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.
For more menu planning ideas head on over to Laura’s place at “I’m an Organizing Junkie“.