Packing a safe and nutritious lunch for your children to take to school can be challenging. Here are some tips to help.
1. Wash lunch boxes every night. Use a solution of baking soda and hot water once a week or as needed to eliminate odors and keep lunch boxes and food containers smelling clean and fresh. If the odor persists, soak the container overnight in the baking soda and water mixture.
2. Use only new, clean brown bags and do not reuse bags that have been used for shopping or grocery delivery. If a bag is wet or stained, do not use it.
3. Wash fruits and vegetables before packing them for lunch. Clean fruits and vegetables, including those with skin and peel that are not eaten, by rinsing them under running tap water. Dry well with a paper towel.
4. If washing hands in the sink before lunch isn’t an easy option for your child, include disposable hand wipes or hand gel to clean hands before eating.
5. Make sure your children know to throw away any leftover food from lunch.
6. Pack sandwiches and salads that include cooked items, such as turkey, ham, chicken, and vegetable or pasta salads, the night before to allow them to cool completely in the refrigerator overnight. Chill any uncooked but perishable items, such as sandwiches, overnight and keep everything refrigerated until it’s time to go.
7. If you plan to make lunches in the morning before the kids go to school, using frozen bread for sandwiches will help them stay cold longer after they’re packed.
8. Lunches stay cold longer in soft, insulated lunch boxes or lunch boxes. But you can also use paper bags to pack lunches. If you prefer to use paper bags, be sure to double bag them to help keep food cold.
9. Regardless of the type of lunch box or bag used, some type of cold pack, such as a cold gel pack or frozen juice box or water bottle, should be included to keep perishable foods cold until meal time. lunch.
10. Use a thermos or thermal food jar to keep soups, stews, and chilis warm. To get the best results from your thermos, fill it with hot water and let it sit for a few minutes before pouring out the water and adding the hot food.
11. Peanut butter and jelly are a kid’s lunch favorite and they pack nicely. Commercially prepared, ready-to-eat deli meats and deli meats, such as corned beef, salami, pastrami, and bologna, are good choices because they keep well.
12. For safety reasons, avoid packing lunch items containing mayonnaise or eggs if refrigeration is not available, and avoid shipping soups or chilis made with cream or milk base.
13. If refrigeration is not available, consider foods that are safe without refrigeration, such as hard cheeses, nuts, granola and dried fruit, canned meat and fish, whole fruits and vegetables, French fries and pretzels, bagel chips, muffins , bagels , breads, cookies and crackers, peanut butter, jelly, ketchup, mustard and pickles.
14. Remember that it is recommended that children eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. So add at least one piece of fruit or one serving of vegetables to every lunch you pack. The fruit is always tasty and sweet. Try packing a fruit salad, a banana, a pear, grapes, or any other whole fruit.
15. Kids love baby carrots, celery sticks, cucumber tips, and broccoli florets, especially with ranch dressing for dipping. And apple slices served with peanut butter make a great after-school snack.
16. Steer your kids toward low-fat snack options. Instead of potato chips or corn chips, pack snack-sized bags of pretzels, veggie chips, or bagel chips. Muffins are often a lower-fat alternative to cupcakes.
17. If your kids like fruit drinks, make sure they drink 100% fruit juice. Beverages labeled “beverage,” “beverage,” or “cocktail” are not 100% juice and these products typically contain added sweeteners and flavors. And while fruit juice contains some of the healthy nutrients of whole fruit, fruit juice lacks the fiber found in fresh fruit. For that reason, whole fruits are nutritionally a better option than juice.