Over the course of a standard school year, the parent of one child will make about 180 lunches. It can be a time-consuming, often frustrating morning ritual—even more so if lunches come home half-eaten. Candice Chow, a Calgary-based registered dietitian and a lunch-packing mom of three kids, says the key to building a midday meal that gets munched is to offer options that are the same serving size as your standard sandwich and snack. “It’s all about trying to find a good balance, which to me means a bit of variety, whether it be in the grain product, vegetables and fruit, milk and alternative or meat and alternative part of their lunch.” Just choose one thing from each of these categories and you will have a month’s worth of different lunch ideas.
grain products — choose whole grains more often
• 2 slices of bread
• 1 pita or tortilla (7″ diameter)
• 1 cup cooked pasta/rice
• 1 bagel (4″ diameter)
• 8-12 crackers (2″ square)
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