Healthy lunches for picky eaters - without the sugar!
If your kid is anything like mine you will be making 101 ways with ham and cheese for their lunches. For some reason I just cant think what I cant send to school with him that's healthy and that he will actually eat. Our school has one piece of mandatory fruit for 'fruit time' but other than that he usually gets a ham and cheese roll/ sandwich/ pizza. So im trying to think of other ideas to get vegetables and more fruit into his diet. Preferably without the sugar that recipes seem intent on shoving in. Most muffin recipes for example have at least a cup of sugar! It's dumb because they really don't need it for sweetener its usually added to make it brown. Unfortunately leaving it out often makes the recipe a flop, literally, they don't rise, it kind of looks like dense foam at the end. A post by a chef says to never eliminate it entirely but you can halve it or even quarter and it should still work. I don't ever use artificial sweetener, i react badly too it and so do most kids and it tastes horrid. If i have to add sweetener i use sugar, its actually better for you than the artificial stuff. So, here are some ideas I have been searching for. Hope they help you also!
Pancake bites - put some pancake batter into a muffin tin with some fruit like blueberrys or strawberrys and cook until puffed and slightly golden. You can use my go to banana pancakes for this. One ripe banana mashed with one egg and 1tbls self raising flour with a dash of bicarb for extra lift (adjust flour according to size of egg, you may need more to make a thicker batter).
Pinwheels - Smear some Nuttiva (healthier nutella or chocolate spread) onto a wrap. Add a peeled banana and wrap it all up then cut into sushi pieces. The original recipe uses peanut butter but most schools are nut free zones.
Peach upside down cakes - I love this idea but will have to play around a bit to omit the sugar. Maybe apple sauce? Dates? and a touch more bicarb for lift?
Mini Quiche - usually ham and cheese but spinach can work if your kid doesn't notice...
Potato bites and salsa - Potatoes are rich in vitamin K and essential to good blood health. Please eat them!
I'm trying Sandwich sushi this week with cream cheese, ham and cucumber and carrot. Wish me luck. Basically remove the crust. Use a rolling pin the roll the bread flat then top with your filling, roll up and cut. Cream cheese is good because the other things stick to it.
Wheetbix and date loaf. Its amazing, it does have half a cup of sugar but its a large loaf. May swap it for apple sauce and see how it goes. Im also out of dates so might see how saultanas go.
Pumpkin scones - Great for Halloween, and you can't taste the pumpkin. They are just savoury and go great with butter and honey.
Corn, cheese and polenta muffins - These are cheesy and have bacon. What more can you want? They go great with a cream of chicken cup a soup but for the kids just chuck some butter on them. Better yet, no sugar!
This is my attach plan, good luck with your own.
