One simple tip for keeping kids lunches healthy

Jamie Oliver is a hero. And people who get behind him without any direct benefit, are amazing.
Karen Humphrey's, a blogger from the West Coast, started making his twitter stuff go viral.

"Ms. Humphrey, a working mother of a 14-year-old son, created Food Revolution Fridays: a digital extension of Mr. Oliver’s mission that has won his approval.

Every Friday, Ms. Humphrey writes about a healthy meal she made for her family at cookienotes.blogspot.com. Dozens of others do the same, replacing sodium-rich pizza delivery with Mr. Oliver’s broccoli salad and crunchy garlic chicken."

I've been hanging with some of the wonderful mamas from my daughter's school. Every time I'm out with them, we end up talking about what we're feeding our kids. We turn to each other for advice or little bits of comfort that we're doing the right thing by them.

Before school started last September, I started my search for the perfect lunch bag. I caught wind of the bento box lunch kit. It peaked my interest because Japanese food is one of our favourite eating out things to do. We always order a bento box and share.

So I thought getting a lunch system that would allow for several small containers for multiple food groups would be a great way to ensure my daughter didn't end up pulling one thing out of a lunch bag and forgetting about the other good stuff I packed. It also keeps me disciplined in the way I pack her lunch. There are four containers, one for a veggie, one for a fruit, one for a substantial and a third with a little 'treat' she's allowed to eat if she eats the rest. And since each container is small, it doesn't allow me to over pack food which can serve to overwhelm kids.

The main benefit for the bento box lunch kit is that I can't put prepackaged foods in it. They just don't fit. This means she doesn't get processed foods in her lunch ( not that I needed a lunch kit to stop me from doing this). She also comes home with virtually no garbage, Love it!

The bento box lunch kit isn't cheap but it's durable. The plastic is safe and it's easy for me to measure out portions and then immediately see how she ate when we get home. I also include her in choosing what we put in her lunch so I know she's agreed to eat whatever I've packed. One less reason for her to not eat well. Just like Karen Humphrey's, I don't pack traditional lunch things. She gets leftovers from dinner, soup, you name it and she doesn't look at lunch food and dinner food as being anything different. She knows she always have to have a veggie with lunch. Those are just the rules.

Karen Humphrey adds in a Globe and Mail article from today:
"I’ve absolutely seen a change in kids when they have a healthy lunch because I work for a school district. I’ve seen kids – their energy is so much better, they’re calmer, they do better in school when they’ve had healthy food to eat."

If you have any fool proof tips for other parents out there, post 'em! We can all help each other make the job of keeping our kids healthy easier by sharing information.