Break From the Routine This Lunchtime

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Packing a lunchbox for a child surely requires a lot of creativity and variety on the parent’s side; the contents of the lunchbox should not just be tasty and nutritious, but it must also appeal to the kids, especially when they open their lunch boxes at school. With hardly any time to experiment with the lunch menu during the weekdays, parents do go with a standard set of food items such as sandwiches and fruits, biscuits and baked food variants to make the lunch enjoyable. Most parents do not experiment with the menu for primarily two reasons: i) They usually do not have time to cook up a variety of dishes, and ii) the parent might not be sure whether the kid would like the new dish or not. At the end of the day, it is important that the kids are happy with what they see in their lunchboxes.

Letting the kids decide their lunch menu and getting them to help prepare lunch may be a surprise for them. Parents can plan on breaking from the lunchtime routine on weekends and holidays by taking kids to the grocery store to shop for their veggies and fruits, decide on a recipe, experiment with the ingredients of a known recipe or simply help in the kitchen.

While the older kids battle it out with the more elaborate preparations such as pizzas, pies and stews; younger ones can safely go ahead and experiment with salads and sandwiches, choosing the mix of vegetables, fruits or fillings that they love to eat, generously using their favourite Anchor spreadable on the sandwiches and Anchor Squirty Creamwith fruit salads.

Very young kids can handle ingredients, shred lettuce and grease pans, while those above five years can use blunt tools to shape food or cut cheese or Anchor butter, garnish and measure ingredients. Children above ten under supervision can manage simple recipes, handle kitchen tools, shred vegetables, and correctly identify ingredients. Teenagers easily learn, improvise and cook their own food, ably assisting parents with the cooking process.

This content was provided by Anchor Dairy but I took the pretty picture.