More Creative Lunchbox Ideas

The schools in my area are starting up this week and next week, so it seemed like a good time to review suggestions for healthy lunchboxes, which are of course appropriate for kids and adults alike.  The biggest problem that I see with lunchboxes is the use of overly-proceessed prepared foods that have lots of preservatives, dyes, high fructose corn syrup and transfats in them.  Simply reaching for a homemade alternative can make it tremendously healthier.  In addition, most people love packing (and eating) fruit with lunch.  Fruit is wonderful and a diversity of fruit provides great vitamins and nutrients, but I hope that this doesn’t come at the expense of vegetables.  Here are some ideas:

–Chicken drumsticks — Lunch is usually about convenience and ease of eating.  What’s more convenient than a chicken drumstick?  My current favorite is the oven fried drumstick (eaten cold), but the simmered drumstick and bacon drumstick are good as well. Be sure to pack napkins.

–Egg muffins — these are basically a frittata baked in individual servings in a muffin tin. You can add anything you want to the frittata including vegetables, cheese, meats, and spices.  I like this chorizo mushroom recipe baked as egg muffins.

–Salad in a shaker – one of the chain restaurants used to serve these, although I haven’t seen this in several years.  The general idea is to take a seal-able food container and stack various salad ingredients in this.  Put the wetter, more solid items like chicken cubes, tomatoes on the bottom, then various veggies like cucumber, shredded carrot, and so on.  End with lettuce on the top, and don’t fill to the very top.  Pack the dressing in a separate small container.  At lunch time, pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and shake  to combine all of the ingredients.

–Veggie sticks — In warm weather times, I love veggie sticks and dip for lunch.  Instead of the usual boring carrot sticks, I try to have some variety with zucchini, red pepper, jicama and blanched broccoli. I like to have a hummus or yogurt type dip for the veggies.

shared at Works for Me Wednesday, Food Renegade, and Pennywise Platter