A colourful lunchbox gets the little ones intrigued.A colourful lunchbox gets the little ones intrigued.

With a growing epidemic of obesity, we are more aware than ever that it’s import-ant not only to keep our kids well nourished, but to help them develop a healthy relationship with their food.

Once upon a time, the term ‘school lunches’ meant tuck-shop sweeties, fruit juice through a straw, and a slightly squashed ham and cheese panina which you traded to your best friend for a packet of Twistees. Those were good days … but admittedly, not generally healthy ones.

A delicious and nutritious school lunch is the first weapon in the arsenal of every health-conscious mum and dad around the world, so here are a couple of suggestions to get you started.

Let’s start with the basics: sandwiches. They have a bit of a reputation for being boring or unhealthy food – but that’s really up to you and how you choose to prepare them.

When it comes to making tasty, healthy sandwiches for school lunches, it’s time to think outside the (bread)box. Swap plain old sliced white bread for something with more grains to add a bit more healthy starch and fibre to your child’s diet.

If you have a picky little eater who isn’t sold on the idea of brown bread, you can still make lunches more interesting by choosing a different kind of bread. Swap your sliced white for a focaccia, ciabatta, or maybe even a little bit of delicious Maltese ftira to add an interesting twist to any sandwich.

Choose fresh, healthy ingredients to fill up your sandwiches whenever you can. Instead of sliced ham and luncheon meats, reach for delicious but lean proteins like chicken breast, smoked turkey ham, and tuna.

You can even sneak a few veggies in there to make it even healthier; chopped onions, bell peppers, or even just plain old lettuce and tomatoes will add a little extra flavour to your sandwich and pack in loads of vitamins at the same time.

Just a side note: you can shake up your sandwich game even more by picking up a few flour tortillas from the supermarket and rolling your lunches into wraps. Add a little cheese to the mix and you can sneak in a few more veggies if you want to. Secure tightly with foil to keep your tasty creation from unravelling in the middle of a lesson!

Staying within the realm of the familiar, pasta is another much-maligned food that can be put to good and healthy use. Being packed with carbohydrates means foods like pasta, bread and cereals have developed a bit of a bad reputation lately.

If the contents of the lunchbox look like fun, children are more likely to eat them.If the contents of the lunchbox look like fun, children are more likely to eat them.

No matter what the dieting trends du jour say about the supposed evils of carbohydrates, they are an important part of a balanced diet and should be incorporated into your child’s daily meals. Keep an eye out for whole grain pasta and go easy on the olive oil, and you have the basis for a healthy school lunch.

Chances are that your child is already familiar with pasta as a meal, but taking it to school means it’s probably going to be cold by lunchtime. Aim for a recipe which tastes just as good cold, such as a pasta salad – though you might want to avoid using that ‘s’ word when the kids can hear you.

Pesto is a great choice, and is just as delicious when served cold, but you can fill up your pasta salad with anything from sundried tomatoes and olives to spinach and broccoli, depending on your child’s personal tastes.

While you may not have the time to slice and dice an apple into a perfect likeness of Peppa Pig, there are still a few ideas we can take away

If you’re lucky enough to have a reasonably adventurous eater on your hands, there are loads of options available to keep their lunch box full and healthy. All the way across the world, parents in Japan go to impressive lengths to keep their children interested in lunch. Using rice, fish, fruit and anything else at their disposal, some Japanese parents create elaborate designs depicting animals, flowers, popular cartoon characters and more.

While you may not have the time to slice and dice an apple into a perfect likeness of Peppa Pig, there are still a few ideas we can take away.

These home-packed meals – called bento in Japanese – usually consist of healthy and varied portions of food including steamed rice, fish and a few servings of fruit and veg on the side. Sushi can be a great way to go – you can roll up sushi rice with ingredients such as avocados, carrots, cucumber and so much more.

There’s no need for raw fish, either. You can easily replace with a cooked protein of your choice like tuna or diced chicken. Put in a soy sauce packet and you’ve got a healthy and impress-ively international meal.

One thing the bento boxes definitely get right is the idea of always including servings of fruit and vegetables with every meal. No matter what you choose to put into your child’s lunch box every day, you definitely can’t go amiss by including a handful of berries or an apple into the mix. While it might be difficult to convince some kids to down their broccoli, there’s still hope for all the veggie-phobes out there. Sweeter vege-tables like carrots, corn and bell peppers are all more palatable alternatives that are still packed full of essential vitamins and nutrients. You can always throw in a healthy dip like hummus or fresh guacamole to accompany the vegetables and make lunch- time a little more interesting.

Maintaining a healthy lunch menu does more than just keep kids well fed and full of energy; it helps to lay the foundation for their lifelong attitudes towards food, health and nutrition. No child should have to spend time worrying about calorie counts and fat content, but that doesn’t mean sugar is the order of the day. It’s almost impossible to keep kids away from sugar and sweets, but a little bit of moder-ation shouldn’t hurt.

The death of the school tuck shop may bring out a touch of nostalgia, but let’s face it – we probably could have done with a touch less sugar ins our lives.

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