Brindabella Women's Group
Social an creative opportunities for women at home with young children
Nutritious Lunch Ideas
On 8 June 2010 Lyn Brown from Nutrition Australia visited the group. She brought with her many great ideas for lunch boxes. She handed out a useful fact sheet, some combination ideas, some other ideas and showed us a very yummy egg and noodle recipe. She also loaned us a DVD on packing school lunches which members can borrow.
Mini Noodle & Sweetcorn Omelettes
Serves 4
75g packet fat free chicken 2 minute noodles
1/2 cup frozen peas
125g can corn kernels, drained
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
spray olive oil
salad, to serve
Break up the noodles and place into a heatproof bowl with the peas. Cover with boiling water. Stand for 2 minutes, then drain well. Return to the bowl and add the cheese, corn and eggs.
Spray a small non-stick frying pan lightly with oil. Heat the pan and spoon 2 tbs of the mixture into a small pile. Spread out to about 7cm in diameter. Cook over medium heat for 1 1/2 minutes each side. Repeat with remaining mixture to make 12 omelettes (you can cook 3-4 at a time). Serve with salad.
Here are some rough notes I made during the session
- Involve kids in making or planning their lunches
- Don't offer too many choices! It often backfires.
- Offer things you know they will eat - try new things at dinner or on weekends
- Lunch boxes need to contain 1/3 of your child's daily nutritional requirements
- 2 serves fruit/veg (1 serve = ¼ cup veg or 1 piece fruit)
- 2-3 serves of cereals (1 serve = 2 slices bread or 1 roll)
- 1 serve of dairy or equivalent
- Make food easy to eat quickly - pre-peel mandarins, chop apples and seal in a zip lock bag
- Watch serve sizes! A commercial muffin is probably too large for a child's lunch - use mini muffins or home made smaller ones
- Make it interesting - eg cut shapes into the sandwiches with cookie cutters
- Use frozen drinks of water, ice bricks or frozen yogurts to keep lunch boxes cool
- Avoid pre-packaged food (eg muesli bars) - costly, high in salt and sugar. Home made things better even if sweet
- Bread will be the main cereal component - mix it up
- Choose white high fibre if wont do multigrain or wholemeal
- Try one white and one multigrain slice in a sandwich
- Flat breads
- Rolls
- Fruit bread
- Lunch box ideas
- Pikelets or Muffins
- Home made muesli bars
- Baby corn or Grated carrot
- Yogurt, cheese, milk poppers, cheese dip
- Grated cheese and sultanas
- Pizzas
- Avocado or hommus sandwiches
- Baked beans (remember the spoon!)
- Canned fruit (fresh better nutritionally)
- After school ideas:
- milkshake or smoothie,
- finish off uneaten lunches
- soup
- fruit
- frozen yogurt
- Egg in bread can be a good dinner idea
- Made me think of the flat eggs that my kids eat faster than I can cook them!
- Beat egg with a little fish sauce (or salt and a few drops of water)
- Pour a small amount of egg mixture into a hot pan sprayed with oil and swirl to lightly coat the whole bottom. Pour out any excess.
- Turn soon after with a silicone spatula and then remove when just cooked
- Cut into thin ribbons and serve with toast!
- Made me think of the flat eggs that my kids eat faster than I can cook them!
Useful websites include: