Healthy preschool lunches

Hi everyone! I’ve been crazy busy with some sewing in preparation for a major medieval re-enactment event held each year at Easter. I’m madly attempting to pattern and create new gowns for myself and Isobel, but of course I have to start with all the undergarments first (chemise, then corset, then first gown, then the outer gown) … yikes! So I will be a little slower with the posts in the next couple of weeks.

Today I have a gallery of school lunches to share: this is a little project I’ve been doing for a number of weeks, taking photos of what I send to preschool with Will (and now Evie too!). I aim to send something that they will actually eat, but without sending junk (which I just don’t buy at all, to avoid temptation).

Each of these lunch boxes takes only a couple of minutes to assemble. Mostly I just pull the veggie drawer out of the fridge and make up whatever I can find. Sometimes I will add some bread (always wholemeal, or wholemeal grain bread, or something I baked). Other times they get a treat like the Salada biscuits.

I find that sometimes almost the whole lunch box comes home with a few bits picked out, and more often it comes back scraped clean except for a few tomatoes. This is pretty much what happens at home, too! Apparently Evie eats *a lot* of fruit at morning tea time, so I’m not surprised if she is still full by lunch. Hmmm.

One great thing about packing lunches like this is it doesn’t cost much unless you choose to add some meat, or processed biscuits. Avoiding muesli bars and pre-packed biscuits-with-cheese saves a small fortune, I believe. These last two I see in lunches here *a lot*. Also, fruit juice poppers! That’s a whole lot of added sugar and salt that my kids just don’t need. They have water bottles to refill all day, and I’ve sent plain white milk to school in a bottle on occasion.

Note: there is a fridge at preschool, so I can send anything I like and it is kept safe until lunch time. When William goes to school I will need to pack a freezer block to keep the items fresh especially if I send meat.

Everything except a few baby spinach leaves were eaten.

The broccoli and tomatoes came back.

Will loves snow peas and cucumber, but Evie likes mushrooms. Evie ate hers, but Will sent most of it back.

I tried a sandwich this time: vegemite and cheese. The soft fruit is stewed apple and peach (home made)

Both kids had similar meals. This time Evie sent much of it back and Will ate about half. The sliced rolls have vegemite.

I tried some fried rice leftovers, which was *really* quick to pack. The rice came back, and Evie spread hers around preschool.

These creatures are fun to make. They are a huge hit at preschool, but Will sent most of it home.

It is disappointing to see the food come home again, but I’m not tempted to send junk instead. I’m sure they are just filling up with fruit at morning tea, or they have small appetites like they do at home! They won’t starve themselves!

I’m most proud that the kids don’t ask for food that other children have. I’m amazed that the afternoon tea basket is full of packet chips, Tiny Teddies and other junk food. And my kids don’t seem to envy (yet!). Yay.