Another school year has begun, so all mothers have their hands full. One of the daily activities is to prepare a lunch for their child. The most popular choice for this meal are undoubtedly sandwiches. Certainly they have many advantages: fast in the preparation, easy to pack and carry, convenient to eat in virtually any conditions. However, children eat with their eyes, they like colourful, diverse and interesting dishes. Therefore, two slices of bread with ham look very unattractive to our kids. No wonder that such sandwiches often land in a rubbish bin or are brought back home. However, the sandwich does not have to be boring! Prepare this meal so that it is tasty, varied and well balanced. Remember that lunch is extremely important for the proper development of your child. So let’s take a few moments and learn how to properly compose a meal to school.
One of the basic principles of healthy nutrition is that we should eat at least five meals a day. Lunch is especially important for a child attending school. Breakfast is usually eaten in a hurry before leaving home in the morning. Often, this is something that we can quickly prepare, but we forget about it being a wholesome and nutritious meal. Lunch should be an injection of energy for the child, allowing them to last till dinner. We should also take into account that a young, growing body needs many microelements. Among them the most important are B group vitamins, calcium, iron, iodine and zinc. Do not forget about full-value protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The question arises how to compose a meal that meets all the above requirements. Help is coming.
Remember that the basis should be made up of whole wheat bread. It contains a lot of fiber, which satisfies the hunger for a long period of time, and thus reduces the likelihood that the child will want to buy sweets when returning from school. Whole wheat bread also provides many vitamins and minerals, e.g. it contains four times more magnesium compared to white bread. If your child is not used to the taste of wholegrain bread, introduce it gradually. First choose bread from mixed flour, then from wholemeal bread to finally serve whole wheat baked goods with additions of whole grains.
The next step in making sandwiches is to spread them with something. This is an important element so that the child does not get discouraged because they are too dry. In this area we have three products to choose from: butter, margarine or coconut oil. Views on the appropriate choice between butter and margarine have changed over the years among dietitians. 
For children I recommend butter, because it contains vitamins A, D, E and K and folic acid. Although butter contains cholesterol, for a person with normal blood cholesterol, butter is definitely a better choice than margarine, which has very harmful trans fat isomers. Margarines produced by hydrogenation should therefore only be chosen by those who already have high cholesterol levels and those suffering from cardiovascular diseases (i.e. some adults). In turn a great choice without cholesterol is coconut oil.
It is very important that the sandwiches contain as many vegetables as possible. Make a habit to put a lettuce leaf on bread when making each sandwich after the spread. Such an additive has virtually no calories, micronutrients are added in tiny amounts. However, it adds an irreplaceable aesthetic value. A sandwich with lettuce leaves sticking out becomes attractive to a child. In addition, add a lot of other vegetables, preferably with skin, because most minerals are in fact under the skin. So that the sandwich does not become soggy, try to choose vegetables such as peppers or radishes. Cherry tomatoes and cucumbers can be put into a small container and they will serve as an excellent addition to sandwiches. You can also add carrots or celery sticks, and your child will have a healthy snack.
Traditional sandwiches contain cold cuts. If you decide for this option, remember to use lean chicken meat. Also pay attention to the content of meat in the actual meat. Nowadays, we can get meat products with a very low content of real meat, most often it is water, soya and various fillers.
More often than not dairy is a healthier option. Dairy products are also rich in protein, and additionally provide calcium, which is extremely important for the proper development of your child’s bones. Make sure that the popular, but high-fat, cheese does not prevail in your child’s diet. After all, we can create thousands of variations of spreads from cottage cheese. It is enough to add natural yogurt to it and spread it on bread. Note that when combining cottage cheese with yogurt, you get low-fat dairy (about 2%). Avoid buying cheese spreads, most of which contain over 30% fat!
See example recipes for sandwiches with cottage cheese
Mix 100 g of lean cottage cheese with a tablespoon of natural yoghurt. Dice 5 – 6 radishes, chop chives. Add the radish and chives to the cottage cheese, mix all the ingredients, season with pepper to taste. Cottage cheese with peppers and parsley Mix 100 g of lean cottage cheese with a tablespoon of natural yoghurt. Dice the peppers, chop the parsley. Add peppers, parsley and half a teaspoon of sweet (or hot) paprika to the cottage cheese, mix all the ingredients, season with pepper to taste. Cottage cheese with pickled cucumbers and dill Mix 100 g of lean cottage cheese with a tablespoon of natural yoghurt. Dice 3 – 4 cucumbers, chop the dill. Add cucumbers and dill to the cottage cheese, mix all the ingredients, season with pepper to taste.
Fish is another great source of wholesome protein. Remember that our diet should include at least 3 portions of fish weekly. For a child, this principle is especially important because fatty fish (e.g. salmon, mackerel, eel, herring, halibut) provide a lot of omega 3 fatty acids. These acids are essential for proper brain development! Therefore, fish is an excellent ingredient for the second breakfast, allowing for effective learning and intellectual development of the child.
See example recipes for sandwiches with fish
Cut half of the smoked mackerel out of the bone and shred with a fork. Dice 2 – 3 pickled cucumbers and a quarter of pepper. Chop parsley. Mix thoroughly all the ingredients, add a teaspoon of mustard, season with pepper to taste. Tuna paste Boil an egg and cut it into small pieces. Drain the tinned tuna in a homemade sauce. Mix the tuna with the egg, add 2 tablespoons of corn and a spoon of Greek yoghurt, season with pepper to taste. Salmon sandwich Spread a slice of wholemeal bread with butter, add a lettuce leaf and then two slices of smoked salmon. Brush the salmon gently with a teaspoon of Greek yoghurt. Finally, add sliced radish and cover the sandwich with the second slice of bread.
Taking care of diversity, we can prepare many other spreads, for example from vegetables. A good example here is the use of chickpeas. Chickpeas are a legume very well known to vegetarians. The first advantage of chickpeas is the wealth of wholesome protein. In addition, it contains a large dose of B group vitamins, which are especially important for children, because they provide them with a lot of energy to play and learn. In addition, chickpeas contain such micronutrients as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and iron.
See example recipes for chickpea pastes
Put 200 g of chickpeas into a blender, add 3 – 4 tablespoons of chopped tinned tomatoes. Mix to obtain a homogeneous mass. Cut a few sundried tomatoes into small pieces and mix them with the paste, season with dried basil and pepper. Chickpea paste with olives Put 200 g of chickpeas into a blender, add a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of water. Mix to obtain a homogeneous mass. Cut 10-15 green olives into small pieces and mix them with the paste, season with Provence herbs and pepper.
Many of our kids every now and then want something sweet. Nowadays, in stores we have a wealth of different types of sweets, which are filled with refined sugar, artificial colours and aromas. It is better to give your child a healthy alternative and prepare something sweet yourself. Add honey, maple syrup or agave syrup instead of white sugar. Your little one staying at school with many other children needs iron resistance so that they do not catch any illnesses from their peers. Honey is excellent in improving immunity as it has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Very tasty with wholemeal bread is cottage cheese with honey and cinnamon. You can also prepare homemade chocolate cream. The variety of recipes for healthy sweets is enormous!
Mash 2 very ripe bananas with a fork, gently sprinkle with lemon, so they don’t darken that quickly. Add a tablespoon of honey and half a teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix everything thoroughly with a fork. Chocolate cream Peel a ripe avocado and separate the stone. With a fork, crush the avocado, add 2 tablespoons of natural cocoa and a tablespoon of honey. Mix thoroughly all the ingredients. You can also add 2 tablespoons of ground hazelnuts. Chocolate-sesame cream Put a tablespoon of tahini in a bowl, add a teaspoon of honey, half a teaspoon of cocoa and a tablespoon of natural yoghurt. Mix thoroughly all the ingredients for a smooth cream.
