• Make food look fun. All of the fast food companies are doing it. They package food in containers decorated with the latest movie character. Other parents are packing super cool lunches with items that have liquid sugar gushing out of something that claims to be fruit. Getting kids to eat healthy is like a competitive sport. How do we compete with that? Make your lunches look fun to eat and they’ll be the envy of the lunch table. Use cookie cutters for interesting shapes, make mini kabobs with yummy dips or try drawing a funny face on your child’s banana. Leave notes or jokes in your child’s lunch box occasionally. Do whatever it takes to compete with the hard-to-pronounce, high-fructose-packed ingredients in the lunch box next to your child's. • Don’t give up. Finding healthy foods your children will like can be a difficult task. Don’t give up! Keep searching and offering new options. Eventually you will find a few mainstay items you can build your children’s lunches around and they will love you for it! Here are a few ideas for healthy lunches: • Nitrate-free, low-sodium deli meat and cheese roll ups, oranges, edamame, a couple of small pieces of dark organic chocolate and a bottle of water. • Homemade spaghetti and meat sauce, grapes and cheese kabobs with fruit juice (without HFCS). • Organic vanilla yogurt parfait with strawberries and blueberries, sweet potato chips, almond butter with celery, a boiled egg and low-sugar chocolate milk. • Cherry tomatoes, a banana with a chocolate/hazelnut spread (without preservatives) for dipping, mini sandwiches on whole-grain bread, small handful of almonds and water. Last but not least, have fun with lunch planning and don’t be too hard on yourself or your children. Bargain with them by allowing them to have one kid-approved item if they also eat something you pick. If they prefer, allow them to eat school lunch once per week. It will take time for them to learn to make healthy eating decisions independently. Be patient and reward children for making healthy choices. Happy meal planning!
August 2012 • athometn.com | 29