Healthy & filling snacks for school lunch?

[princesspwrhr]

I heart this thread!

My daughter is 9, a little overweight and starting to be more self-conscious about it. She's been more aware of the fact that what she eats can affect her. We've been slowly but surely making more changes. She doesn't have a large palate as far as fruits & veggies go, so it's a challenge to make sure she gets enough. Great ideas on this thread!

Try smoothies. You get a smoother blend with high end blenders like a Blendtec or Vitamix, but you can make good smoothies with your standard issue ones as well. You can do green smoothies which have all kinds of good for you but most kids won't touch stuff in them like spinach & broccoli, but taste great because there is also pineapple, kiwi & apples in it. You can do other veggies in smoothies as well - just google it, it's a fun way to get your vegetables in. And of course you can hide massive quantities of vegetables pureed in pasta sauce if you need too. Get a double punch by blending a bunch of veggies in a pasta sauce and using spaghetti squash instead of pasta. Also try cooking a veggie in a different way, or serving it raw.

 

[virge]

I love the posts here. Real mom with real suggestions for kids' lunches. I often find good usable ideas.

What are my kids eating?

 

[Janepod]

There is a lot of great advice here already. I would just add, try to have as little wheat, dairy (other than nonfat) and sugar in her diet as possible. When I want to drop weight fast, I cut out those things and the pounds fly off.

Google the paleo diet. It's not for someone who wants to "live a little" but for healthy eating and weight loss it really can't be beat.

 

[Maddies Mama]

Google the paleo diet. It's not for someone who wants to "live a little" but for healthy eating and weight loss it really can't be beat.

Going along with this, I recommend reading a book called Wheat Belly by Dr William Davis. It's an interesting, eye-opening read. I'm not 100% paleo by any means but I have incorporated many aspects of it into my everyday diet and have never felt better.

 

[squirrel]

Lettuce wraps-I like using canned tuna or chicken breast as the protein.