What Type of Lunch Should You Pack for Your Kindergartener

If you have a child that will be starting Kindergarten next year, you are probably wondering what would be a good and healthy lunch to pack for them. Some parents make the awful mistake of just packing junk, such as chips, and cookies for lunch. This is definitely a mistake. By doing this you will not be helping your child to meet their nutritional needs during the day. This can lead to problems when it comes to concentrating and learning. What about giving your child some leftovers from the previous day’s dinner? Of course this is find depending on what you have the previous day. Obviously you do not want to give your child anything that would need to be heated up. There are also a few more things that you will want to keep in mind. First the Lunch will need to be able to fit into a small cooler lunch bag with an ice pack. It has to be something simple and not complicated. If possible you want it to be a nutritious meal, and not something that is going to completely over-stuff them.

I have come up with the following list of suggestions, that you could make:

Tortilla with veggies-Very simple to make and you can find a recipe for this Online at www.foodnetwork.com http://www.foodnetwork.com

Fruit Salad- Make sure all the fruit is fresh, you can use a small plastic container for this, and don’t forget the dip.

Soup- You will need to make sure they have a thermos that they can open and pour themselves. This is great for those cold winter days. Any type of soup will do just fine.

Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches- You can use cookie cutters to cut their sandwich into funny shapes. This will make them the hit of the lunch table.

Pasta Salad- This can be placed in a small plastic container.

Wrap sandwich- Be creative and use your imagination.

Fruit smoothie- Kids love this and it can easily be put into their thermos, or a water bottle for easy drinking. Take a look at www.foodnetwork.com for various smoothie recipes.

These are just a few suggestions on healthy foods that you could prepare for your kindergartners lunch. Also make sure that you ask them what they would like for lunch. At this age most kids have preferences as to what they would like to eat. You could also have them help in the preparation process. Try making their lunch the night before this way all you have to do the next do is wrap and pack. It will help to make your morning run a lot smoother.