Is Your Kid Finicky?
Try These Lunch Box Ideas
That He/She Will Surely Love

Published Date : 20^th February 2018

If your child is finicky, surely you would do anything to see his/her lunch box empty. However, the aim isn’t just to ensure that he/she finishes his/her tiffin, it is also to ensure that he/she eats healthy. This problem can be solved with some innovative cooking. So, here are some recipes that can interest your child into eating healthy:

1. Fruit Yoghurt1,2

Cut some fruits like banana, apple, watermelon, custard apple, orange, pineapple, grapes, blueberries, and pomegranate in interesting shapes. Mix them and add yoghurt. Besides being an interesting dish, this salad would be a source of Potassium, Calcium, Vitamin D, antioxidants and many other nutrients.

2. Palak Paneer Rolls3

Cook a tasty spinach gravy and mix it with small pieces of paneer. Use it as a filling to make rolls with chapatis. Paneer holds a very high nutritive value for your child as it provides his/her body with Calcium, Phosphorus, soluble Vitamin A and Vitamin D. On the other hand, spinach will supply your child with a lot of Iron.

3. Sandwich4

Prepare a meat sandwich with tuna, salmon or chicken and vegetables like cucumber, tomato, capsicum, and onion. Add cheese sauce to give it a taste that will interest your kid. This sandwich would give your child enough Proteins and Carbohydrates to last his/her school hours.

4. Beetroot Pav bhaji5

Cook some vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, cauliflower, pumpkin, beans, beetroot, peas, capsicum with cumin seeds and onions in some oil. Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves. Serve the bhaji with buttered pav. The vegetables in this dish will provide your kid with Potassium, Folate, Fibre, Vitamins, and phytochemicals that are essential for his/her health.

5. Ragi Idli6 

Grind some ragi flour, soaked rice, poha, dal, and fenugreek seeds into a smooth paste. Add water to this paste and keep the batter aside to ferment for a night. Next day, pour the batter in greased idli moulds and let them steam for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve them hot with some chutney. Ragi is an antioxidant and has antimicrobial properties. Moreover, it will provide your kid’s body with Calcium, Polyphenol and Dietary fibres.

6. Dahi Tikka7

This recipe brings high-quality Protein and Amino Acids to your kid’s plate. Mix some finely chopped bell peppers, onion, salt, cardamom powder, and rice flour in yoghurt. Take a small portion of this mixture and shape it like a kebab. Roll it in rice flour and shallow fry. Serve hot with sauce or chutney.

7. Dates and Almond Roll8,9

Can dessert be healthy? Sure, it can! Nuts, including almonds and dates, are rich in Protein, Fibre, Minerals, Tocopherols, Phytosterols, and Phenolic compounds. Cook some chopped dates and almonds along with cardamom powder and dry ginger powder in a pan with a little butter. Use this as a filling to make Swiss rolls with chapatis. Serve hot with some drizzling honey.

8. Badam Ladoo10,11

Mix some jaggery with crushed almonds, grated coconut, and add Junior Horlicks to the mixture. Give it round shapes and badam ladoos are ready! Junior Horlicks^# is not only tasty and easily digestible but also provides your kid with DHA that helps in brain development. DHA is a major building block in the brain and important for brain development but is not very easily available in regular diets. Junior Horlicks also has 23 vital nutrients and 50% higher Protein* that helps in healthy weight and height development.

Giving the regular lunch box meals an interesting twist while also ensuring that it is healthy, will go a long way in helping your child develop well. Novel recipes like these may help your child overcome his/her selective eating habit too.