To pack lunch for school. Know that it’s easy and less stressful when you start the previous day. Starting in the morning of school can be too much work if you have many kids. Lunch bag can be packed the previous day, with the water bottle filled and the snacks intact. The following day, all that’s left to do is warm or cook the meal.
If what you are looking for is a Nigerian school lunch box timetable, check our previous post where I shared a four-week school lunch Timetable that can be repeated thrice to cover every term.
Lunch for Nigerian school is not like in some other places where bread and sandwich is given almost every day. I don’t know if there are Nigerian school children who will like sandwiches in their lunch boxes. Nigerian kids love rice. They can eat rice daily if you vary the method of cooking.
RICE THE KING OF SCHOOL LUNCH:
Know that rice is the number one food in Nigerian school lunch boxes. Rice is packed mostly on Mondays and any other day within the week, like Thursdays. Most Nigerian families serve rice as Sunday lunch. Because our Sunday rice is cooked in large pots, there is always leftovers for kids to enjoy the following day. These leftovers are microwaved or warmed and packed for Monday School food.
I have become so used to packing rice on Mondays. So much that if there are no leftovers, I still find a way to make rice, spaghetti, or macaroni to serve on Mondays. Other foods are packed after Monday.
FOODS TO INCLUDE IN A SCHOOL LUNCH PACK:
- Rice Could be fried rice, jollof, rice and stew, rice and gravy, rice and sauce, palm oil rice, and so on.
- Spaghetti could be jollof spags, fried spags, boiled with stew, sauce or gravy
- Macaroni
- Noodles
- Plantain fried or boiled ripe plantains with sauce, stew or beans
- Yam: Boiled soft with stew or sauce.
- Irish potatoes porridge, boiled grilled.
- Sweet potatoes porridge or boiled with beans porridge.
- Beans porridge served with bread, plantain or yam.
- Meat pies; Most kids love them.
- Hot dogs now loved by Nigerian kids.
- Moi moi served with stew.
- Sandwiches and so many other foods depending on what your child likes to eat.
ALL FOODS CAN BE PACKED FOR SCHOOL LUNCH:
There is actually no food you cannot include in your child’s school lunch if that child loves the food and it’s nutritious. Even swallows and soup are ok to pack, but, Like I explained when I published the school lunchbox timetable post… I said the reason I have never packed eba, or semo, or pounded yam with okra soup or ewedu or egusi soup for school lunch is that these foods require the kids to wash hands before and after eating. The teacher may not have that free time for one child when they have to attend to 10 kids or more at the same time.
To avoid issues with improper handwashing, we just pack foods they can eat with the clean fork or spoon placed in the lunch bag. After school, at home, they eat the swallows with Nigerian soups. If your child knows how to wash their hands properly, without teachers’ supervision, then feel free to pack the fufu and soups if that’s what they enjoy.
SPECIAL CONSIDERATION:
Always try to put the child first. Be mindful of what they like to eat and what will return home untouched. I always say that if rice is the only food your child enjoys, there is nothing wrong with packing it Monday through Friday. Just make sure it’s not the same. If you give Fried rice for Monday and Tuesday, you can serve jollof rice Wednesdays and Thursdays. Then, any other food on Friday.
The reason I can pack rice every day if my child likes it is because they eat three to four meals a day. If they eat rice at school, they have dinnertime to eat other foods with the family. Some kids eat breakfast before leaving for school, so, they have something different. When they eat rice once daily at school and you are sure that they eat well, you too will be happy.
Even if you cannot serve one kind of food from Monday Through Friday, you can make it thrice. If my baby loves rice. Nothing wrong with packing rice on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. They will eat something different at Dinner and breakfast. That’s balanced!
HOW TO INCLUDE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN A CHILD’S SCHOOL LUNCH:
Any fruits at all can be packed for school lunch. However, fruits are not the main meal. They just accompany. The main dish has to be packed including proteins like meat, eggs, fish or any protein of choice before adding fruits and vegetables to balance up the meals. Fruits should be cleaned very well and cut in pieces the kids can bite and enjoy. If you are serving coconuts, then you may need to grate so the kid doesn’t choke.
CARROTS:
When I include carrots in my child’s school lunch bag, I make sure the carrots are not only washed, but cleaned very well with a potato peeler. That way they look clean and bright. Depending on the carrot sizes, I chop in smaller pieces or grate like we do for coleslaw.
Watermelon:
For watermelons. I wash, remove the skin, cut into tiny bite sizes and remove all the seeds if the child can’t chew. When I pack for kids that can chew watermelon seeds. I don’t bother removing the nutritious seeds.
Oranges:
Wash oranges, peel off the skin, remove the white skin too. Cut, take out the orange seeds and pack.
Mangoes:
Remove the skin and fruit, cut into smaller pieces and pack in small containers that won’t let juices and soil the lunch pack.
Pineapples:
Pineapples are easy to include in lunch packs. Wash, peel, remove the core and set aside. Dice and pack in airtight containers.
Bananas: Just wash and place in a lose lunch bag where they are not crushed by other food containers.
Pawpaw: To pack pawpaw as a fruits in your child’s lunch, wash, peel, remove the pawpaw seeds and cut. Place in airtight containers and pack.
HOW TO PACK LUNCH THAT’S BALANCED ENOUGH FOR GROWING KIDS:
Kids love snacks and that should be packed too but they have to eat the main meal before snacking. Cooked food, fruits and vegetables, snacks and drinks like water and fruits juices are very important to pack in a child’s school lunch bag.
You don’t have to add everything everyday of the week but just make sure it’s not only balanced, but what the child will love to eat.
Read also: Five Best Healthy Meals For kids
The lunch box in the pics above is so full in my eyes. I guess today is my boy’s lucky day. He has all his favourites packed, except egg. He may just eat the white and leave the egg yoke for me. Some days, the lunch box is full. At other days, it’s not.
Very helpful
So helpful God bless you
Helpful but my baby dosent like eating normal family meals, he prefers cereals. He’s 2, how do I go about it?
I love this.. God bless u