Today in most urban homes, when the kid returns from school, one common question every parent asks them is, “Have you finished your lunch”?. Unfortunately, a lot of time the lunch is barely been touched, or half-finished, or fed to someone else. If this incident is common & frequent at your home then definitely it’s a matter of great worry. Eating a healthy lunch is not only important for kids’ physical growth, but it can also help them stay focused mentally and emotionally at its best.
So what parents can do to make sure that their child eats healthy and nutritious lunch at school? According to Delhi’s renowned nutritionist and wellness coach, Avni Kaul, “children usually like foods with good and attractive appearances. Hence if you follow the Tiffin preparation tips, you can make lunch very attractive and at the same time make your children have a nutritious meal every day at school”.
Make your daily Paranthas more interesting
One of the common north Indian school tiffin foods is parantha. If your kid frequently skips eating parantha at school then you can try to prepare a parantha variation. You can enhance the taste as well as bring variation in paranthas to taste with the use of different kind of parantha fillings – like spinach, carrot, paneer, cauliflower, and cabbage.
By adding these vegetables, you will be able to provide the nutrients to your school going kids such as calcium, vitamin A and E, Folate, Protein, Vitamin K, Fiber, Carbohydrates, and minerals. This way the paranthas will not only taste great, but it will also assist in their overall growth and formation.
Just one warning: since you will be using a commercially made ghee or refined oil to prepare the parantha, don’t use too much oil, use oil or ghee in moderation.
Always put seasonal fruits
Rarely do kids say no to their favorite fruits, hence always add one seasonal fruit in their Tiffin box but give them fruits in the rotation. Fruits such as mango, banana, strawberry, apple, watermelon, pear, and others are rich in various essential nutrients like folate, iron, calcium, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin B, Vitamin C etc, which are very important for your kid’s health and overall well-being.
Make your vegetables more attractive
There cannot be any replacement for fresh green vegetables but generally, it’s an extremely difficult task to give kids vegetables. Little ones rarely eat boiled broccoli or raw carrots, right?
Wrong, if you put the boiled broccolis inside a yummy vegetable kebab and put the grated carrot inside a soya chap roll. Their opinion of vegetables may not change but they will rarely notice that they are eating vegetables, even if they do, they will not mind it.
Try Fun Shapes for Salads
Generally managing too much time for preparing school lunch is difficult in most homes but if you can manage, you can prepare a small quantity of vegetable salad every night and add it to the school lunch box, next day morning.
When you prepare vegetable salad, try to cut vegetables like carrots, cucumber, radish or beetroot into fun shapes using Japanese vegetable cutters, which are not expensive and fun to use (you easily can learn from different Youtube channel).
You can also use Japanese vegetable cutters to turn watermelons and muskmelons into small-sized flowers and stars. This will make the fruit and vegetables more attractive, the small size will make it easier for kids to eat.
About the author: Avni Kaul is one of the top Nutritionist in Delhi , India, and a wellness coach. She is a certified nutritionist as well as a Diabetes Educator and specializes in weight management, child nutrition, skin and beauty health, thyroid disorder, cardiovascular health, diabetic management, wedding nutrition, sports nutrition, and corporate wellness.
