Back To School Lunch Ideas For Kids – Ask a Nutritionist

Transcript:

BRITNI: Hello, and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's “Ask a Nutritionist” podcast brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. I am Britni Vincent, a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. And here at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we are thrilled to be celebrating 20 years on air, discussing the connection between what you eat and how you feel, while sharing practical, real life solutions for healthier living through balanced nutrition.

And we want to thank you so much for your support and listenership over the years. I will be answering a nutrition question we've received from one of our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners. The question is, “Do you have ideas for packing kids school lunches?”

And it, I think that this is top of mind for a lot of parents out there, and it's hard to believe that kids have already gone back to school. I personally am now packing my son's lunch every day for school, so I've been thinking about this a lot, and I want to keep things interesting for him.

And I also want to add that everything I talk about today can also apply to you, and the amounts might be different, but you could use these same ideas for yourself and just keep it super simple for the family. Before I dive into some specific ideas, I want to provide the ideal framework for a kid's lunch.

Real, whole foods should be the focus for school lunch

Real whole foods should really still be the focus and just like we talk about for adults, the goal is to have a balanced meal of protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Having that mix of protein, carbohydrate, and fat keeps blood sugar stable throughout the day. This will help your kids have more energy, more consistent energy throughout the day, focus, better moods, and they're going to be a lot more satiated.

So they're not going to be getting overly hungry. Eating real foods is also going to support the immune system. So hopefully you notice less illnesses in the house. And I know personally, I absolutely noticed a difference in my children's behavior and mood if they have a lot of processed food or sugar.

So for everybody's sake, I really try to stick with real foods in balance as the focus of our meals. And I completely recognize that this is not going to be the case 100 percent of the time; life happens, but if you can focus on providing this real food lunch, it can really go a long way in your children's day.

Protein, fat & carbohydrate balance balances blood sugar

So I mentioned earlier that combination of protein, carbohydrate and fat helps to keep blood sugar stable throughout the day. And I'll provide a quick overview of blood sugar balance. Just as a reminder, well, carbohydrates spike your blood sugar. Protein does a little bit, and fat does not at all.

So you can think of that healthy fat as really the anchor for your blood sugar. And by combining the protein and the fat with the carbohydrate, it's going to slow down the absorption of the carbohydrate and reduce the blood sugar spike from that carbohydrate. So I'm let me give you an example. If your child or you for that matter, start your day with cereal, which I know is offered for breakfast at schools and also in many people's homes.

I understand it's a quick breakfast that appeals to most kids, but cereal contains a lot of carbohydrates. So it will create a blood sugar spike, and even if it's a low sugar cereal, the carbohydrates will break down to sugar. All carbohydrates break down to sugar in the body. Then, if you get that blood sugar spike two, three hours later, you're going to get a little blood sugar dip.

And this could cause lack of focus, fatigue, anxiety, or exacerbate anxiety. It may cause dizziness and cravings or desire for more sugar and carbohydrates. That little dip in blood sugar is very stressful for the body. So your body naturally wants the quickest pick me up, which is going to be those carbohydrates and sugar.

And, I know that for many kids, they don't get the opportunity to eat in between breakfast and lunch. So by the time lunch rolls around and they've had a high carbohydrate breakfast, they're probably not feeling their best and they're likely overly hungry. Then if they eat another high carbohydrate meal like a sandwich or pizza or chicken nuggets from the hot lunch line, their blood sugar is going to spike again.

Then midafternoon rolls around and again that little dip happens: fatigue, lack of focus, that desire for more carbohydrates and sugar, all of that sets in again. And I personally remember that feeling as a child getting home from school and I was so hungry, I'd raid the fridge and the cupboards. I'd eat a huge snack.

And often that affected my hunger for dinner. But looking back, it was really a dip in blood sugar. You know, a long time ago, I heard the afternoons described as the witching hour, which I think is so true for children, but also some of us adults too. And I know many of you parents have experienced this scenario.

Your child is upset or crabby about something, maybe having a tantrum if you have a younger child, and then you give them some food and like magic, they're happy again. All of a sudden they don't care about whatever they were upset over, and this is because of blood sugar. So that blood sugar roller coaster that I am describing is completely preventable by having those whole real foods in balance throughout the day.

And, you know, of course with kids it's trickier because they may not choose to eat their protein, carbohydrate, and fat, and that's all right. And by providing a solid balanced breakfast, that's also really going to set you up for the day. The focus on today's episode is lunches, but I did do an entire “Ask a Nutritionist” episode about breakfast ideas.

They weren't necessarily geared towards children, but I still think you could get some great ideas from there for you and your kids. And that episode is from May, 2023 if you want to read the transcript or just give it a listen.

Make a plan for the week

So back to lunch ideas. You know, the best we can do as parents is at least provide them that balanced meal and they can decide what they're going to eat from it. And to make this whole process easier on yourself, I would recommend to make a plan for the week for your school lunches, so you're not scrambling the night before or the morning of trying to find something to pack.

While I'm making my grocery list for over the weekend or on a Friday, I provide my son some options for his lunches the following week. Then this way he's involved in the process, he knows what to expect when lunchtime rolls around. And so that's been working really well for us.

Pack lunches the night before

Another tip, which I know is not a new one, but packing the lunches the night before is so helpful, especially if your child is off to school early. It just makes the mornings run a little bit smoother. And there's tons of different styles of lunch boxes out there nowadays. I have the Bento boxes for my kids, and I think they get excited about all the little compartments.

It's also great for packing a variety of food. And, you know, you don't need to limit yourself to packing a cold lunch. You could also get a little thermos to pack soup or stew or something warm if that appeals to your kids. Well, I think I provided enough background as to what you want to think about when putting together a lunch for school. I'm going to take a quick break, and when I come back, I'm going to give you some specific ideas.

​-----

Specific lunch ideas

Welcome back. Before the break, I provided the ideal framework for a school lunch. And just to recap, a little bit, the ideal framework a lunch would be whole, real foods, trying to get some protein, carbohydrates and fat in that lunch to provide balanced blood sugar throughout the day, can help with moods and energy and focus as well.

So let's get into some specific ideas. Here are some protein ideas: meatballs, cheese, yogurt; ideally this would be full fat plain yogurt. Greek protein does have more protein, but if your child prefers plain yogurt, that would be totally fine as well;

Cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs, egg salad, chicken salad, chicken sausages. Those could be the ones that look more like brats. They're larger; nitrate free, minimal ingredient deli meat, an egg wrap. If you haven't seen those, there's some wraps out there that are just made from egg whites. So it's really just protein in there, and all of these options would be great cold. And it could just be a little bit of leftover meat from dinner last night, too.

Here are some great healthy fat ideas: avocado, guacamole, those little guacamole cups work great. And if you buy them in bulk, you can actually put them in the freezer to last longer. Olives, they also make little containers or packages of olives if you like the convenience of that.

Sunflower seeds, pepitas, those would ideally be raw or dry roasted to avoid the refined oils. Unsweetened shredded coconut or coconut chips, sun butter, avocado oil based mayonnaise, sour cream, cream cheese. Those would all be great fat options. And I know that most schools and daycares are nut free, but if your kid's school isn't, of course nuts would be a great option here too.

Moving on to carbohydrate ideas. Ideally, you want to provide a vegetable of some kind like celery, snap peas, peppers. You know, I like those mini peppers. Those are great for packing; cucumbers. Again, those mini cucumbers are easy and I feel like some kids like the fact that they're mini. It seems more appealing to them.

Other vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, jicama. Of course, this is not a complete list, but hopefully it gives you some new ideas. In addition to the vegetable, I would suggest providing something that is more concentrated in carbohydrates, like fruit. You know, fruit's easy and usually a kid favorite.

It could also be olive oil based hummus. And you can mix and match any of these protein, fat, and carbohydrate ideas. But, here are some specific combinations. Chicken or egg salad with carrots or any vegetables and some fruit on the side. My kids really like those egg wraps I had mentioned. I put sun butter in it or make more of a wrap out of it with deli meat and mayonnaise; cherry tomatoes and some berries on the side.

Another lunch idea could be leftover meatballs, plantain chips. There are some with just coconut oil, plantains, and salt for the ingredients. For your vegetable you could add cucumbers or celery with cream cheese on them. You could even sprinkle a little bit of Everything But the Bagel seasoning on those.

Another idea could be chopped up deli meat, or a meat stick with cheese, vegetables; and a veggie dip or guacamole on the side. I know that a lot of kids, and adults too, are more likely to eat their vegetables if they have a delicious dip to go dip them in. With this chopped up deli meat lunch idea for your concentrate carbohydrate you could maybe have some leftover roasted sweet potatoes. Some kids might like that in a cold lunch, or fruit on the side would be another simple option.

Cottage cheese or yogurt. Again, ideally full fat Greek because that has a little bit more protein in there. You could top that with fruit and pepitas on top or shredded coconut or sunflower seeds on top, vegetables on the side. You could also use the cottage cheese or the yogurt as the base of a vegetable dip if your kid doesn't like a lot of protein, and this could be a really great way to bump up their protein intake.

Another easy idea, hard boiled eggs, or you could do deviled eggs. You could do homemade coleslaw with fruit on the side, and the mayonnaise in the coleslaw or the deviled eggs would be the healthy fat. But if you don't add the mayonnaise, it could be some olives on the side.

Another fan favorite option would be the deli meat roll up. The combinations of this are endless. It could be as simple as deli meat with cream cheese and stick a pickle in there. Some variations on that could be using cucumber, sliced bell peppers, or jicama in there. Instead of cream cheese, you could use mayonnaise, avocado, guacamole, or even hummus in there.

Thinking about repurposing leftovers in your house, at my home we make banana pancakes at least once per week, usually for breakfast but we make a large amount so that we have leftovers. There’s no recipe for this. It’s super simple. I use 3-4 eggs per 1 banana. You can add vanilla, cinnamon in there; maybe even some pumpkin pie spice. And then you mix it with an immersion blender. And then you fry it just like you would a pancake. And they are more like a, kind of a crepe texture than they are pancakes. But they’re delicious cold, warm or room temperature. And it does not take long to whip up a big batch of those.

And you could serve this with the traditional ants on a log, you know, celery, sun butter instead of peanut butter, with some raisins or other dried fruit on top. And if you're thinking about some warm or hot lunch ideas, there are some wonderful soup or stew options on our website.

Chili, chicken wild rice soup. We have a great chicken pot pie soup, coconut Thai soup, or hamburger soup. They would all be delicious, easy options to pack. If it's a broth based soup, I would suggest adding an additional healthy fat on the side and then depending how much of that soup you're packing, you may want to add some extra fruit or vegetables on the side. And again, you can find our recipes at weightwellness.com.

Check Out Some Recipes On Our Website!

If you are a person that really likes visuals and to see pictures of food, another dietitian at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, Teresa, wrote an article on our website about packing school lunches, and she includes some great pictures on there. So you could also check that out for more inspiration.

Recap

The ideal framework for a lunch is going to include real protein, carbohydrate, and fats for a balanced blood sugar, better and more consistent energy, better moods, and focus throughout the day for your kids. And again, all of this could apply to you as well.

I hope I provided some inspirational ideas for packing your kids’ lunches and again, maybe even your lunch for that matter. I want to thank you so much for listening to Dishing Up Nutrition's “Ask a Nutritionist”. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast app, so we can help even more people discover the connection between what they eat and how they feel.

And if you yourself have a nutrition question that you would like us to answer, I I invite you to join our private Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook community. Just search Dishing Up Nutrition on Facebook, and then once you've joined, feel free to join the conversation and ask whatever questions are on your mind.

Join Our Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook Group

Or you can give us a call at (952) 641-5233 to leave your question in our dishing up nutrition voice mailbox. Either way, if you have a question, just please let us know, and we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.