Lunch Box Ideas For Your Preschooler

Another challenge a mother faces in her parenting days is what to cook for the child? What to serve that is healthy? And when it comes for the toddlers, she has to bake the yummilicious food to turn little devil into a foodie. Yes, this is a difficult task to serve an interesting tiffin for your child especially in junior school. I have witnessed many times with my son, when the regular food in his tiny box didn't raise his liking and he was empty stomach for whole span of school time. That day I learnt the magic of good tiffin ideas.

How To Start With The Idea?

• Let your child choose her favourite tiffin box with good number of compartments. This concept is known as Bento Box where a complete meal is served in box with multiple divisions. This has come from japan, where kids were served whole meal with rice, noodles or veggies
• Accompany the tiffin with a simple siper that don't have any small caps or covers that may pose choking hazards
• Involve your child while you plan the platter. Ask her what she would like to discover when she will open her tiffin in school
• Plan the dishes for individual days, it will help give your child complete nutrition
• Avoid adding messy foods that trigger play more than eating. E.g khichdi, curd, daal, etc. They are not handy for young ones at school

Some Meal Ideas For An Exciting & Healthy Tiffin Box In Pre–schoolers

Monday Fun:

To give away the blues, fix this day for chicken/paneer/ stuffed kathi rolls or wheat parathas with green chutney. Keep spices light and simple. Endorse it with some fruit juice in bottle or cubed fruit salad.

Tuesday Dos:

Make them more healthy with veg poha or stuffed Idlis. Even dhoklas/ khandvis or vegetable vermicelli could also be opted as per childs taste. Serve them with sauteed potatoes or carrot sticks.

Wednesday Cools:

Keep this day traditional with just roti/ spinach puri and a vegetable. Add on the meal with hummus dip and cucumber sticks.

Thursday Masti:

Dedicate this day to healthy brown bread. You can make veg/ non veg sandwiches with hummus, only butter cucumber/carrot sliced with pepper. Mashed beans, potato or cheese could be used and over do it with sprouts salad.

Friday Cheers:

Approach the weekend with moong dal chilla, vegetable uttapam, suji or besan chilla with green sauce and mayonnaise. Increase the smiles with sauteed mushroom or cheese filled baked cherry tomatoes.

Saturday Fried Food:

Fix one day for healthy home fast food. For pasta/ macaroni, simply saute mushroom/ paneer/ carrot/broccoli in butter and add black pepper for the easy taste. Add all green good vegetables for a multigrain pizza with corn. Enhance the tiffin with chicken nuggets or paneer cubes.

Every child is unique, so are their taste and food preferences.

• Never serve anything new to your child in tiffin, such experiments are good for home only
• Try to build simple food,rich with nutrition and interesting presentation
• It's good to opt bento box idea. Follow it at least once a week
• Serve your child with 2 or 3 good options in tiffin. You never know when they change their favourites
• Put in quick snack saviour like boiled corns, whole wheat/oat cookies, cornflakes, vegetable/salad sticks, makhanas and dry fruits to munch in
• Serving juices, buttermilk, coconut water, flavoured electrols in summers,could be a good idea

Happy box-ing!

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