Lunch Box Ideas & Recipes

Coming up with interesting and nutritious foods to put in your children’s lunch boxes can be tough. Being creative with vegetables and fruits, offering them as snacks and including them in their school lunches will help kids to appreciate and enjoy fruit and veggies and help to ensure they get enough.

Below are some ideas for lunch box snacks and lunches that include some vegetables and fruits. 
Always try to present the food in a fun way. A lunch box with different compartments is a great idea.

Lunch box Snacks:

Ants on a log: fill sticks of celery with cottage cheese (or cashew paste) and sultanas.

Veggie sticks: carrot, zucchini, capsicum, baby corn or celery sticks (crunchy vegetables can be softened by lightly steaming for younger children).

Healthy dips: such as hummus, mashed avocado and creamed corn, carrot and chickpea, blended white bean and tuna. You could use the veggie sticks (above) as dippy sticks or just plain rice crackers to dip in these vegetable dips. The dippy sticks or rice crackers should be put in a separate container to the dip. Kids love lots of little boxes of things to try.

Fruit: small pieces are best. Apples or pears can be cut up (and peeled if necessary) and put in a small air tight container. Grapes, mandarin (peeled and broken into segments), berries and melons are great if cut into bite size pieces and put in an airtight container. Small pieces of fruit such as plums, apricots and nectarines are also great.

Yogurt and fruit: Add chopped up fruit to plain yoghurt (such as Jalna biodynamic natural yoghurt) in a thermos. Add sesame seeds and organic honey or rice syrup to taste.

Tempeh or tofu (firm): lightly fried with tamari or soy sauce.

Corn on the cob: simple, yet kids love it warm or cold. If cooking corn on the cob for dinner cook extra to add to the kids’ lunch boxes the following day.

Home-made Muesli bars: Remember to keep them small. These may not be suitable for school snacks because of the nuts, however they can be used as lunch box snacks for other occasions. (check out the recipe on our website)

Lunch box Lunches:

Wraps:  Flat bread (preferably wheat free) wrapped around hummus, salad and avocado; or salad and egg. Cut in half and put in an airtight lunch box.

Vegetable rice paper rolls: Wrap finely cut carrot, cucumber, bean sprouts and rice noodles in rice paper wraps. Serve with a dipping sauce.

Savoury fruit and veggie muffins: Keep them small to keep cooking time to a minimum and ensure they are cooked through. (see recipe on our website)

Home-made vegetable soup: Make a whole lot and then freeze it in small containers. Pull out of the freezer the night before and warm it in the morning and put it in a thermos to take to school. Pack some flat (wheat free) bread to dip into the soup. Soups kids enjoy include: pumpkin, potato and leek, minestrone and miso, however you can use any vegetable soup!

Vegetable pikelets: Add grated zucchini, creamed corn, carrots and cheese to the usual pikelet mix. You can use gluten free flour to make the pikelet mix if you prefer.

Bread sushi Rolls: use wheat free wraps or bread with the crusts cut off. Spread with veggie dips (above), creamed corn or cream cheese and add grated carrot, tuna, salmon, or anything else your child likes!

Bean salad: you can buy organic beans such as chick peas or 3 bean mix. Stir through a nice sauce like tomato with chopped parsley or pureed roasted pumpkin. Send to school in an airtight container with a fork or a spoon.

Enjoy!