bowl. Then simply combine the Mason pot and cut it with the lid!
6. Involve your child in meal design
A good way to shorten lunch preparation time is to ask your child for help. You will be surprised to see how happy he will be to contribute to the preparation of his meal. Also, it will be the first step towards its autonomy.
7. Think about the rest
When making meals for dinner time, always try to make larger portions to get leftovers. Feel free to mix the leftovers too. For example, you can make a salad and add the leftovers of a chicken or fish.
8. Make a list of what children like
It is not always easy to know what our children like. The easiest way is to ask them. Take the time to make a list with them. Write down their favorite vegetables, fruits, and a few meal choices to include in their lunches. So, when you run out of ideas for preparing lunches, you can consult this list!
9. Prepare lunches in advance
One thing that can save you a lot of time is to prepare children’s lunches in advance. To do this, keep yourself a moment in your week (for example, Sunday evening), and prepare as much as possible in advance. You can cut raw vegetables, make single servings of yogurt, etc.
10. Change an element of the meal
Sometimes a single small change in lunch makes all the difference. If you are used to always making a ham and cheese sandwich and accompanying it with a few vegetables, why not vary this meal by changing the bread or meat? You can also add fruit or yogurt to raw vegetables.
11. Use your freezer
Did you make a lot of soup? Why not freeze excess portions? You can use it when you don’t have time to make lunches. You can also freeze individual portions of pasta and rice.
12. Be creative
If your children are reluctant to eat their sandwich, you can always use a cookie cutter to give them a fun shape. You can also use it to change the shape of cheese pieces or healthy patties.
13. Try the skewers
A good alternative to traditional sandwiches is skewered. You can make fruit and vegetable skewers and add several proteins to them to ensure that your child can get through the day.