Vegetables on a skewer
Sugar-free Fun Foods for Your Kid’s Lunchbox

By Janette Speyer

As a busy working mother of two, I always wondered what to put in their lunchboxes. I want to Make sure that they get good nutritional foods and most of all that they get eaten!

I am very particular about the amount of sugar I feed my kids. I prefer they don’t eat any processed foods. I am very partial to fruits and vegetables as snacks. But how do you get your kids to eat healthy foods when junk food is such a temptation?

I had to dig deep into my bag of tricks to create appealing fun foods. Below are two ideas that my kids enjoyed:

Vegetable Bouquets

Here’s a fun snack that you can pack in any lunch box. You also enlist your child to help you. It’s a good excuse to get them into the kitchen cooking.

For this one you’ll need:

  • Grapes or olives to hold the vegetables in place. You can also use a Cheddar cube
  • Cucumber sliced into round
  • Carrots sliced into rounds
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Skewers
  • Mini vegetable cutters if you like fancy shapes

Assembly
Take a skewer and place the grape as the first item. Add the cucumber, followed by the carrot, and then the radish. Top with an olive or another grape. Place in a Tupperware or a baggie. Enjoy!

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Stuffed Dried Fruit

Dates are my fruit of choice. Being from a Middle Eastern background my family puts dates in everything. If this fruit is not your thing, substitute it with another sugar-free, sulfur-free dried fruit, like apricots.

Cut a Medjool date in half and spread with ricotta, place a walnut half on top. Yumm!

I also tried stuffing the fruit with other nuts like pistachios. Change it up and stuff it with cheese or even other fruit like pineapple or apricot. Dried fruit gives your child plenty of sugar without the junk.

NO to Sugar

Cutting back on sugar doesn’t have to be complicated at all. A little imagination and ingenuity can help you make nutritious and tasty foods. I look for other ideas on social media when I am stuck and tired of being creative.

Eating sugar-free foods and sharing them with your children becomes second nature.

Watch this space for more sugar-free lifestyle ideas.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.  These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease