Meal prepping for kids is a great way for awesome moms and dads to put together easy lunch meals that are healthy. Store-bought ready-to-go meals are typically full of sodium, cholesterol, and sugar — all detrimental to your kids’ physical, emotional, and intellectual growth and development. Your so-called picky eater may have become partial to these meals, but we all know that just because something tastes good, does not necessarily mean that it’s healthy for our bodies.
Lunchtime is a fantastic opportunity to provide your child with the fuel necessary to continue their learning for the rest of the day. By healthy meal prepping, you help ensure that the food they eat actually helps their focus while developing their brains in the process.
These meal planning tips and ideas can ensure that your child is given a good dose of healthy foods.
Meal Prepping for Kids: Ideas to Try
Your kids’ lunches do not need to be complicated or time-consuming. Simply start with one or two main dishes, and then be sure to include a couple of healthy sides.
In fact, many Bento-style lunch containers have room for both bigger items and several smaller snack-type items. If you’re looking for ideas for easy lunch meal prep for picky eaters, these Bento-style boxes are a great idea.
Here are a few recipes and lunch prep ideas for kids to spark your kitchen creativity:
- Taco Lunch Bowls
- Fajita Bowls
- Pasta Salad
- Lettuce Wraps
For healthy sides, you may want to consider:
- Veggies: raw broccoli, carrot sticks, celery
- Fruit: grapes, pineapple rings, sliced apples or pears
- Nut butter and whole-grain crackers (or, if you’re looking for nut free lunch ideas, try using sunflower butter or chickpea butter)
Kid Friendly Meal Prep: Get Them Involved
One fun way to include your kids is to let them help out with meal prepping. By doing so, you are enriching your child’s experiences and providing new opportunities for them to appreciate the importance of maturing a healthy relationship with food.
Kids need to experience a healthy dose of power and control in their lives to mature properly. What better way than to let them choose their favorite fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes to put together their very own rotatable lunch prep menu.
Easy Kid Meal Prep: Plan Ahead
Shopping should become a weekly routine that the kids can look forward to. Instead of waiting for the kids to be in school to run off to the grocery store by yourself, do it together.
Choose one day of the week to tackle your grocery list and make it an adventure — check out different fresh food markets and local farmers in your area. This is an easy way to make meal prepping for kids fun and memorable.
Even if your schedule is super busy, you can still ensure that your kids eat fresh produce through one of several farm delivery services such as FarmFreshToYou. With your groceries on hand, start planning out the week, including easy meals for babysitters to make.
Use the weekend to do your chopping, weighing, and measuring as a family. Then, you won’t have to worry about scrambling around to put together lunches early in the morning or late evening the night before school.
PRO TIP: Remember to invest in several containers because most food items can last in the fridge for several days.