After the first week of school, my kids get fed up of taking cheese sandwiches for lunch to school. From a nutritional standpoint, I prefer that moms prepare lunches to pack for their children to take to school rather than giving them money to buy food at school. First of all, most schools do not offer very healthy foods for students to buy. Second, without parental supervision children most likely do not make the right nutritional choices, and they end up buying mainly junk food. Stock up on whole wheat toast and whole wheat buns of various sized depending on the age of the child that you can fill the night before to keep the morning rush at a minimum. We can try some of these new sandwich and other lunch ideas and rotate among them to avoid boredom: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or breakfast cream with honey, or sesame seed butter (halawa) sandwich. Labneh sandwich with a sprinkle of olive oil and dried mint. Zaatar (ground dried thyme) and olive oil makes an excellent high protein sandwich. Make extra scrambled eggs or a large omelet for dinner and save a little to fill a sandwich with for school the next day. Sliced boiled eggs mixed with very little mayonnaise or yogurt also make a good sandwich filling. Spread hummus in a bun and pack cucumbers or pickles to go with the sandwich. Tuna fish with a little mayonnaise or boiled chicken breast shredded into fine pieces mixed with a little mayonnaise. For taste, you can add chopped lettuce or pickles or celery or green pepper, depending on your child's preference. For a vegetarian change, you can fill a bun with sliced pitted black and green olives. The night before school boil some noodles, then drain and mix with a little plain yogurt and salt, and store in a plastic sealed container for a tasty lunch. Otherwise, pack a small cup of plain yogurt and some breadsticks or whole wheat crackers and carrot and cucumber sticks to dip. When all else fails you can go back to the old favorite cheese sandwich. However, you should minimize the use of the processed cream cheese spreads as they are high in fat, salt, and preservatives. Instead use mozzarella cheese or string cheese, or white cheese with black seeds. We need to slowly halt the habit of potato chips and other fried chips as snacks. The oils heated and re-heated and used over and over again to make these chips contain carcinogenic compounds. The following are some healthier snack ideas: Sliced apples, or orange and tangerine slices, a banana, a plum, a pear Carrot and cucumber sticks Chocolate coated raisins and dates or chocolate coated almonds Almonds, peanuts, cashew, and pistachio nuts Homemade chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies, or a slice of homemade baked cake Low fat, low butter microwave popcorn (read the labels and make sure it says “free of trans-fats” Breadsticks and date filled cookies from a local bakery Fruit flavored yogurt Half a boiled corn on the cob The writer is a qualified holistic nutrition expert. __
