Back (to school) With A Bang!

We invited nutritionist and mum Heather Leeson of Positive Nutrition to write a guest blog to help all you mums and dads putting proper fuel into those school lunchboxes. Read what she had to say below.

Christmas seems to have flown by and it's time to get ready for school again. That means getting back into preparing lunchboxes, an arduous task for many parents. It’s easy to slip into the habit of making the same sandwiches every day. However it’s important to fuel your children properly at school to help support their brain and concentration and that means giving them the best possible food in their lunchboxes.

Some simple tips to give your kids the best possible lunchboxes: • Think variety. Vary the type of bread or crackers that you include (Wholegrain/ rye/ rice cakes/ corn cakes/ oat cakes…) and also try to vary the filling. Try leftover roast chicken or chicken drumsticks, hummus, cheese, egg, tuna or salmon.

Some days, leave the filling in a separate container so your child can make up their own sandwich at school or just use the filling as a dip or side • Always include one portion of fruit AND one portion of vegetables. Try carrot sticks, sugar snap peas, cucumber or pepper slices, radish or whatever vegetables your child likes, perhaps with a healthy dip like hummus.

Keep food in bite sized portions to make it look more appetising and also to help ensure that your child does not run out of time to eat, an all too common complaint. If cutting fruit, squeeze a little lemon juice over it to prevent it going brown •. Give your children a choice in what they are getting in their lunchbox, but keep it simple (“carrots or cucumber today?”). Better still, get them to help you get at least part of the lunchbox ready the night before . Instead of automatically thinking of sandwiches, try some other options like soup in a flask, quiche or even last night’s dinner, even once a week. You can pick up containers to keep food warm in shops like Howards Storage and houseware shops.