Think Outside the Box: Summer’s Coming, Kids are Home, What’s to Eat?

Many moms, whether working inside or outside of the home, see it coming.  The kids are out of school and healthy lunch options are on the figure it out fast list.  The last thing you want is to fill them up on processed foods, but you are caught in the middle of time and convenience.  It doesn’t have to be a microwavable corn dog and it doesn’t have to be painful for any of you.  

With a little planning, that doesn’t take a lot of planning; your children can have a nutritiously healthy summer with foods that are healthy, fast, food budget friendly and those they can prepare for themselves.  Consider these golden rules, tips for food preparation, lunch ideas and how to maintain balance. 

There are four golden rules before we move to tips.

1. Preference: The food you provide has to be your child’s preference.  This just means that they have to like what you are offering or they will not eat it.
2. Available and offered:  Have the food you want them to choose from available.   For some children, if you want them to eat an orange, you might need to cut it up, put it in a bowl and then offer it.  If you are not home to offer it, the healthy choices must be front and center so they see it when they open the fridge.  
3. What, Where and How:  Show them what you have prepared for them, where it is and how to make it for lunch or snack.  Write a note with what’s to eat and tape it to the fridge.  Most of us are alike in many ways; if it is perceived as too difficult or inconvenient, they will walk to the pantry, open the door and grab a less healthy snack.
4. Goal:  Encourage your children to reach for fruit as their snacks and ask them to have some fresh vegetables on the side with lunch.  The goal is to get more fruits and vegetables into their growing bodies.  

Tips for Food Prep:

• Have their preferred fruits and vegetables cleaned, cut or peeled when necessary, available and visible.  
• Have Hummus available for them to dip veggies or for sandwich spreads.
• Have whole grain pasta cooked and refrigerated for easy heating.  
• Have your home made spaghetti meat sauce in fridge or freezer for easy heating.
• Have brown rice cooked and refrigerated for easy heating.
• Have homemade tomato sauce prepared.  A healthier, less expensive alternative to a “jar of spaghetti sauce” is to sauté minced clove of garlic in olive oil, add can of tomato sauce, salt pepper and Italian seasonings to taste; and maybe even a dash of sugar.  
• Have frozen veggies and edamame too! Boil the edamame ahead of time (in salted water for 3 minutes…we like the ones frozen in the pod) and have it in the fridge so all they have to do is warm it up.  
• Have taco meat made ahead of time.  Freeze it in portions for soft tacos.  
• Peanut butter and jelly baby!  I can think of worse things.  This is a wholesome meal for kids when using the right ingredients; whole grain bread, real peanut butter (roasted peanuts and salt is what we like), and real fruit spread or fruit is best. Some like PB with honey.  
• Have grilled chicken sliced thin or chopped, have tuna prepared, or whatever their favorite lean meats are.  Try to buy nitrate free meats if you buy processed lunch meats.
• Prebake sweet or russet potatoes so they can heat it up and add their favorite fixings.  
• Greek yogurt
• Real fruit popsicles- don’t be a party pooper.  It is hot outside!
• Eggs and have a few boiled and ready to eat.

Outside the Box Healthy Lunch Ideas using “Tips for Food Prep” above:

• Provide a vegetable platter in the fridge covered with clear plastic wrap so they can see it, or have clear containers full of these treats or separate selections in individual baggies.  Have washed apples in a bowl on your countertop and cherries tomatoes for a healthy pop in your mouth snack.  Have strawberries washed, dried, tops off, and in a bowl in the fridge.  Strawberries go fast when ready to eat, so no need to follow the strawberry rule “wash before serving”.  Hummus is a great veggie dip and Ranch dressing works if that gets the veggies in them.
• Have pasta already tossed with your homemade tomato sauce, meat sauce, or with olive oil and garlic.  All they have to do is heat it up and add parmesan.  Show them that plain pasta with olive oil and garlic tastes great with a side of edamame, or with mixed vegetables or broccoli tossed in.  They can even add the leftover chicken you chopped up for them.  
• Use your homemade prepared tomato sauce to make flatbread, English muffin, or flatbread pizza; top with cheese and heat.  Side of veggies.
• Treat your brown rice like pasta.  Mix veggies and chicken in it, add a little butter or olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.   Make it like fried rice by sprinkling and mixing in a little soy sauce.  Side of veggies.
• Cracker nachos!  Don’t ask.  I had a friend suggest melting colby jack cheese on top of saltines and my kids embraced it!  The best part is they can make it themselves.  Side of veggies.
• Fruit smoothies, fruit smoothies, fruit smoothies.  Show them how.  Click here to see recipe ideas they might love.
• Use chopped chicken or taco meat and variety fixings/salsa/cheese/veggies and roll in a corn or whole grain tortilla to make a wrap or soft taco. Side of veggies.
• Use hummus as a spread for tortillas; add veggies, lettuce and chicken.  Side of veggies.
• Show them how to grate cheese so they top tacos, cracker nachos, baked potatoes or heat up in a tortilla and dip in salsa (don’t buy the pre- grated cheese…it comes with extra chemicals, and you pay more for that).  Side of veggies.
• Have baguettes sliced thin (like bruschetta), one side dipped in olive oil and seasoned, top with chicken and a little cheese of their choice, and heat up until cheese is melted. Side of veggies.
• Show them that broccoli or mixed vegetables are also a great topping for baked potatoes.  Remember that the next best thing to fresh vegetable is frozen.  Always have frozen vegetables as a back up in your freezer.  
• Grilled Cheese.  Side of veggies.
• PB and J with sliced bananas or sliced apples.  Better yet, skip the jelly.  Make open faced PB toast with sliced bananas.  This never gets old if you like PB!  Your kids will love this because this does not taste good with a side of veggies!  How about a tall, cold glass of skim milk to go with this?  Yum!  Show them a spoon, the PB jar and an apple or banana.  We are obviously PB junkies!  I could write a book on how to eat PB.  
• Eggs.  Side of veggies.
• Make extra food at dinner so they can heat of left overs.  Of course, the obvious theme…Side of veggies.

Four final tips:

1. Plan 3-5 lunches they can make themselves each week, that works for your schedule.  Write what is available for them on a note and post on the fridge as a reminder.  You will feel good about the options you are giving them.  That is inspiring.
2. It is OK to have those super fast American treats we all love from time to time.  Your kids have plenty of those treats this summer at friends’ houses, picnics and pool parties.  If you need to have some throw downs available, look to brands like Amy’s and Kashi brand.  Those are not over the top crazy expensive and are a reasonable option when you are in a pinch.  
3. Rethink snacks.  Healthy snacks are fruits and veggies.  A snack could be a piece of corn on the cob, carrots and hummus, banana and peanut butter, yogurt or even a sweet potato.  Think real food for snacks.  
4. Keep balance in mind.  If your children have a day or some meals that are less healthy than you would hope, then decide that the next meal gets you back on track.  It is perfectly OK to tell them in your own words, “Let’s get some healthier food choices in your growing body”, or “Let’s get something nutritious that fuels your body”…or any age appropriate wording that tells them in a positive way that we need to take care of ourselves. Teach them that how we feel, how we function mentally, emotionally and physically depends on what we are putting in our bodies for nourishment.  

Health Inspires.

---