Full and proper nutrition- the key to good health for many years. It is especially important for a child to eat right. Often school food is not as tasty and healthy as we would like. In our article we will tell you what you can give your child to school.
A lunch box for school is a rational solution that will allow your child to stay healthy.
Before going to school, the child must eat a hot breakfast. It is best to give foods containing starch for breakfast - potatoes, pasta and porridge.
Teach your child to eat slowly, and never force him to finish everything on his plate - he should eat as much as he wants.
Nutritionists do not recommend giving your child packaged juices, however, if you decide to take a juice bag with you to school, pay attention to the labels - the juice must be 100% natural and not contain preservatives. It should be noted that taking juice on an empty stomach is undesirable, especially when orange juice, which can irritate the gastric mucosa. Overweight children can be given juice once every 10-14 days.
The break between meals in school-age children should not exceed 4 hours; a long period can lead to stagnation of bile. It’s good if the school provides full-fledged hot meals, but even this pleasant fact does not always help - today the number of children suffering from various gastrointestinal diseases, for whom food from public catering is not suitable, has increased significantly. To avoid health problems, do not give your child sweets, baked goods, chips and crackers to school. An excess of sweets leads to disruption of metabolic processes and can provoke the development of diabetes.
Avoid sausages and buttered sandwiches. It is enough that a child can eat such a sandwich for breakfast.
For primary school children, choose bright school lunch boxes , divided into several parts. You can easily place sandwiches, dried fruits, vegetables and fruits in this container. When choosing a lunch box, pay attention to whether it opens easily. Remember that recess at school lasts 10-15 minutes; the child should not waste time trying to open the package. When packing your school lunch, remember that kids love to share with friends! The main rule of the school lunch box is that the smaller the portion, the more varied the menu will be.
First of all, pay attention to the foods your child likes. But remember, it is not recommended to combine hot and cold food in one package.
Recipes for children's lunch boxes
Rice casserole
Will need
How to cook:
Chicken and vegetable soufflé
You will need:
How to cook
Does your child love hamburgers? Buy a whole wheat bun and bake it flat cutlet, put a tomato and a lettuce leaf on them. Here's a healthy snack that your child will eat with a bang!
Boiled meatballs and buckwheat are definitely healthy. However, children will not be delighted with them. Come up with an interesting design for your child usual dish and top it with your favorite sweet.
A child will eat cottage cheese on both cheeks; if you prepare a casserole, decorate it with fruit.
Make your own juices instead of store-bought ones. herbal tea, smoothie or cocktail.
Take two pieces of loaf, cut off the crust. Grease both sides processed cheese, place cut olives and small pieces of sweet pepper on one slice. Connect the slices and cut in half. You will get two mini-sandwiches that you can eat without looking - the crust has already been cut off. Cheese and its derivatives are best filling for school brake.
No. 2. Sandwiches with cold meat
Boil a piece of lean meat or turkey in vegetable broth. Judge, carefully cut. Grease two slices of black or toaster bread with processed cheese, put a piece of meat on the top, cover with the remaining piece. If desired, you can place slices of sweet red pepper, lettuce or Chinese cabbage on the meat. Cut into four small sandwiches.
No. 3. Chicken bun
Cut off the tops of small round buns and scoop out the crumbs. Lubricate the bottom with a thin layer butter. Fill the buns with the mixture chicken fillet, cut into pieces, grated cheese and herbs mixed with a spoon tomato juice. Sprinkle with cheese, brown in the oven, and cover with a lid - the top part of the bun - a few minutes before it's ready. It turns out something between pizza and a hot sandwich. Instead of a bun, you can use a small ciabatta.
No. 4. Sandwich with tongue or tuna
Boil the pork tongue for an hour, peel. Slice when chilled. Lubricate rye bread cheese, sprinkle with finely chopped dill. Place a piece of tongue and cover the sandwich with the other half of the bread. It is good if the school has a place in the cafeteria so that you can eat in peace. Sometimes you have to eat in class or on the run. Therefore, the main thing is that the food does not spoil and does not have a strong odor. You can make a tuna sandwich. Mash the canned tuna with a spoonful of cream and spread the fish pate on the bread. You can add lettuce or lettuce if desired. Chinese cabbage
No. 5. Apple envelope
You can give a peeled or sliced apple to school - the school welcomes waste-free food, respecting the work of cleaners. Or you can go the other way and prepare apple envelopes. Puff pastry cut into squares, lay out the filling - half an apple or sliced. Add a little sugar and cinnamon to taste. If your child doesn’t like cinnamon, you can “cheer up” the filling with raisins or nuts. Fold the envelope. To prevent the edges from coming apart, lubricate them egg yolk. Bake at low temperature. You can play with the fillings - banana, salted cottage cheese half and half with feta cheese, sweet cottage cheese with raisins, grated hard cheese with herbs.
READ ALSO - Breakfast for schoolchildren: top 10 ideas
No. 6. Sweet fruit pie
Prepare (or buy) yeast dough and bake small pies with sweet fillings. The smaller the pie, the more filling options. (A large pie may fall apart or make someone dirty in a school crowd.) For example, apricot, plum, apple jam with nuts and raisins, minced prunes or dates. With these fillings you can bake bagel crumbs, similar to those sold in the store, but much tastier. Or make cheesecakes with cottage cheese (you can add feta cheese, grated cheese, egg, herbs to the cottage cheese).
No. 7. Saving
The main thing is to find a variety of pita bread that rolls easily. The fillings can be very different. For example, cottage cheese, mashed with cream and a spoonful of honey with berries or dried fruits. Cut the lavash sheet into four parts, lay out the filling, fold in the edges and roll up the rolls. You can put the filling on a whole sheet, roll it up and then cut it into rolls. Can be used as filling cream cheese with berries or an omelet with the addition of herbs, pieces of ham and sweet multi-colored peppers. Try making a kid's version of guacamole. If your child likes it, this recipe will help add variety to school snacks. Peel the avocado, remove the seeds, and grind in a blender. Finely chop raw or baked sweet pepper, add salt, a little lime juice, baby cottage cheese.
No. 8. Cookies with soft cheese
Option on a quick fix, but that doesn’t make it any less tasty. We take quality shortbread in packs. We prepare several types of filling, although you can get by with just one. The base is baby cheese, cottage cheese or cream cheese. You can add raisins, pieces of marmalade or chocolate pieces to the filling. Place the filling on the cookies, cover with cookies, add another layer of filling and cover on top. It will look like a cake. As an option, mix the base with a banana (mash with a fork) or a baked apple.
No. 9. Omelettes with filling
The omelette does not have to be wrapped in pita bread. Prepare an omelette with filling. Beat the eggs with salt and pepper, fry a thin flatbread in a frying pan, lay out the filling and wrap the roll. As a filling you can try cheese with herbs, boiled chicken fillet, sweet peppers, olives, fried mushrooms. Wrap the cooled omelette in a leaf of Chinese cabbage and pack in foil.
No. 10. Pita with chicken cutlet
From minced chicken Make several flat round cutlets with egg and spices. Instead of breading, you can use sesame seeds. Freeze the cutlets, defrost as needed and fry or bake. Grease the pita with cheese, add a lettuce leaf, a slice of cucumber and tomato, and place in the center chicken cutlet. Homemade hamburger is best wrapped in foil or paper bag. This makes it more convenient to hold in your hand while eating.
If you show your imagination, you can continue the list. Homemade scones with nuts. biscotti, candy bars oatmeal with honey and nuts, cheesecakes (not fried, but baked in the oven), casseroles with apples. Crispy radishes or peeled carrots cut into long strips wouldn't go amiss. If your child is embarrassed to eat, tell him that eating with company is more fun. Give him a few extra sandwiches so he can treat his friends.
The dynamism of everyday work dictates its own rules. Not only we adults, but also our children are accustomed to living at a fast pace. A particularly intense load falls on the shoulders of tireless schoolchildren, who after school rush to clubs and sections, meet with tutors, and prepare homework. There is nothing to be done; the price of success in the modern world is quite high. However, a reasonable parent can do a lot for a comfortable life for their child, and the simplest thing is to take care of him healthy eating into your safe hands.
Healthy breakfasts for schoolchildren
It's no secret that the food a child receives during a big break is very far from ideal. Let's leave school breakfasts to the conscience of public catering and think about what an individual mother can do for her child.
There are a lot of options, it all depends on your child’s taste preferences and morning food set. Nutritionists unconditionally give first place to oatmeal, rich in carbohydrates, proteins and minerals. If your child loves, then you are incredibly lucky and, in addition to oatmeal, you can cook millet, rice, barley porridge and even buckwheat in the morning. Other children are very happy in the morning with a fluffy omelette or fragrant scrambled eggs with pieces of bacon or potatoes.
However, there is a category of children who cannot eat anything at all in the morning. For such picky eaters, you can brew invigorating cocoa, which perfectly activates brain activity. Suitable for the same purposes milkshake with banana.
Be careful when eating muesli and breakfast cereals, as these foods are high in sugar and saturated fat.
Many people associate school breakfasts with the word. If you use a creative approach, such food can also be very tasty and healthy. For example, white bread can be replaced with grain, abandon sausage in favor boiled meat or chicken and add some herbs and vegetables.
Snacks
The workload at school can be colossal, so a nutritious snack in your schoolbag will do absolutely no harm to your child. About chips and chocolate bars, of course, we forget, but a bag of unroasted nuts, dried fruits, crackers or “proper” sandwiches will do a good job on “hard” days.
School lunches
The phrase “for every schoolchild” has not lost its relevance today. However, the school canteen is a very noisy and restless place. A student receives a real lunch, prepared with love, only at home.
The foundation of any quality meal is soup. This unique dish helps improve metabolism in the child’s body. The use of soups is especially recommended in the cold off-season and winter.
The second course should, if possible, include meat products. It is better if they are steamed or in the oven, and the meat will be served as a side dish not with your favorite potatoes or pasta, but with vegetables or rice.
It is also important to remember that children need to be fed seasonal foods, and then there will be no problems with excess weight.
When a child comes home from school, having lived a day full of stress and anxiety, the first thing he does is go to the kitchen. Your goal is to develop a great habit of regularly preparing home-cooked meals for your student, which will keep him healthy for years to come.
Every child spends a good half of the day at school, during which time they get hungry. For a growing body, regular nutrition is very important. Add to this the mental load that requires a lot of energy - and you will have a good reason to take care of school meals and the health of your child.
Not every school guarantees the possibility of lunch in the cafeteria, so the snack should be filling. Crackers or sweets are definitely not suitable for this purpose.
Food for school should be useful! We will tell you about what you can use to create a tasty and nutritious school menu for your child!
The first thing that comes to mind as a school snack is regular sandwiches. However, we are not talking about ordinary bread with sausage - the latter will clearly not benefit the child, and not all bread is good .
Replace the sausage with meat - beef or chicken. You can put an omelette on the bread. What you don’t need to add is mayonnaise and sauces, tomatoes. They will simply spread and stain the child’s backpack or hands.
Sandwiches are a more “compact” version of sandwiches. They fit easily into small containers and are lighter and easier to eat. Ham, stewed meat or hard cheese are good options for this snack.
Forget about sausage sandwiches! A student's snack should be healthy, so put a piece of meat or an omelette on the bread. You can supplement it with lettuce leaves, but not with tomatoes - they create a lot of liquid that will stain your clothes and backpack.
Lavash allows you to go wild when it comes to filling! You can wrap anything in it - boiled egg, baked meat or fish, soft cheese or cottage cheese.
Add all this with Greek yogurt or sour cream - and they won’t spread anywhere, because the pita bread can be rolled into a roll or envelope.
Another convenient and original version There will be small canapés. You can thread cubes of meat fillet, pieces of fish, vegetables and bread onto skewers.
Such a snack- it's not only convenient, but also fast. During a regular 10-minute break, the child will definitely have time to eat - and this is an important nuance. preparing for the school day. You can take canapés with you by placing them in a small lunch box.
Regular pita bread will make your school snack even more satisfying. It is comfortable to hold in your hands and the filling or sauce does not fall out of it. A convenient snack option is to prepare canapés by threading pieces of meat and vegetables onto a skewer.
If a child at school does not have time for a full lunch, then you need to think about a light snack that can be eaten during a regular break.
In addition, this option is suitable if the child is embarrassed to eat in front of classmates. In this case, starving is definitely not an option.
Offer your student the following lunch options that are convenient for him and healthy for his body:
1. Fruits- a classic option for students of all ages. For this purpose, choose firm fruits that will not spoil in your school backpack. Apples, pears or bananas are ideal. The latter are especially useful if the child spends a lot of time at school or on a day when there are physical education classes. As for apples, give preference to sweet varieties. Acidic foods increase the secretion of gastric juice, which only increases the feeling of hunger.
2. Bakery - food for school It can also be in the form of homemade buns and pies. It is better to choose a sweet filling that will definitely not spoil during half a day “spent” in a backpack. Meat pies are definitely not suitable in this case. If you don’t have time to cook, you can buy croissants, puff pastries or small envelopes with sweet filling. Gingerbread or cookies that the child loves will also work.
3. Fermented milk products - one more good option for a snack. Just remember that yogurt can be stored without refrigeration for about 2-3 hours. That is, it shouldn’t be in your backpack until the evening. To make such a lunch healthy for a schoolchild, choose yoghurts without dyes or flavors.
4. Nuts and dried fruits- peeled nuts, washed and dried dried fruits are suitable for this purpose. Just put them in a lunch box or small bag. After such a lunch there will be practically no garbage left, which is very convenient. And also these products have a positive effect on brain function, helping you learn better.
Which of these options should you choose? Alternate and combine them depending on your child’s school schedule. And, of course, be sure to take into account his preferences, otherwise the snack will simply be exchanged with a classmate for obviously unhealthy crackers or chips.
As a light snack for school, you can choose yoghurts, dried fruits, nuts, sweet pastries or fruits. In addition to the benefits, there is one more criterion - such food for school should be convenient to carry in a backpack, and not leave a lot of garbage behind.
Food for school should be healthy and satisfying. The purpose of just one such snack is to saturate the body with the energy it needs for enhanced mental work.
And if your child also goes to a sports section or attends physical education classes, then he simply needs to regain his strength. It won't hurt either take care of the child's spine by adding fermented milk with calcium.
For snacks, sandwiches, sandwiches, and rolls are suitable, which can be easily prepared at home. And if a student is embarrassed to eat in front of other children, give him a “convenient” snack of fruits, nuts or dried fruits. Yogurts with sweet pastries are also suitable.
Plan your menu for the week so you don't forget a snack in the morning in a rush. And be sure to discuss your child’s menu with him.
You may be interested in: Perfect body in 3 minutes a day!
First of all, keep in mind that in some cases it is not necessary to “fool” with this. If the school's food service is well-organized - and this presupposes not only that the children receive food according to hours and at the optimal temperature, but also that this food is tasty - it is better to pay for school breakfasts and lunches.
“The quality of products intended for children, including in educational institutions, is strictly monitored,” emphasizesElena Tikhomirova, nutritionist at SM-Clinic . – A hot dish freshly prepared in the canteen, all other things being equal, will be better than a cold snack that has been sitting in your briefcase. It’s another matter if your offspring complains that the school food, even in appearance, is disgusting, slimy and inedible. Then he better pack something with him. Otherwise, he will remain hungry all day, and the intervals between meals for a child, like an adult, should ideally not exceed four to five hours.”
1) Food should be such that it can be eaten with your hands. It’s not a fact that at the right moment your child will find a spoon, and a clean one at that, rather than try to “pick” a dish brought from home with a ruler found under the radiator or a chewed pencil.
2) Food should not stain the child’s hands and clothes. Don't create complicated or outlandish dishes: children tend to be conservative.
3) Try to pack a healthy snack so that your daughter or son gets both carbohydrates (they provide the energy necessary for brain function and outdoor games) and proteins with fats (they satiate).
4) When preparing a snack for a schoolchild, use only the best fresh food. “Don’t forget that the food will be out of refrigeration for some time, room temperature, and in school classes it can be quite hot,” says Elena Tikhomirova. – Fresh food will withstand even 4-5 hours without any problems, but in food that has already been sitting or spoiled, dangerous bacteria can begin to actively multiply. Better not take risks."
5) Place food in a lunch box or container designed specifically for food. “As a rule, they have the marking “glass and fork” or “glass and spoon,” says Elena Tikhomirova, “and are made of high-quality plastic, which does not “give” anything into the food. Such a “storage” should be hermetically sealed and easy to open (so that a child can handle it) and ideally have a couple of compartments.”
6) The weight of one snack should be no more than 120–140 g. 
1) Lavash with filling. “Lubricate it with soft curd cheese or, if the child loves cottage cheese, with paste-like cottage cheese,” advises Elena Tikhomirova, “and on top place pieces of baked meat, oven-cooked or grilled chicken and sliced vegetables, such as cucumbers or bell pepper. Roll the pita bread into an envelope or into a roll closed at both ends. If your child has a sweet tooth, use Philadelphia-type cheese for the filling and his favorite fruit cut into pieces, for example, a pear, banana or not very juicy persimmon.”
2) Cheesecakes. Good for at least two reasons. First of all, they are easy to eat with your hands. Secondly, they are sweet, in the minds of many children they are almost a dessert. Want to make this snack healthier? Replace some of the wheat flour with ground oatmeal and do not fry them in oil, but bake them in the oven.
3) Classic sandwich. Since it will not be possible to completely “close” it, it is better to use a drier filling. For example, put a piece or two of hard cheese between slices of grain bread. By the way, it contains quite a lot of salt - a natural preservative that will prevent the product from quickly deteriorating without refrigeration. To accompany him, pick up washed and dried lettuce leaves and slices of the same sweet pepper. If the child does not like such a “multi-story” structure, exclude vegetables and give fruit in addition to the sandwich. 
4) Yogurt. Fundamentally, it’s drinkable, and not something that requires a spoon. Purchased, not fermented by mom herself. Homemade fermented milk is more capricious, while store-bought milk does not spoil as quickly, and the bottle will be sealed hermetically. “Study the composition carefully,” reminds Elena Tikhomirova. – The shorter the list of ingredients, the better. The ideal formula could generally consist of regular milk, yogurt starter and pieces of fruit or jam - if the child loves sweets and is not overweight. Yogurt will definitely be better than a bag of fruit juice, which in terms of benefits is almost equivalent to sweetened water or tea. In addition to it, put a couple of pieces in your student’s bag oatmeal cookies. Or a mixture of nuts and dried fruits.”
5) Pie with filling. For example, meat, cabbage or apple. Basically - baked, not deep-fried. “It is acceptable to purchase such baked goods in the school canteen,” says Elena Tikhomirova. – For some reason, parents think that this is a bad choice for their child. But as a nutritionist, I say: no. The dough in such pies is usually as simple as possible: water, flour, salt. Due to unsweetened filling This baking is not too high in calories. The main thing with pies is not to overdo it. If you bake at home yourself, give your child a portion of no more than the already indicated 120 g.”
