Ten Healthy Lunchbox Treats.
This post is sponsored by nudie juice and Contagious
Sometimes it’s nice to slip a little treat into my kids’ lunchboxes. But I don’t want to send them to school with total junk that has next to no nutritional value and won’t fill them up, so I’ve made a list of ‘healthier’ lunchbox treats that are school friendly – that means they don’t contain nuts, they travel well, and my kids will actually eat them!
Ten Healthy Lunchbox Treats.
- Pita Chips
- Frozen Juice Box
- Popcorn.
- Frozen Fruit Cup
- Dried Apple Chips
- Apricot and Coconut Balls
- Homemade Muesli Bars.
- Fruit Puree
- Apple and Oat Pancakes
- Fruit Leather
The kids can make these pita chips themselves using left over pita bread or tortillas. They’ll keep for up to a week in a sealed container but I bet they won’t last that long!
Juice is a special treat for my kids, and you can’t get any easier than chucking a juice box or four in the freezer! Look for juice boxes that contain nothing but fruit juice (no concentrates), no added sugar or other nasties.
Pop it yourself and you’ll know there is no extra salt or preservatives, plus it is super cheap!
These are perfect for warm weather, though my kids like them all year round. Just freeze some sliced fresh or tinned fruit in some 100% fruit juice. We like peach and pineapple in orange juice. Make sure you use a container with a tight fitting lid and don’t forget to send a spoon!
You can make your own dried apple chips easily in your oven. Dip them in some orange juice for a tangy flavour or add some cinnamon.
This great recipe from Childhood101 for Apricot and Coconut balls is a favourite in our house. They are quick and easy to make, with no added sugar, and they are delicious!
I make at least one batch of homemade muesli bars every week. My kids love them! They don’t take long to make and I love that I have complete control over what goes into them, so I know there are no nuts or salt or other ingredients I am not keen on.
You can buy fruit puree in little cups in the supermarket, but it is easy to make your own too. We have lots of apples right now, so some cooked apples with some frozen raspberries, whizzed it all together in the food processor makes a quick and easy treat. I send this to school in a little tube container with a screw top lid, so it doesn’t leak.
These apple and oat pancakes started out as a snack, then they became breakfast and now I make mini ones to put in school lunches. With oats, wholemeal flour and honey they are a healthier alternative to cakes or biscuits.
Despite being nothing but fruit, homemade fruit leather is a little like lollies if you ask me! Sweet and chewy!
I am constantly looking for new things to add to my list so I have a good variety of healthy snacks to choose from. When I’m looking for healthier options these are a few things I look out for:
- Read the Labels
- Get the Kids Involved
- Think About How it is Packaged
You don’t have to make snacks yourself for them to be healthy. The trick is to know what is important to you and learn how to decipher the information on the label, so you are only buying foods that fit with your values. Be aware of what you can and can’t send to school and know your school’s allergy and food exclusion policy.
No point in sending a fabulously healthy treat to school if your kids don’t eat it! Talk to your kids about healthy eating, teach them how to read labels, and ask them what they like and don’t like. Also ask them about how and when they eat their snacks – do they need something they can grab and eat quickly as they run off to play, or do they have more time for something that might be slower to devour?
Make sure food is easy to access and well stored. Containers or packets that are hard to open might just get left in the lunchbox, and there is nothing worse than a leaking container! I aim to reduce rubbish sent to school as much as possible so we use lots of plastic containers and pockets when we can.
{disclosure: This is a sponsored post, find more information about sponsored posts here. All opinions are my own.}
Lunchboxes are the bane of my life and yet I gain some sick pleasure from creating healthy lunchboxes. Occasionally my children eat everything, occasionally they come home whinging about everyone else having ‘shop biscuits’. I did this to my own mother – I had sprouted bread before it was ‘the thing’. We all turn into our mothers apparently. So…anyways…my lunchbox favourites for my children are ‘mountain bread sushi’ – mountain bread with avocado or vegeminte and tightly rolled up and cut into sushi style pieces, popcorn (like you!), nut free bliss balls, ‘trail mix’ of bran flakes, currants, yoghurt drops and sunflower seeds, ‘cheese sticks’ of spelt bread dough with cheese on top (super quick), chicken drumsticks, homemade dip and vegetable sticks, mini homemade bacon and cheese rolls. I could go on…
My kids LOVE popcorn. They actually go a little nuts for it! I cook it in a little coconut oil and it is just DIVINE! In summer though you can’t beat a frozen popper or a frozen tub of yoghurt….mmmm yum!
My little girl loves taking Date & Sunflower Seed truffles to daycare. I sneak in Pepitas, Sesame and Chia seeds too. Lucky it makes a big batch, ’cause I love them too!
Your homemade muesli bars go over well at our house! Great as after school snack too. As basic as it sounds my girls love a bit of cut up fruit salad as fruit snack. Whatevers in season. I squeeze a bit of cut up orange over the apple and pear to stop browning and it never comes back that afternoon!
My little girl just loves cucumber sticks. I usually add a little hommus dip to a small container and sprinkle in a few sultanas and she absolutely loves it. Great challenge scooping out the sultanas with the cucumber.
Ants on a log. Celery stick, cream cheese and sultanas.
the yoghurt we make together, we half fill a small container and freeze it, then top it up in the morning and pack into the lunch boxes, helps the lunchbox stay cool, and there is some ready to rock and roll should they want some any time :)
It’s more of an after school (daycare) treat but we love frozen fruit – oranges wedges, pears and banana pops just insert stick into it before freezing. Sometimes I even freeze leftover custard ( made with minimal sugar) in icy pole moulds.
My kids think it’s never too cold for icy poles or ice cream !
Homemade Veggie Slice, similar to zucchini slice with grated zucchini in it but I throw in carrot, sweet potato and even brussel sprouts for colour and a different taste. Its basically vegetables and egg with a little flour and they eat it all up. Great way to sneak in the ones they don’t like too because they don’t know they are there.
Not school age as yet but he goes nuts over the jelly cups I make where I let the jelly nearly set and put different pieces of fruit in to make smiley faces and such. He helps me sometimes and gets a lot of excitement out of them
We are so lucky at our school, our canteen has so many fabulous healthy options. You will not find donuts or hotdogs in this place…So my kids favourite healthy lunchbox treat is something delicious from the canteen. I have to admit when I put healthy treats in their lunchbox I am frowned upon. But lovely Jenny in the canteen can do no wrong in their eyes.
My daughter has this every day: a multigrain roll with grated cheese and black pizza olive – lots of them. That is her absolutley favourite sandwich ever! Everyone thinks she is weird liking this, but she doesn’t care, and neither do I!
Sushi is a family favourite here, kept in a thermos in bite size rolls, along with yoghurt cheese and herb dip with carrot and celery sticks! Usually three out of three go for those!
I love your list of healthy treats!
We LOVE stove top popcorn, but for a special treat after I dump it out into another bowl, I melt some butter and honey in the hot pot and then mix the popcorn through it, then toss in a tiny bit of salt. Sooo delicious – tastes like a true dessert but only takes a few seconds longer than regular popcorn. I call it “Honey Popcorn” and the kids think it’s the best thing ever ;-)
Well, after reading your article and all the previous comments I can now safely declare myself as the worst mum in the world!! My kids regularly get Tiny Teddies, store bought muesli bars and pre-packed popcorn! Oh the shame! I used to make healthy muffins as lunch box treats but they would eat them one day then not want them again and it felt like such a waste so I stopped bothering ???? But I’m now feeling newly inspired and plan to try one or two of your suggestions in these last few days of term. Perhaps a big cook-off in the holidays will stock the freezer again and we will have time to try some new recipes together. So thanks for all the ideas and the wake up call. Look out healthy lunch boxes, here we come!
My fussy pair have a few little faves
Spinach and fetta scrolls they always crave
Carrots, pikelets, muffins and more
Fill their tummy’s with food they adore!
My boys love apricot & coconut balls too, but the recipe I have has a whole tin of condensed milk in it! I’ll try the recipe linked above with orange juice – much healthier, thanks:-)
Perino tomatoes! At $4 a punnet they are the most expensive but the sweetest little tomatoes :)
My kids are popcorn crazy. We pop a ton of bags during the week just a quick and easy lunchbox treat. Its also really versatile. I can make it sweet by adding a small amount of icing sugar or I can add some vanilla essence when cooking. The kids also love a cajun popcorn for a bit of savoury spice!
Baked Beans!! My kids love them!!