5 lunchbox swaps better for your kids, wallet & the environment.
A note on ‘organic’ or ‘unprocessed’;
We are aware that money is becoming tighter and tighter for many families.
Inflation and trade issues are seeing essential food items prices soar and many feel that purchasing organic is not an option anymore.
Yes, it is more of an investment to purchase organic fruit and dairy, however when you break it into individual portions, it does end up being a lower-cost per portion option in many ways. Start with what you can, stay educated and open, and reduce as much processed foods as possible from lunchboxes and other meals where possible.
Consider doing a weekly shop at a bulkfoods store, or invite a group of your friends to go into a co-op of dry goods or meats. Honest to Goodness has a good co-op option for group buying.
Why does this matter?
For healthy bodies and minds, it is important to reduce pesticides and other food chemicals where possible. Ultra-processed foods, preservatives, herbicides and pesticides are some of the main contributors to auto-immune diseases, asthma, allergies, skin conditions, attention disorders, infertility, hormone disruption and more. What our kids eat can effect their health well into their adult years and into the next generations.
When we know better, we do better where possible and, of course, we work with what we can, at any given time. Gently and without shame.
It took us this long to get here.
One of the things I always remind parents when we begin to make adjustments to the meals, lunches and snacks that they offer their children is that ‘It took us this long to get to the point we are now’, so to not put the pressure on themselves to make a radical change overnight. Kids and their routines, taste-bud- desires, and even the addictions they may have to specific types of processed foods will
If it took 6 years to get to this point, it may take a few months to change course, but it’s worth it. Your child’s health, including their moods, will benefit, and their longterm wellbeing will be a testament to the foundation you help to lay now.
Fruity Yoghurt
Swap individual flavoured yoghurts for fruity-yoghurt made at home by purchasing organic full-fat yoghurt. (Dairy or coconut based).
If you cannot purchase organic for whatever reason, please aim for full-fat dairy at the least. A favourite brand of ours is Jalna’s Organic Biodynamic yoghurt. It’s thick and creamy. healthy fats keeps kids fuller for longer, for sustained energy, and helps to regulate blood glucose levels and keeps them from flying on a sugar roller-coaster.
Brands like Schulz dairy, Macro organic, and Five AM Natural full-fat yoghurts all come with no added sugar. Make sure you flex the muscle of reviewing the ingredients list of the foods you buy and aim for no added sugars for your yoghurts.
Fruit: If you purchase frozen berries or mango, and heat them either in a ceramic dish in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, or a small saucepan until soft, they become soft and ‘stewed-fruit’ like. You can add this to the top or bottom of the yoghurt container for fruity yoghurt.
Pure Jam: Another option is to add 1 tsp of a pure 100% fruit jam like ‘St Dalfour’ brand, and add fruit flavour that way without the chemicals, preservatives and added sugars that fill most yoghurts from the supermarket.
Honey and cinnamon: Add raw honey and cinnamon
Muesli: Raw muesli or paleo granola on the top of the yoghurt + some goji berries or diced dried fruit
Spoon individual portions into snack containers and add a spoon to the lunchbox.
Trail mix bags
You can pre-make your own yummy ‘trail mix’ bags for the kids. I love to bulk them out with healthy fat options like seeds and nuts, add some dried fruit, and then place in two squares of chocolate for them too. While the choc I use is - sometimes - a higher cost per block, when broken down into snack bags, it ends up being peanuts per day compared to other snack options.
Shops like ‘The Source’ Bulkfoods have sulphur-free dried fruit and organic dried fruit, nut and seed options.
I tend to make about 20 mini ziplock bags at a time and I constantly remind the kids to bring them home so I can re-use. They have this drilled into them now.
Things like:
Tamari almonds
Cashews (try to aim for natural nuts and not those roasted in vegetable oil)
Pumpkin or sunflower seeds
Goji berries
Dried apricots
Toasted coconut flakes (the Macro ones are deeeee-licious!)
Some ‘healthier’ chocolate squares like Green and Blacks organic brand, Loving earth from The Source bulkfoods, or Pana Chocolate.
Potato Chips
We love the Boulder Canyon chips because they have the options of chips cooked in Coconut oil (the best option) or Avocado oil (second best). We don’t buy the ones cooked in vegetable oil.
I will get two bags and split them over 2 weeks of lunches, again in small ziplock bags.
We do sometimes purchase organic corn chips. I wouldn’t serve popcorn and corn chips in the same lunchbox. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find cornchips that aren’t fried in vegetable oil (usually sunflower), and this isn’t my first choice for fats. But as an every now and again ‘chip’, we do still pop these in lunchboxes.
OR you can check out our recipe below for healthy ‘pizza shapes’ and store them in the freezer to bake up in the mornings before school.
Our recipe for healthy homemade pizza shapes
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
Spread the pizza sauce thinly on the pita breads or wraps
Spread minced garlic on top of this to desired amount, sprinkle the sumac evenly, top with herbs and finely grated (micro-planed) cheese and a good sprinkle of salt
Cut into squares and place onto baking trays
Drizzle with olive oil
Bake in the oven for 5-10 mins or until crunchy (They will cook quite quickly)
Olive oil
1/2 cup Smug Mummy Secret Veggie Sauce OR 1 jar or pizza sauce or pasta sauce
5 tsp sumac
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp Italian herbs
Sea salt
Cheese of your choice
NOTES:
Preheat oven 180C degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Pita breads or wraps of your choice. We use the MEB brand Lebanese breads for non-gf options as they have 'real' ingredients.
There are a lot of other great gf options in health food stores, but do check the ingredients panel - gf does not equal additive-free.
This recipe is great to make 'frozen' pizzas shapes with. Make up a whole bunch of them and stack in the freezer (uncooked), ready to throw in the oven for 5-10mins on the day of eating.
Popcorn
Make your own popcorn at home using organic corn from a health-food store or a place like The Source Bulkfoods. One of the reasons for this is that corn crops are one of the highest in pesticides and most corn is genetically modified.
If you can make your popcorn at home, you’ll also wave goodbye to harmful vegetable oils. Pop your corn in pure butter, coconut oil, olive oil or ghee (our fave), or a mixture of these.
favourite toppings include:
Sea salt
Organic nutritional yeast - good vegan option
A drizzle of honey (best packaged in a small lidded container)
A sprinkle of coconut sugar
Melt some extra butter or ghee and toss (best packaged in a small lidded container)
Biscuits and cheese
The girls both love biscuits and cheese at home and so we pack them in lunchboxes too. All of the packets we find at the supermarket have refined white flour and a lot of preservatives and flavourings. PLUS they come wrapped in non-biodegradable plastic pouches. While you can get rice crackers with hummus, these also come with a plastic overload.
We purchase organic rice crackers (Ceres organics is a good brand), and then add sliced cheese between them in their lunchboxes. You can also pre-cut your cheese slices and keep in a container in the fridge to make it easier to fill the lunchboxes. Don’t pre-pack with the biscuits as they’ll go soggy.
Make sure you keep an eye on the rice-cracker/biscuit ingredients. Most come laden with artificial flavours, sugar and vegetable oil.
Aim for real ingredients where possible.
Top Tip: We slice sweet potato into rounds and fry in ghee or coconut oil, sprinkle with salt and then layer with feta cheese or fried haloumi for another alternative.
Helpful tips for storage solutions:
OP SHOPS ARE GOLDEN
I take the girls on an adventure to op shops every few weeks. I’m usually looking for new books for myself and Holly, who is an avid reader, but while I am there, I always peruse the kitchen section. The amount of Tupperware in excellent condition that I pick up is epic. Containers can get expensive and nearly every op shop I have ever been in sells great quality lunchbox containers for $1-2 in all shapes and sizes.
If you make sure to label with your kids name and grade, you may even be able to hang onto them for a while. ;)
