Lunchbox Heroes – Healthy Lunch Ideas for Kids
Familiar with the phrase “You are what you eat” – the concept of healthy food leading to a healthy body and a happy life? Then you know that when it comes to feeding your kids, only the best will do. Interested in spoiling their palate without spoiling their health? Then let’s take a deep dive into this topic, sure to turn every True Believer into a lunch-packing pro.
Easy, well-balanced & healthy – for real?
For sure! When it comes to easy healthy lunch ideas for kids, the sky’s the limit. What matters is: can you prepare healthy lunches that not only kids will love, but that’s actually good for ’em? You bet!
Let’s start with the lunch box itself. It should be sturdy enough to protect any contents from becoming misshapen, because kids eat with their eyes, too. Having a lunch box with dividers will display the food more attractively. Keep things creative by cutting sandwiches into interesting shapes or assembling fruit pieces into imaginative profiles like comets or flowers.
Fruit, vegetable and meat pieces can also be skewered, making them easy to wield and playful to eat. There are three major food groups for kids that tick the boxes of health, taste and nutrition: energy foods (comprising carbohydrates and fats), growing and building foods (proteins like eggs, meat and cheese), and that ol’ faithful combo of fruit and veggies.
Also key to a healthy lunch is to include variety; make it fresh, colorful, balanced and fun.
Some easy healthy lunch ideas for kids
Sandwiches remain a trusted snacking go-to. There are oodles of fillers that balance the healthy and wholesome, yet still manage to delight the taste buds of children, who are notoriously fussy eaters. Try some sugar-free peanut butter, cottage cheese or the perennial favorite of thinly sliced leftover meat, including chicken, deli turkey, ham and beef. Keep your kids munching by replacing these meat options with some sensationally succulent & healthy biltong. MBT’s flavors include Original (ideal for the younger palate, wholesome but not too adventurous) and other enticing taste profiles such as Garlic & Herb, South West Verde and Smokehouse, any of which will turn the most lacklustre lunch into a memorable occasion.
Give your child the best opportunity to learn, play and be healthy by avoiding snacks that are high in sugar, fat, salt or artificial colorants and flavors. Food should be rich in nutrients, minerals and vitamins (say hello to biltong, healthy lunch’s new best friend). Some more school lunch ideas include unsalted mixed nuts, fruit salad, roasted corn-on-the-cob as well as multi-seed crackers with a low-fat, sugar-free spread. Raw veggies with a dip or wholegrain wraps and pitas are also a great idea.
Biltong is super convenient
When it comes to lunch ideas for kids, not only is our biltong available in a wide range of flavors, but it comes in a variety of styles that include slices (superb for on the go snacking, either pre-packaged or measured out from a larger pack), slabs (cut exactly the way your kids like it) and even sticks (perfect for some in-between nibbling), making MBT’s biltong super versatile, fun and easy to use. With an impressive shelf-life – much longer than other meat alternatives – our biltong will effortlessly enhance most other food items. It’ll make any cheese sandwich taste instantly better; the same goes for chicken salad, pasta salad or even the gooey and already kid-friendly combination of ham and cheese. Easy to carry, durable, flavor-boosting, yummy, healthy, non-messy and simply snacktacular, what’s not to love?
Forget about unhealthy choices such as chocolate chips and cream cheese; if your kids have never tried it before, introduce them to biltong and watch their faces light up as they discover a lasting new favorite. You’ll no longer wonder why kids love biltong – you’ll want in on some of the action too.
Can I integrate biltong into other lunchbox ideas?
Absolutely. If ever there was a delicious, wholesome food source that not only rocks it solo as a flavor-popping party in your mouth, but also plays well with other ingredients, then biltong’s most definitely “it”. Whether the accompanying food items you choose to add are homemade or store-bought, biltong is a sure-fire champ every time you pack lunch and an adaptable snack your kids will crave. It can be used in endless ways, meaning your kids won’t get bored of eating a healthy lunch every day of the week.
So there you have it, Mom and Dad. With just a bit of research and a whole lot of care, you’ll master the art of preparing and packing healthy and well-balanced lunches in no time (so mouth-wateringly great you’ll want to pack them for yourself).
