Young bellies, brains and bodies need healthy food!

Like most, when our parenting journey began we were presented with the ongoing challenge of feeding our rapidly growing children a healthy and wholesome diet. For us, this has meant guiding our kids away from refined sugars, highly processed grains, meats and processed foods in general. In the process, we’ve slowly transformed our kitchen into a whole food kitchen. Believe me, it’s totally possible! Teaching healthy habits to young children was, in fact, one of the big reasons we embarked on this LiveliFood journey.

Be creative with their lunch boxes.

When kids are excited to see what’s in their lunchbox each day, they eat more of the nutrients you’re working to get into their growing bodies. They get the energy they need and can pay better attention in class.

Here are some lunch ideas to get your imagination going:

• Put together a rice (or quinoa) and bean salad instead of yet another peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

• Add some protein with a boiled egg or a piece of tofu instead of throwing in a bag of chips.

• Give some cashews or almonds for an afternoon snack instead of a cereal bar or other packaged sweet treat.

• Include lots of fruit—fruit is sweet, delicious and full of fiber, vitamins and minerals. I like to mix it up as much as possible, packing anything that’s in season from bananas and apples to berries and papaya with shredded coconut.

• Add a little surprise every now and then! An unexpected food feels like a treat. It makes kids curious and excited to see what’s in their lunch each day, and to eat it!

Have some fun making lunches! Our LiveliLunchboxes recipes have even more creative ideas for you. If time is an issue as you’re rushing to get the kids out the door and yourself ready for work—batch cooking can help make your mornings run smoothly.

Why bother?

There are, of course, many great health benefits for both adults and little ones who eat a whole foods diet that’s free of sugar and processed foods. But we were amazed at how rarely our kids were getting sick once we shifted our eating habits. No more colds or runny noses. Their immune system becomes very strong and can do what it is designed to do: protect them from outside infections!

Enjoy our LiveliLunchBoxes Ideas Week 0.1.

YOUR FULL SHOPPING LIST -To make these 5 lunch boxes:

(don't forget to double up if you are making more than 1 lunch box every morning! And note that these lunch menus contain nuts and soy so swap them for an alternative if your kids are allergic to these foods).

• 2 carrots

• 4 cucumbers

• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes

• 1 sweet potato (to roast in the oven)

• 1 beetroot (to boil it)

• 140 g pitted olives

• 4 Bananas

• 4 apples - for the apple compot recipe sign up for your free Healthy Desserts eBook

• 1 mandarin or pear

• 1 orange

• 100 g organic Tofu

• 1 cup brown rice

• 1 cup quinoa

• 1 tin of red kidney beans

• 1 tin chickpeas

• 50 g goat cheese

• 1 jar bocconcini cheese

• Pickles

• 100 g organic soba noodles

• Hand full of raw cashes

• Hand full of raw macademia nuts

• Dried bananas

• Salted pop corn

• Plain rice crakers

PS: More lunches on the works!