As the start of a new school year kicks off, parents of children across the country will be dusting off lunch boxes ready to pack them with delicious delights. And many of those parents will be planning the traditional ‘sandwich, crisps and a biscuit’ combination, which can often be chock full of saturated fat, salt and sugar.

Food writer Amanda Grant hopes her new book, ‘Healthy Lunchboxes For Kids’, will help parents realise it’s easy to abandon boring sandwiches and salty snacks, and replace them with balanced, healthy, packed lunches that children will enjoy.

“It’s all about giving them some goodness and keeping their energy up,” she says. 

But it doesn’t mean spending extra hours in the kitchen, or being a culinary genius, she promises. The mother-of-three explains that the trick is to make food for lunch boxes when you’re already cooking.

“I’m a busy mum - I’m working and I’ve got three little ones - so I totally understand about having to juggle lots of things. Cook extra pasta when you’re making a pasta dish anyway, or make double the amount of soup you need when you’re cooking it for dinner - this will help you prepare things that are a bit different. Even adults would get bored if we had a cheese sandwich every day.”

The book features everything from one-pot salads and hot food dishes to snacks and sweet ideas.

“The menu planner features turkey with cranberry sauce wrap on Monday, tuna and sweetcorn pasta on Tuesday, egg mayonnaise and watercress sandwich on Wednesday, sardine, lemon and lettuce sandwich on a Thursday and butternut squash soup on Friday,” she says. 

“Healthy to me is all about variety,” she adds, suggesting that parents can put dried fruits in a child’s lunchbox if they prefer, or make a fruit smoothie at breakfast which can go into a bottle for lunch.

“It can be really simple and fit in with everyday eating - it’s just thinking of it slightly differently and not quickly whizzing things together in that breakfast madness when you’re trying to get the children fed and out of the house by a particular time. And different doesn’t have to mean difficult. It’s fine to give them a cheese sandwich, but how about trying cheese with grated apple in it, or cheese with beetroot?”

Lunchbox Tips

A packed lunch should provide one-third of your child’s daily requirements of nutrients: protein to keep them alert, complex carbohydrates for slow release energy, protein and calcium for growth, fat for staying power, and fruit and vegetables for vitamins and minerals.

Always add a piece of fruit or vegetable to the packed lunch - it will become habit for your children to eat it.

Vary the fruits and vegetables - ask the children to help you to work through the colours of the rainbow each week/month.

Try offering a dip with vegetables. 

A small pot of hummus served with carrots always tends to be a popular.

Keep food chilled by putting kitchen paper around a frozen bottle of water and placing it in the middle of the lunchbox. It will keep everything cool, and should thaw enough by lunchtime to give your child a refreshing drink.

If your child comes out of school starving and with food left over, encourage them to finish what’s left before offering anything else. Some children will deliberately leave the bits they don’t like if they think something more interesting might be on offer after school.