Annabel Karmel - Lunch Boxes and Snacks: Over 120 healthy recipes from delicious sandwiches and salads to hot soups and sweet treats

lunch boxes and snacks Also by Annabel Karmel Complete Party Planner
SuperFoods
Top 100 Baby Purees
Favorite Family Meals
The Healthy Baby Meal Planner For more information, visit
www.annabelkarmel.com

Over 120 healthy recipes,
from delicious sandwiches and salads
to hot soups and sweet treats Annabel Karmel This book is dedicated to all those parents who cant face
making yet another peanut butter sandwich, myself included.
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com Text copyright 2003,2007 by Annabel Karmel
Photographs copyright 2003 by William Lingwood
Photographs copyright 2007 by Dave King
Originally published in Great Britain in 2003 as Lunchboxes by Ebury Press
This new, expanded edition created in 2007 by Eddison Sadd Editions All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 First Atria Books hardcover edition December 2007 ATRIA BOOKS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact
Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or business@simonandschuster.com. Manufactured in the United States of America 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Karmel, Annabel.
Lunch boxes and snacks: over 120 healthy recipes, from delicious sandwiches and salads to hot soups and sweet treats / Annabel Karmel.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Lunch box cookery. 2.

Cookery (Natural foods). I. Title.
TX735.K37 2007
641.53dc22 2007020048 ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-4892-8
ISBN-10: 1-4165-4892-0
eISBN-13: 978-1-4165-6502-4

Welcome to Lunch Boxes and Snacks, the book aimed at putting the fun back into making packed lunches for children. The ubiquitous sandwich neednt be a slice of ham slammed between two pieces of bread; it can be a delicious, moist filling of chopped ham and tomatoes mixed into cream cheese to fill a pita pocket. Hot meals can warm a hungry tummy on cold winter days, and treats can be made by your child to meet his or her own, sometimes exacting, needs. According to a recent study, three out of four elementary and middle school parents regularly pack lunches for their children.

Packed lunches are typically seen as the healthier option, but this is often wishful thinking. Children are all different, but what they usually want is a quick, tasty meal. A soda, potato chips, and a candy bar can be wolfed down in minutes, saving maximum time for the playground, but obviously this is not an ideal, nutritious lunch that will sustain them until dinnertime. Below are some of the questions that thousands of parents battle with on a daily basis. How do you make a packed lunch healthy and still get your child to eat it? What do you do if your child is a fussy eater and likes only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? How do you keep the food fresh and still looking good? How do you cope when other children bring in lunch boxes filled with potato chips, chocolate cookies, and soft drinks? What do you do if you want your child to have a hot meal for lunch when the weather is cold and miserable? Read on, thats what you do!

In a recent survey on childrens packed lunches, it was found that eight in ten packed lunches include potato chips or other salty snacks (see below). More than a third of parents give a chocolate cookie.

Healthy foods presented in an enticing way are more likely to appeal to children, like cheese and cherry tomatoes threaded onto a straw, or miniature chicken balls. Both make great finger food. Top 10 items packed in childrens lunch boxes Sandwich 94 percent Potato chips or other salty snacks 84 percent Fruit juice or juice drink 72 percent Piece of fresh fruit 68 percent Yogurt 56 percent Chocolate cookie 35 percent Cheese 31 percent Chocolate bar 29 percent Piece of cake 26 percent Cereal bar 25 percent Im not a believer in extremes of any kindI dont think potato chips or chocolate cookies should be totally off-limits to children, but neither do I believe that a jelly sandwich, package of chips, chocolate cookie, and soft drink constitute a proper meal. There is a happy medium, and its important to remember that habits and food choices begin in childhood and what children eat can make a big difference to their long-term health. A healthy lunch box should: Help to improve your childs attention span, behavior, and learning in the afternoon Provide one-third of your childs daily requirements of nutrients Contain a source of protein to keep children alert, complex carbohydrates for slow-release energy, protein and calcium for growth, fat for staying power, and fruit and vegetables for vitamins and minerals In order to contribute to a healthy, balanced diet, your childs packed lunch should include elements from all the food groups shown below.

Choose complex carbohydrates like whole-grain bread, pasta, potatoes, or rice, as they release calories slowly and help to sustain energy levels and concentration.

Refined carbohydrates such as white bread, cookies, and cake provide only instant, short-lived energy. Their natural fiber is stripped during processing, and most of their valuable nutrients are lost. The more fiber and protein eaten with starchy or sugary foods, the more slowly those foods are digested and released as sugar into the system. For fast-release energy, offer banana; dried fruit; apricot; mango; fruit juice; white bread; popcorn. For slow-release energy, give pasta salad with tuna or chicken; peanut butter sandwich on whole-grain bread; egg sandwich; rice cakes with hummus; pumpkin or sunflower seeds; nuts; raw vegetables and cherry tomatoes; apple; grapes; plums; kiwifruit.

Children under the age of five shouldnt have a low-fat diet, so choose whole-milk products like Greek-style yogurt rather than low-fat yogurt.

In a recent survey, it was found that 25 percent of young girls were not getting enough calcium in their diet to build strong bones. This could lead to osteoporosis later in life, so make sure that you regularly include dairy products in your childs lunch box. Cheese, yogurt, yogurt drinks, smoothies, and milk shakes are all excellent sources of calcium.

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