Keeping School Lunches New and Exciting!

As time goes on we become more aware of what is healthy and what isn't. An early start to healthy meals is great for all children. Now that we're coming up on the new school year, we all need a few good recipes for our children. This guide will provide quite a few healthy ideas for school lunches. Keep in mind that we still need to appeal to our children's interest, so that they actually do eat the lunches!

We'll start off with my personal favorite-wraps! Wraps are the most versatile lunches. You can make everything from chicken Caesar salad to banana and peanut butter wraps! Here are some other wraps you can make: pastrami and Swiss, ham and cheese, BLT, chicken ranch, veggie, tuna, egg salad, pickled egg salad, buffalo chicken, honey mustard chicken, Italian chicken, Philadelphia Cheese steak, canned salmon, taco meat, and if your child loves breakfast you can make any varying kind of breakfast wrap! Just remember that fried eggs do kind of stink! For vegetarian choices, check your grocery store for vegetarian meats.

Some healthy snacks that all kids enjoy include Chex mixes, baked chips, and delicious vegetables! A few raw carrots and broccoli crowns with some dip is healthy and delicious. Trail mixes are even fun if you throw in a few M&M's or chocolate chips every now and then! Keep them guessing with creating your own special snacks, too!

If your children enjoy ready made Lunchables, a great idea that would be delicious and cost effective would be to make your own. Cutting healthy deli meats and cheese into fun shapes such as hearts and stars-or seasonal shapes-allows for control over the nutritional contributions and personalization. If they are particular about the pizza Lunchables that's easy, too. There are many ways to do this. You could use flour tortillas or even English muffins as the "dough". Separate favorite toppings, cheese, and some sauce so that they can have making their own special lunch!

While most of these recipes can just as easily be changed to fit a vegetarian diet, it feels necessary to provide a few vegetarian specific lunches. Some personal favorites include fruit skewers, apples and caramel dip, delicious cereals, muffins, and fruit salads. You could also make chickpea and tofu salads to stuff into pita shells. A tip for keeping cool pita sandwiches is to wrap it first in foil, then putting in a sandwich bag.

Some basic tips for keeping a fresh and fun lunch box:

Be careful when making lunches to avoid whatever foods other students may be allergic to. Check to see if anyone there has any food allergies by calling the principal or the school nurse.

Change things up a bit by using Bento Boxes. Bento boxes are not only incredibly cute-but convenience at it's finest. These boxes are divided to properly separate foods from dips or other food groups.

If you are able to afford organic food and drink keep an eye out for healthy but delicious food. Avoiding excessive use of unnecessary sugars and high fructose corn syrup adds to the health of the meal. With all of the options out there there would be absolutely no sacrifice.

Ease the sandwich bore and use cookie cutters to make them into awesome and fun shapes!