Healthy Eating

The importance of packed lunches here in Spain
Most of us, from time to time, have sent our children into school or on a day trip with a packed lunch. However, we often don't think of the calorific value that a child needs to grow and be healthy. Just because your child is not having school dinners it should not mean just sticking in a couple of packets of crisps, a small drink and a couple of bars of chocolate thinking that this constitutes a packed lunch.

We know that most children won't try things but if we don't try to educate them as parents, then who will?!

One of the most important things that you must remember is a child will dehydrate faster than an adult so plenty of water or juice is important to a child. One thing to avoid is yogurt and yogurt drinks because it is not possible to refrigerate them. They can reach room temperature quickly in the heat here in Spain and bacteria soon begin to grow and will double every 20 minutes so your child could end up with an upset stomach or worse.

Here are some tips for your children's packed lunches. These were taken from Jamie Oliver's webpage:

Sweet Alternatives
Make a little pot of fresh fruit salad. Try to have an apple just once a week and on other days choose something more interesting: a melon wedge, a couple of kiwis (pack a spoon), a juicy chunk of mango, a pot of mixed blueberries and raspberries. Stew up fresh apples or dried fruit, and pack into a tub. Choose fruit breads, scones or hot-cross buns instead of chocolate biscuits or additive laden muffins.

Salad Suggestions
Instead of a sandwich, give them a filling salad packed in a clip-top plastic tub. Use a mini cool pack in the lunch box to keep it chilled. Try chicken and sweetcorn with cucumber and tomato, brown rice with red pepper and ham strips, cold cooked pasta dressed with pesto and mixed with cubed cheese or tuna, couscous with shavings of feta and cherry tomatoes.

Pizza to go
A slice of homemade pizza always goes down well in a lunchbox. Make one bigger than usual for the night before and save a piece or two for lunches. Use wholemeal or stoneground bases if available. Top with tomato puree (counts as a vegetable portion); mozzarella and a good selection of veggies. Try red, yellow and green peppers, mushroom slices, sliced spring onions, courgettes, diced celery, canned asparagus spears.

Sandwich Sense
 Avoid sliced white bread, and make sandwiches out of granary, wholemeal or poppy seeded bread. Try wholemeal pittas, bagels or small baguettes. Whatever you use as butter, spread it thinly. Go easy on the mayo and choose low fat fillings like cottage cheese, turkey, ham, tuna or banana.

Cut down on crisps
Make crisps a once a week treat, and choose low fat varieties. Instead, give them breadsticks, rice cakes, or a handful of mixed, dried fruit.

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