Tips for Healthy Kid Friendly Lunches that Your Kids Will Love
Remember awhile ago when I shared with you that the girls and I had attended…
Remember awhile ago when I shared with you that the girls and I had attended an IOGO Yogurt blogger event to promote their Go Bubble Crazy contest? The one where their artist taught us how to draw comic strips? Well it was super fun and the girls and I learned all kinds of great stuff, IOGO Yogurt really knows how to connect with influencers which was so refreshing! I was seriously blown away, not just by how well we were treated, but also by their product itself.
Let’s talk a moment about yogurt…
As I learned at the IOGO Yogurt event, not all yogurt is created equally and that it really pays to READ the labels on your yogurt, specifically the ingredient list, not just the quick Nutrition Facts. There are some yogurt that have some not-so-nice things in them, such as: Carmine (a dye extracted from cochineal insects to give fruit-flavored yogurt several varieties of their pink color), artificial sweeteners (while these reduce the number of calories in products, these are essentially a chemical sh-t-storm), high-fructose corn syrup (need I say more?), and gelatin (flavorless solid substance, derived from collagen obtained from various animal by-products). Ummmm can I say gross???
IOGO Yogurt doesn’t contain any of that stuff.
I honestly had never really paid attention to the ingredient list on our yogurt – it’s yogurt! Why would I need to? So I was really happy to hear that my kids’ favourite yogurt is not full of crap, yay!
IOGO Zip Yogurt ingredients
This brings me to the main topic of this post:
Tips for Healthy Kid Friendly Lunches
When making a balanced lunch for kids to help keep them creative and inspired, IOGO yogurt Dietitian, Jonathan Fontaine offers the following top ten tips:
- Select and include foods from all four food groups of the Canadian Food Guide: 1) Vegetables and fruit, 2) Grain products, 3) Milk and milk-derived products, 4) Meat and alternatives.
- Don’t shy away from proteins as it promotes healthy growth in kids.
- Kids need carbs because they are the foundation of the energy they need to get through the day. In fact, it’s the preferred energy source for the brain.
- You know your kids, make sure what you pack meets their appetite.
- Look for appealing foods or preparations that your kids will want to eat.
- Do most of your preparation the night before, and don’t hesitate to get your kids involved involve in the process. When you prepare dinner, why not make them lunch?
- Speaking of dinner, when possible, cook few more portions of meats, vegetables and grains in preparation to tomorrow’s lunch.
- Draw inspiration from the foods your kids love to eat to meet their dietary needs.
- Finally, be creative. Inject some fun in the preparation and coloring of your presentations & creativity inspires creativity.
- Kids may be tempted by all kinds of not-so-healthy treats. Ensure they have access to plenty of nutrient-packed, such as dairy as well as fruits and vegetables, which can decrease the allure of sugary or fatty food items.
The best tip that came from my day with IOGO Yogurt is this:
[Tweet “Tip: Freeze yogurt tubes and use it to keep you child’s lunches nice and cool.”]
Brilliant!! I’ve been doing this every day since the event, and the kids have loved that their drinks, fruit and veggies are all staying the perfect temperature! Instead of floppy sugar snap peas coming home as left overs, the girls have eaten their entire lunch!!
What healthy food do you pack in your child’s lunches?
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I love yogurt but it doesn’t love me back! Ice-cream and yogurt are two of the hardest things for me to eat since I’m lactose intolerance but the 2 I probably miss the most. I never knew there was so much gross stuff in some brands. I will keep that in mind for my toddler.
Believe it or not I still pack my 15 yo son’s lunch! Good tips and I like to freeze the yogurt too in the summer months.
LOL – We’ve begun making Fridays the day the girls “get” to pack their lunches, though I susppect I’ll still be doing it for them when they’re 15 too 🙂
Great tips to keep in mind. I try to pack small bites of a lot of different foods and food groups. It makes it more fun, I think.
Some great ideas here!
~Jamie
I am always looking for ways to feed my kids healthy meals and lunch time seems to be a hard one! We are always running from one thing to the next and I don’t prepare very well for lunch so thanks for the great ideas! #SITSblogging
These are great tips to pack a healthy and delicious lunch for not only kids but us adults!
#SITSblogging
I nanny for a very picky little girl but she does love yogurt! I will have to try this yogurt and see what she thinks. Visiting from SITS Girls and loved exploring your blog!
My daughter starts kindergarten in the fall and I am already trying to come up with healthy lunch options for her to pack for school and this post gave me a lot of important info! Thanks for sharing!
Stopping by from SITS!
Great tips! I especially love number 7–a time saver too!
Janice, I totally agree about checking food labels. Yogurt is one of those tasty products that all too often has tons of sugar in it. To be honest, most of the time I buy natural unflavored yogurt (or make it at home) and then add fruit for the dose of sweet. Your tip #6 makes all the difference in my house. If I don’t get snacks ready the night before, my household is crazy the next day as I struggle to do too many things at once.
Yes – I’ve just recently become aware of the sugar content in foods marketed towards children and was SHOCKED to see that juice boxes have 23g of sugar! I went out and bought the girls the small water bottles instead.
My daughters too young to pack lunches for but I love the tips!
Wow! I never would have thought to read the ingredients on yogurt! Thanks for the heads up!
Um, recommended sugar intake for kids is 12g a day. Those iOGO yogurt things have 7 grams ALONE! Over 50% of daily recommended intake in ONE dessert. Dump that junk and put a piece of fruit in the lunchbox. There’s nothing healthy about processed junk like that yogurt!
Those are very valid points Sean. Could you draft a guest post on healthy kid friendly lunch including original photos by next Tuesday? I would gladly publish it on Wednesday. Thanks!