1. Granny’s, 2. Oranges, 3. A Bunny Dance, 4. Kiwi
Although I don’t formally plan lunches for the week, the ingredients required to make a healthy lunch box are added to the weekly fruit and vegetable list. I have been finding it harder recently to think of things to add to the list.
As we are almost through the first month of winter, the variety of fruit and veg that I put in the kids lunch boxes seems to reduce significantly. Gone are the berries and melons of summer, grapes and plums of autumn.
So I have searched for seasonal fruit and vegetables in winter to give me inspiration for the lunch boxes and came up with the following:
Winter Vegetable Ideas For Kids Lunch Boxes
- Avocado (fuerte, hass, sharwill) – Not a particular favourite with my kids, but included it in the list as I know other kids do like to eat it on its own.
- Carrots – Cut up into sticks. At home I serve with dip or salsa, but my kids are not at all keen on taking that to school.
- Celery – Cut up into sticks either by themselves or with strips of cheese.
- Green beans – Trimmed.
- Snow peas – Trimmed.
Winter Fruit Ideas For Kids Lunch Boxes
- Apples (bonza, braeburn, fuji, gala, golden delicious, granny smith, jonagold, jonathan, lady williams, mutso, pink lady, red delicious, snow, sundowner) – As there is not as much fruit available that is appealing to my kids, I have started buying more apples and different varieties and including two apples in the lunch boxes. Favourites combo with my kids at the moment is a pink lady and a granny smith.
- Kiwifruit (early winter) – I cut this in half, wrap in plastic and include a spoon in the lunch box.
- Oranges (navel) – I cut them into quarters and wrap in plastic.
- Pears (beurre bosc, josephine, packham in the early winter) – I have not had much success with pears in the lunch box as they keep coming back home. The kids will eat them at home, but don’t seem to like doing so at school.
I would love to hear any ideas that you have for keeping the fruit and vegetables in the school lunch box interesting. If you want to see what else I put in the kids lunch boxes you can check it out on my post on preparing school lunch boxes.
Family Menu Plan For The Week
Baking: Lemon Slice
Monday: Spaghetti Bolognaise
Tuesday: Homemade Pasties
Wednesday: Beef Stir Fry with Asian Greens
Thursday: Mexibake
Friday: Left Overs
Saturday: Chicken Lasagne
Sunday: Sausages And Steamed Vegetables
If you like the look of this family menu plan, then you might like to use The Planning With Kids Free Menu Planner. With the menu planner you can select your meals for the week and print our your own shopping list.
If you would like to have one of your recipes added to the menu planner database, just be one of the first two people to leave a link or actual recipe in the comments section on my regular Menu Plan Monday Post. I will add it to the database and then email to let you know it has been included.
For more menu planning ideas head on over to Laura’s place at “I’m an Organizing Junkie“.
5 comments...read them below or add one
Great fresh fruit and veg list. If my kids could live on avocado and snow peas, I’m pretty sure they would.. lol
P.S.. I am waiting for the week you include cocoa in the vegetable list so I can have external validation that chocolate is therefore a vegetable.
Alisons last blog post..Upside Town
we used to have peanut butter in our celery sticks. I know you can’t these days but what about cream cheese??
Caths last blog post..Apparently John Brack is at the Ian Potter NGV
We are introducing kiwi fruit to our girls. Heidi wont eat it but Annie enjoys it. I keep putting it in the lunch box each day because I know that Heidi sometimes has to get familiar with the look of something before she will even touch it, and we are talking looking at for weeks.
I got a bunch of silicone cupcake pans at the Reject Shop (the individual patty pan style) – 12 for $4. I use those to divide food in the lunch box and it works pretty well. Diced up kiwi fruit in one patty pan, mandarin slices in another and apple in between – spoon on top. Very handy for the fussy eater who hates food touching.
Another winter fav is slices of kabana and cheese which give good energy burst on cold days.
Alison – I am addicted to chocolate, not sure why I haven’t thought of that before!
Cath – My kids did love peanut butter with celery, but school is nut free. Unfortunately they are not bi on cream cheese.
Marita – Cool use of the silicone cupcake pans!
We are at a school that is ok with nuts now thankfully but when at a school that was nut free we used FreeNut butter made by Eskel and found at some Wollies/Coles and most health food stores. It’s a bit more exxy than normal but a must have for mums who’s kids LIVE on peanut butter!