I confess!  I have NEVER had to make school lunches on a consistent basis. We have always lived close to the school and therefore, my daughter had the privilege of coming home and eating hot healthy lunches! I know, I’m super lucky, right? Well, that has all changed! My eldest daughter is in Grade 5 this year and is attending a new school,which unfortunately, is a 20min bus trip away.

So now I’m really putting everything I know about making healthy food “easy” to the test!

Before I give you the details of the lunch I sent to school today. I have a caveat! My daughter has been living, eating breathing, natural health and nutrition since she can remember. When she gets a cut, she asks for the “tea tree oil”. When she is sick, she has become accustom to making her own fresh lemon and ginger tea with honey. She adores good food and it is constantly a battle to get anything done in my kitchen because she is making a new recipe and creating a HUGE mess in the process!  Yes, all good problems to have! That’s not to say that she doesn’t love sugar and junk food as much as the next kid, believe me, its still a struggle to keep her away from what she sees is “normal” for other kids.

(This is a picture of her at my friend Marni Wasserman’s Food Studio during a March break cooking camp!)

She has also been on a “mostly” gluten and dairy free nutrition plan for the better part of a year. The reasons for which, I will get into in another post, but suffice it to say, it makes all of us happy. I say all of this because I don’t want you to get discouraged and think to yourself “my kid would never eat that”! Actually, the fact is I KNOW most of you are going to think and probably tell me just that!  But what I want you to know, is that in time and with small changes each and every day.  You CAN and WILL be able to get your kids to eat more whole natural foods and lots of veggies! It does take time, an awful lot of patience and admittedly it is not easy. But it IS possible! Just remember that kids like routine and they are accustom to eating in a way that is “normal” to them. Your job is to slowly create a new normal! Don’t worry, I’m here to help!

With that being said, I give you today’s lunch!

Main: Chicken salad with fresh ontario tomatoes, avocado and cucumber!  I can’t forget to tell you that my daughter cut the tomatoes and cucumber all by herself this morning while I was getting my morning “BodyRocking” in!

I added a little apple cider vinegar (ACV) to the veggies to keep the avocado from browning.  I was out of fresh lemon, so I’m hoping that worked! I sent her with the dressing on the side which consisted of ACV, organic olive oil, maple syrup and dijon mustard. That is my “go to” dressing for everything! Keep it easy!

As you can see from the above photo, I sent sides that consisted of an organic apple, carrots and hummus, a mini organic dark chocolate bar and, a nut/gluten/dairy free coconut flour wild blueberry muffin! What I forgot to include in the photo was my version of “ants on a log” plus a baby organic cucumber as a snack.  The “ants on a log” consisted of organic tahini with a small amount of unpasturized honey and a few organic currants! When you can’t use a “nut butter” you need to get creative!

So that’s it.  The beginning of a very long and time consuming job that I’m sure I will be cursing about, oh, in about a week! But it truly is a labor of love!  I CAN NOT wait to receive the stainless steel “LunchBots” I ordered!  I promise to give you a review!! The glass containers are great for the house, but really heavy to lug around in a backpack!!

As always, questions and comments are welcome!

Best in health,

Ciara