It’s Not Just Lunch

By Anjum Choudhry Nayyar

While I actually use my daughter’s school lunch program at her school for most school days, the days I do make her lunch, I need to get creative. Everyday I do have pack snacks however to add to her lunch meal. More and more I notice that when things look different, I can usually get away with giving the ‘same old’. So in the end, it’s really more than lunch, it’s an art! I have a few tools in my lunch tool box that have worked for me in the past:

1. Change up the Bread

Pick a different bread for each day, a bagel,  pita pockets, tortillas, egg bread, English muffins and panini bread are all great ways to change it up.

 2. Create a special snack: mix up some cheerios, raisins, or some dried fruit or even mini crackers. A new mix once a week can do wonders!

3. Packaging does count! My daughter loves new ballerina boxes for her sandwiches, or mini containers that are colourful for her veggie bites or snacks.

4. Try different spreads or sandwich fillings, such as cream cheese, or grated carrots and avocado to sneak in the veggie component.

5. Shapes: My daughter loves seeing the different shapes her food can become. You can remove bread crusts and cut your bread into different shapes, using cookie cutters like hearts, choo-choo-trains or pumpkins when it’s Halloween. Sandwich meat can also be transformed using similar cut outs.

Dempster’s has created a great resource for moms stuck on ways to ‘innovate’ when making lunches, called Lunch Box Inspirations.  It’s a great site full of ideas, recipes and inspiration for taking the ‘blah’ out your kids’ lunch while keeping them healthy.  I don’t know about you masalamommas but I could always use a bit of online help in the lunch-producing department! Here’s  the link :

Disclosure – I am participating in the Dempster’s Lunch Box Inspirations program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of Dempster’s Canada. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

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