Helpful tips for adding fresh fruit and vegetables to lunch boxes

• Kids like fresh fruit cut and ready to eat.  Fruit salad is the ideal lunch box solution; it’s colourful, easy to eat and bursting with vitamins.

• Offer different seasonal fruits each day for a change in flavour, colour and texture.

• Freeze fruits in the summer or for sport days.  Simply pop the frozen fruit into a small sealable plastic bag or airtight container.

• If including whole fruit in the lunchbox, select fruit that is a suitable size for a child to easily hold in their hand and eat (this is particularly important for younger children). 

• Peel and slice or cut fruit if possible and choose seedless varieties of grapes, watermelon and Imperial mandarins.

• If you’re added tomato to sandwiches, place the tomato between fillings and not directly onto the bread.  This prevents the bread becoming soggy.

• When using avocado, mash or drizzle with a little lemon or lime juice to prevent the avocado from discolouring.

• Mild tasting and crunchy lettuce varieties like Iceberg and Oak leaf and Lebanese cucumbers are ideal for kids.

• Add leftover (or cook extra) roast pumpkin or sweet potato to sandwiches, wraps and roll fillings.  Naturally sweet and loaded with beneficial antioxidants, roast vegetables team well with a range of fillings.

• Make salads or salad sandwich fillings interesting by using a range of vegetables like grated carrot, snow pea sprouts, lettuce or rocket or baby spinach, sliced celery, tomatoes, avocado and cucumber.

• Use a vegetable peeler to slice cucumber into thin ribbons for sandwich fillings.

Source:  Fresh for kids  http://www.freshforkids.com.au/lunch_box/lunch_box.html

 

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