Building a nutritious school and work lunchbox after a relaxing holiday may be daunting as its usually one of the last things you get time to think about as the new year approaches.
Here are a few tips for building a healthier lunchbox, and a list that may help to get you started:
- Keep it simple: Pack food which needs the least preparation, e.g. fresh fruit and vegetables, left-over meat, cheese, yoghurt, etc.
- Whenever you bake muffins, quiches, or any goodies that freeze well, bake enough to freeze and pop in a lunchbox at a later stage.
- Use left-over meat and vegetables in wraps, quiches, sandwiches, etc.
- Freeze water or juice to help keep the rest of the lunchbox cool until lunch time. This also provides a healthy drink.
- Choose something from each group:
A few ideas/combinations to get your creative juices flowing:
Hummus, veg julienne, pretzel sticks
Meal on a kebab: cheese, cut sausages/left-over meat cubes, cherry tomatoes, mini corn on kebab stick
Mini quiches: mix egg with cheese and any left-over meat or vegetables and bake until done.
Sandwich pinwheels: tightly roll up the average sandwich and cut into pinwheels. Can stick it onto a kebab stick to keep it together and in shape.
Homemade popcorn mixed with nuts and/or biltong
Homemade trail mix: Nuts, seeds, dried fruit, Otees cereal, puffed wheat
Contributor: Melissa Lucick – Dietician at FEMINA HEALTH