How To Make Your Lunchboxes Easy and Preservative Free (With No Baking)

I make lunches in the morning.

I don’t mind doing lunches, what I dislike is having nothing in the house to put in them. I don’t buy packet things and I don’t buy things with preservatives and chemicals in there, so sometimes when there are minutes left until school starts and I do an emergency run to the shops,  I make things extremely hard for myself.

So I was going to write myself a permanent list this year of what I needed and then I thought putting it in a blog may help some Mum’s who find lunches hard-work.

So this is a quick run down of how I make super-easy, healthy lunches everyday for my kids.

First I start with a good lunchbox that separates things and gives me a goal to work towards – ie fill up all the spaces.

I use these planet boxes but anything that has separate sections is a great idea. Pros: No plastic to worry about, comes with a cover that has pockets that you can put more food in if you want, and an icepack. Cons: It’s heavy and expensive. I got a family member to buy one for the boys for Christmas. We have used it way more than any toy they could have been given.

Let’s face it – the humble sandwich is by far the most popular item for a lunchbox, parents and children alike, so I usually put one in. I also use wraps. Mountain Bread are my absolute fave.

To make a sandwich without numbers (did you know most sandwich bread have lots of preservatives and non-natural ingredients) you need to find a good bread. The best one in the supermarkets are the Organic Ancient Grain ones (can be pricey and hard to find) or Abbotts which is on par with cost of normal bread and also in taste and texture. I get the wholemeal Abbotts or the sourdough wholemeal from Ancient Grains.

Fillings:

Nitrate free ham and bacon, Roast chicken, Roast meat, Cheese

Any salads that they like (cucumber, tomato, avo)

Organic Honey

Organic butter

Then I add fruit and veges for morning tea:

Mango, apple, stone fruit, banana, watermelon, blueberries strawberries, carrot sticks, mini-cucumbers or normal cucumber, cherry tomatoes. I get my produce delivered from Organic Collective.

I wash non-organic produce with a fruit and vege wash to get rid of any pesticides that I can.

Then I add the treat:

Organic popcorn or cornchips, dried fruit that is sulfur-free (organic sultanas, cranberries, apricots etc), or bliss balls.

My bliss ball recipe is easy:

Dates (sulfur-free), desiccated coconut (organic as others contain anti-caking agents), choc -powder – sometimes a protein powder (I use welle co) or just straight cocao.

I throw random amounts of ingredients in my food processor, whizz it up until it is rollable (technical term) and then roll it in coconut and put in fridge to harden. If you need quantities it is approx a cup or two of coconut a tablespoon or two of cocao and 8-10 dates.

And done. They get a variation of this most days with the occasional leftovers instead of the sandwich.

Ingredient list to have in your pantry: 

Abbotts or Ancient Grain Wholemeal Bread

Mountain Bread Wraps 

Nitrate Free Ham and Bacon

Roast Meats

Fruit (Apples, Bananas, Blueberries, Strawberries, Watermelon, Mango, Stone Fruit)

Veges (Carrots, Cucumbers, Cherry Tomatoes)

Popcorn and Corn Chips

Dried fruit (Sultanas, Cranberries, Apricots, Dates)

Coconut

Choc Protein Pwder (with no nasties) or cocao

What is important to me is that the lunchboxes have nutrients, contain energy, real food and isn’t full of chemicals.

Too easy.

If you want to find out more on healthy eating and feeding your kids with better ingredients, you can buy my book, How To Be One Healthy Mama here.

Good luck for the Mamas and the kids starting school tomorrow xx