As a parent to a kindergartner, it’s challenging to plan and prepare a healthy balanced diet for your kid every day. More challenging is ensuring you make something that your kids enjoy.
To prepare a nutritious lunch for your young one, you must consider how long they stay in school, the healthy options available, and their foods. A combination that is nutritious and tasty is the key.
With this in mind, you can work out a meal plan that is interesting and sustainable. Here is how to go about it.
Healthy Lunch
A healthy lunch pack is important for your kid to focus and stay energized throughout the day. So, instead of processed food, whole foods rich in nutrients are the best way to go. Think of healthy foods that will fit into the kindergartner lunch box with ease.
A good lunch pack includes food from the five food groups, a bit of fruit, grains, lean meat, low-fat dairy, and vegetables, that ensures your kid has a balanced diet meal every day.
You can take your time to create meal prep with a combination of different foods for the entire week. When thinking of fruits, try easy-to-carry ones like bananas, berries, or apples. Fresh vegetables like spinach, lettuce, or tomatoes can be great options for whole-grain bread sandwiches. Packing food with high fiber helps your kid stay full for a long time.
Your kids need foods packed with Calcium such as seeds, soy, leafy greens, nuts, and beans as they are instrumental for born growth.
Healthy Snack Option
The ideal snack for any kid would be something sugary, like sweets or biscuits. The sugar level in most processed snacks is high, unhealthy for kids. To help you get started, try nutritious snacks your kid can’t resist.
Yogurt, nuts, fresh fruits, rice cakes, oatmeal, trail mix, cottage cheese, and sliced pears paired with ricotta cheese all make a healthy snack. You can also bake healthy cupcakes using fruits and vegetables such as bananas, zucchini, or pumpkin.
Think of substituting sweet drinks with something healthy like milk or homemade fruit juice. Besides, you’ll never go wrong with the water.
Foods To Avoid
Start with checking the Kindergarten’s food policy. This will give you a clear guideline on what your kid can carry to school. Next, avoid candy, sugary drinks, popcorn with unhealthy toppings, fried foods, cake, crackers, sugary cereals, and junk food, to mention a few.
There is a whole list of unhealthy foods to avoid. You can relegate these foods to special events. Besides, once your kid is used to a healthy diet, there is no need for the occasional indulgence.
Involve Your Kid
The best way to ensure your kid enjoys the food is by involving them in all lunch preparation stages. Allow your kid to help choose the foods that they want to carry to school. Let them take part in the preparation and packing of lunch. Your kid will enjoy the foods more if they are part of making it.
Let your kid note down the food choices they prefer at the beginning of the week. As the week starts, they can pick the combinations from each food group. It will help you prepare meals of their choice.
Tips To Help
Preparing lunch for your kindergartner every day and making sure they eat it can be a daunting task. So, here are some helpful tips to ensure your efforts bear fruit.
- Kids love colors. So, make the food attractive. Entice them with a colorful lunch. You can cut the fruits in different shapes and design a beautiful layout of the different food combinations.
- Make your work easy by using leftover meals for your kindergartner lunch. It not only saves you time but also makes a healthy diet sustainable.
- Stock your freezer with different options. It will come in handy when you run out of fresh foodstuff. For example, dried fruit can be a substitute for a fresh one.
- You might repeatedly pack the same meal because your kid likes it, but it helps to try different varieties. The key is to combine a new meal with what they are used to.
- Suppose your kid doesn’t like a new meal. Don’t give up instantly. Try again. The more you expose them, the more they become familiar and used to it.
