With the new school year well and truly upon us, we – like so many parents around the country – are scratching our heads trying to remember what on earth we used to pack in our kids lunchboxes each morning. Did we peel our bananas, or add them in whole? Was it always a sandwich, or did we branch out to wraps? And was what we used to pack actually nutritious, or were we accidentally missing whole food groups without even realising?

Well, wonder no more. Here we have 3 healthy, nutritionally balanced and easy children’s lunchbox combinations, collated by our in-house dietitian.

Lunchbox 1

• Wholemeal sandwich with cheese and lettuce (or no lettuce)
• Cucumber sticks and tomatoes
• Hard boiled egg
• Apple
• Raw peppermint choc date ball

Lunchbox 2

• Tuna pasta salad (it sounds fancy, but just mix cold pasta with some tinned tuna, chopped tomatoes and a few chopped olives. Add mayo if you like).
• 1 tub/pouch of yoghurt
• Mixed veggie sticks (whatever you have to hand)
• Banana
• Popcorn bark (see recipe)

Lunchbox 3

• Wholemeal wrap spread with cream cheese and a little jam*
• Cheese cubes and crackers
• Carrot sticks with hummus
• Fruit salad (whatever you have)

*A dietitian recommending jam in a sandwich? Yes. Of course, lean meat and salad would be wonderful, but if your little one won’t eat that, or the week has caught up with you and you haven’t had a chance to prepare the beautiful pre-roasted meat and salad, then adding some jam to a wholemeal wrap with cream cheese is A-ok in my book.

Want to read more about what makes a healthy lunchbox? Read our Unpacking Health Lunchboxes blog for a dieitian's overview of what really makes a healthy lunchbox, and how you can replicate this at home.

 For more lunchbox packing tips, check out these great lunchbox packing ideas from the Audrey & Alfie community or our blog on 'How to pack a healthy lunchbox'.