School’s back! For all three of my babes, and my heart is full of love and excitement for them, but I’m also a little overwhelmed with my littlest Master R starting PreNursery at the same school as his big sisters. When did this happen that he got big enough to go to PreNursery? I’m trying to console myself with him ‘only’ going to PreNursery, that there is no uniform for him, that it’s ‘only’ three times a week, and it’s ‘only’ 4 hours each time. I like to kid myself. He is my last babe, so I feel that’s ok

With the start of the new term comes lunch boxes! And now I do 3! They all got the same and then Rory just had smaller serves. Like other schools around the place our school doesn’t allow nuts, but that doesn’t stop a healthy lunch being sent out without any packaged snacks. A sandwich, some veggie sticks, cut up fruit, and plain popcorn. Now I am not one for product promotion but I can’t say enough how amazing the Pottery Barn Kids lunchboxes are! There’s no need for excessive plastic wrappings, everything stays nicely compartmentalised and they are easy to clean. Brilliant! I’m waiting for more stock to come in so Rory can have one too as stock was low when we went to buy our back to school needs. A lunch box for kids should be easy to open, easy to keep clean, easy for them to see and access the food from the compartments, and provide you with enough space to put some loving, healthy food options in there

The school lunch box is sometimes fraught with anxiety as sometimes kids don’t eat the food, don’t have time to eat, they want the package snacks other kids have (that I don’t give them) and can become boring. It’s a battle we probably all face at one time or another. But to get through it I remind myself that the lunch box is also the place that we begin to teach kids about healthy eating, the foods that nourish and why we eat the way we do. To mix it up the I sometimes give the kids a thermos with leftovers or I make a pasta salad with lots of chopped veggies, instead of the regular sandwich. As an occasional treat I found an organic, coconut chocolate paste (Chocolate & Coconut Cocobella, by Biona) they can have in their sandwich, sometimes instead of a sandwich they get a wrap, then there are more labour intensive options that look and taste lovely but aren’t a regularity like rice paper rolls and sushi (if you have time to do it regularly for your kids- well done). Although mine like the regular vegemite sandwich or cheese and mayo sandwich they are sometimes open to having tuna, chicken or egg. You could put so much in a well designed lunch box;

• Sandwiches- tuna, cheese, vegemite, chicken and avocado, egg. I personally avoid things like tomoato unless I’ve removed the seeds and blotted the slices with paper towel as they can make sandwiches soggy
• Rice paper rolls
• Sushi
• Salad- beans salad, pasta salad, chopped veggies
• Roasted chicken drumsticks with veggie sticks
• Leftovers from dinner in a thermos
• Crackers with cheese, or vegemite, or hummus

There’s not really a recipe for this post, just ideas to help with a common thing that parents of school aged kids need to deal with. And I guess not just parents of school kids, but everyone who wants to not buy their lunch or give in to temptation of pre-made, pre-packaged meals. Keep it clean, keep it fresh, keep it simple, keep it loving and easy

I hope you are loving easy food