Back-to-School Meals: Keeping them Simple and Nutritious

This is that time again when people think about making breakfast, packed lunches for school-going kids, and quick meals that can be prepared during the working days. Below is a list of back-to-school tips and tricks that should hopefully make the whole process a little less dreadful.

Better Breakfasts

Let’s start with breakfast. Breakfast is known widely as the first meal that is taken in a day and is a significant factor in a child’s diet. Eat breakfast, make it sitting and fresh made from whole nutrient-rich foods such as fruits, whole grain bread, good eggs, and protein sources. Children often require food in the morning before going to school and more preferably the food should contain protein.

Protein intake is necessary in the process of bone and muscle build-up and repair, wound healing, and immune response, all of which are relevant for growing children. High-quality proteins for breakfast consist of organic eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, the previous day’s chicken/beef, cottage cheese, and plain yogurt.

1. Make Breakfast Ahead of Time - Foods that can be prepared in advance are the best to take during breakfast, especially for those families that have a tight schedule. Waffles and hash browns can easily be prepared with little to no cooking and a little cleaning, like cheesy scrambled eggs, sausage, and fruits, and avocado toast with a fried egg on top. Pre portioning of meals, or cooking ahead of time, makes it much easier to stick to the creation of healthier homemade meals though.
2. Hydrate Yourself - Everyone understands the importance of water intake, but ensuring that the entire family intake enough water is a very daunting task. Plain water is not palatable to some people, and there is the issue of dirty water supply in some regions. If you can, use filtered water with a pinch of sea salt or electrolyte and attempt to encourage people in your house to have it daily, in the morning, even before breakfast or coffee.
3. Don’t Forget Protein -Protein is always relevant, but even more so in children, specifically in the morning, as in breakfast. Try to feed the children something with even a little protein in it for breakfast – muffins or banana bread baked oatmeal is an excellent way to incorporate eggs into your child’s diet if he/she doesn’t like eggs or typical breakfast meats.

• 2 cups organic oats—whether it is gluten-free or contain gluten
• 2-3 bananas, ripe
• One medium carrot must be cleaned and shredded
• 1. 5 cups low-fat organic milk of preference
• 3-4 organic eggs, whisked
• Two teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• One teaspoon baking powder
• Collagen peptides two tablespoons
• Coarsely ground pecans or walnuts, or you may chop the pecans or walnuts (optional)
• 2 Teaspoons of vanilla bean extract or paste
• ¼ cup of grass-fed butter, allow it to melt and cool to room temperature.
• One teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ cup maple syrup

Instructions

• Let the oven get warm at 375F. Next prepare a baking dish 9”:12” prepare it by rubbing some butter on the surface of the dish.
• For the wet ingredients, in a small bowl, mash the bananas and then mix in the milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract, eggs, and butter.
• In a medium bowl, mix the oats, ground cinnamon, ginger, salt, collagen peptides, and baking powder. Beat it well and then add in the shredded carrots and nuts, if you have used, those.
• In the center of the dry ingredients, create a small pool and then add the banana, milk, maple syrup, etc., and stir only until the batter is smooth, with no lumps.
• Place the batter into the baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, until when the top is golden brown. Plate it, garnished with dried cranberries. Refrigerate and consume within five days.

Lunches You'll Love

It is at lunch that individuals are most likely to get it wrong. Lunch often can be a temptation that one can give into eating fast food or taking food from a nearby store. Food that is served for lunch can be leftovers from dinner or meal planning that was done for the day; however, it is crucial to ensure that the foods chosen are ones the family likes.

1. Make Something They Love - When it comes to preparing school meals, the most critical aspect that should be focused on is what the child enjoys eating. Then, the variations of that particular style of food will be introduced. Another useful strategy is to write down the foods that are regularly consumed for lunch and bring the list to the topic of packing lunches. Ideally, in the case where your kids are still young, then you can take them shopping to make your purchases and have them assist in packing their lunch.

Kid Lunch Box Ideas:

• Grilled chicken salad,
• Chicken mayonnaise salad with celery and grapes
• Turkey or lunch meat sandwiches on bread
• Roll up of tortilla with lunch meat and cheese or hummus veggies and cheese
• Refried beans, white rice, and shredded meat with avocado
• Energy bites chocolate chip, strawberry shortcake, and peanut butter
• Chicken fingers
• Meatballs and pasta

Get Your Child His/Her Reusable Lunch Box

A durable, airtight, preferably, BPA-free lunch box is useful when packing meals for school-going children. Lunch boxes are available in all kinds, small or big, in different shapes, and can be made from almost any material. Many schools have a ban on glass containers and although plastic food storage containers are ok, it is better to reduce their usage whenever possible, this is where a lunch box is useful.

Lunch totes have recently become rather fashionable – collapsible bento-style lunch boxes made of stainless steel. They appeal especially in the organization of a variety of foods in a manner that is enjoyable to groups of people. Children can choose what they want to eat and foods that do not mix and spill over, as they should.

Keep it Fun

It’s fun if the children are the ones preparing their sandwiches but it is equally exciting to put something into the child’s lunch that the child would not expect or know about. This could be; homemade blueberry muffins, fruits, dark chocolate, homemade gummies, homemade healthy twix bars, cookies, or any treat that your family enjoys.

What's For Dinner?

If you are a parent with little time to spare then just know that our best recommendation is to simplify things.

To do this one may want to prepare veggies or starches earlier in the week to make it easier to accomplish this goal. For dinner, an additional source of protein like chicken, beef, fish, and sea products like shrimp and others.

Possible simple side dishes for a family that does not contain meat are stir-fried zucchini, onions, and bell peppers as well as other types of vegetables, green salads, baked potatoes, organic regular or brown rice pasta, organic rice, and other grains are also suitable as side dishes for meat, and vegetables. It also helps that you are eating a large portion of precisely what your body needs in terms of nutrients.

We hope that some of these tips and tricks can be of help to your family. But most importantly do not forget that consuming good foods and taking care of the body leads to happy thoughts, social relations, and better sleep that rejuvenates the body and the mind.