Did you know that schools consider French fries and ketchup as vegetable servings in their cafeteria served lunches?! In just a few minutes in the evenings, you can prepare a more nutritious lunch for your kiddos.

You can prepare these meals even if you’re not sending your child off to school yet. Go ahead and get in the routine of lunch prep at night, and they can eat their “school lunch” during the noon break from virtual school. In fact, prepping lunch and snacks will limit the constant grazing we might have gotten into the bad habit of over the lockdown and summer.

 Here are my healthy takes on kid-friendly favorites.

Kids Meal Prep Ideas for school lunches:

1.“Pizza Lunchables”: 1 or 2 Wheat English muffin halves, with side of low salt pizza sauce (make your own real quick with low or no salt tomato sauce seasoned with pepper and oregano), shredded mozzarella, and turkey pepperonis. Side Veggie: sliced bell peppers. Side Fruit: fresh mandarin orange

2.“Lunchables”: Handful (approx. 12) of wheat or veggie crackers, 3 slices of low salt, no preservative deli turkey or ham cut in quarters, 3 slices of low fat cheese cut in quarters. Side Veggie: celery sticks with hummus or ranch dip. Side Fruit: No sugar added fruit cup

3.Roll Ups: Corn or wheat tortilla with sliced cheese or spreadable cheese (such as laughing cow) and low salt no preservative deli meat. Can add spinach and/or smashed avocado as well. Slice in 6 equal pieces to have cute pinwheels. Side Veggie: carrots and dip. Side Fruit: grapes

4.Egg muffins:

Recipe: 1 cup Bisquick

• 1 lb cooked turkey sausage or ground turkey
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• *Optional: 1 cup chopped veggies such as peppers and mushrooms
• Mix all ingredients and split between 12 servings in a muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees for 20mins
•  Side Veggie: cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes. Side Fruit: berries

5. Pasta salad: Cooked whole wheat or veggie pasta with chopped grilled chicken and vegetables such as tomatoes, zucchini, and spinach. Add a little dressing to the pasta salad such as pesto or Italian dressing. Side Fruit: apple slices.

6. Quesadillas: Corn or wheat tortillas with bean & cheese or chicken & cheese. Side Veggie: broccoli and dip. Side Fruit: mango or peach slices

7.”Chicken Nuggets”:

• Recipe: Cut 1 lb chicken breasts into strips or large chunks.
• Coat in flour mixture: 1 cup or more whole wheat or oat flour mixed with ¼ cup ground flax seeds, ½ tsp salt & pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1 tsp paprika. Now dredge coated chicken in beaten eggs, and then again coat with flour mixture.
• Bake or air fry until cooked through. (Double recipe to make for dinner, then to have leftovers for next day’s lunches.)
• Side Veggie: veggie chips or sticks. Side Fruit: fruit & veggie squeeze pouch

8. Meatballs:

• Recipe: 1 lb ground beef or turkey
• ½ can pureed pumpkin
• 2 slices wheat bread, torn apart in small pieces
• ¼ cup flax seeds
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp each salt & pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp low sugar ketchup
• Mix all ingredient until well combined. Make 1-2 inch balls and place on greased sheet pan. Bake 15-20mins at 350 degrees until cooked through. Can serve with ketchup or bbq sauce. (Double recipe to make for dinner, then have leftovers for lunch next day.)
• Side Veggie: Cauliflower and hummus or ranch. Side Fruit: pineapple
• Extra additions to above lunch ideas, 1 per day: small individual cookie packs, all natural fruit twists (actual fruit instead of packs of fruit snacks), granola bar, fruit & nut bar such as LaraBar, ¼ cup trail mix, ½ cup honey wheat pretzels.
• No juice, soda or sports drinks; instead have water or 2% milk.

I hope you enjoy! 

So I got home the other day from a LOOOOOOONGday at work. You know what I’m talking about …It was a Monday (few things go right on a Monday), the beginning of the work week. And my son was off his schedule from a long three-day weekend because his grandparents spoil him.

All my wife and I want to do is get home and lay on the couch. WAIT! I can’t because we have a 2 year old who just wants a little attention. All he wants to do is … eat a snack, wrestle, play the tickle game, go outside, go on a bike-ride, kick the ball, throw the ball, go see the ducks, eat another snack, watch a movie, run up and down the stairs, go on another bike-ride, play hide-n-go seek and wrestle some more. No big deal, we can do this. To think, it’s only MONDAY!! Oh, and someone has to make dinner.

As hectic as that sounds, and believe me it is, it’s worth the time we spend with him. It would be so easy to put an iPad in front of him or even just sit him in front of the TV for a few hours until bedtime. Remember all those activities that my son wants to do? Think about each one and consider the number of vocabulary words and the amount of rich language I would be able to provide him in each of those activities.

It really is endless.

The only way a child will learn words is by hearing words. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we just had a magic wand and anytime we wanted our children to learn a new word, all we had to do was wave it at them, “Abracadaba!” Wave the wand with me two times. My child needs another word, I’m thinking of an animal, so he will say, ‘BIRD”!” There it is, BOOM!! He just improved his vocabulary. That just isn’t the way life works. Believe me, if it was that easy, I wouldn’t have a job as an SLP. The models that my wife and I provide my son Dominic has influenced his language and now he says things like “Where is it?” because we play hide-n-seek. He says “Let’s go!” because he wants to go on a bike-ride.

I recently went to a course where the presenter said that about 90 percent of what young children learn is through play. When you look back, isn’t that what a child’s life should look like? Sleep, play, eat, play, poop and some more play. Their lives revolve around play. At one point, I thought that in order for a child to play, they had to be in a soccer or basketball league, a club or camp, etc. That isn’t true! Play can be anything you make it and you can even play during activities that you are already more than likely doing at home.

1.Bathtime - Get some toys and make them swim, splash, dry them, make them jump.

2. Ball - You can kick, throw, catch, run with it

3. Hide-n-seek- Hide a favorite toy under, on top, in various objects

4. Super Hero Game - use action words(verbs). You can run, jump, roll, throw, etc. Caregivers can even carry their child and make them fly or vice-versa.

These are only a few activities. The best thing to do is go through your day and reflect back on a time or multiple times where you are already interacting with your child doing daily activities. Now think of how you can make the activity into a play activity. Just have FUN!!

Stephen Baker said it best when he said “Of all the toys available, none is better designed than the owner himself. A large multipurpose plaything, its parts can be made to move in almost any direction.It comes completely assembled, and it makes a sound when you jump on it.” We don’t have to buy things to play with our children. All they need is US.

About the author

Jonathan Suarez is a speech pathologist at Cook Children's. Speech/language pathologists focus on oral motor, speech, language and communication skills to enhance development, restore function and to prevent disability from pediatric conditions, illness or injury. 

But how do you do it in a way that keeps you from becoming mind-numbingly bored and keeps your child learning to their full potential?

To answer this question, you are going to need a quick lesson in neurology, biochemistry and addiction. Don’t worry, I promise it will be quick.

Dopamine is a very powerful chemical that works in the brain to assist motor control, motivation, cognition and reward. It was once thought to be decreased in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), although this has come into question recently. Regardless, the treatments that seem to help best in children with ADHD are those that increase the activity of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is also involved heavily in addiction whether that’s exercising, gambling or doing drugs.

In his book “Talk Like TED,” Carmine Gallo describes the work of Martha Burns, Ph.D., on dopamine and learning. He writes, "Drugs and gambling are artificial triggers and lead to serious consequences. Isn’t there a less-harmful means of achieving that mental high? There sure is. According to Burns, dopamine is also released when people learn something new and exciting – a much healthier way to feel good!"

Dr. Burns blogs on the same topic on The Science of Learning Blog and says, "I like to refer to dopamine as the 'save button' in the brain. When dopamine is present during an event or experience, we remember it; when it is absent, nothing seems to stick."

So, if you want your child to learn something new, you have to think like you're trying to get them addicted to learning, addicted to new information.

How?

According to Dr. Burns, "The answer is pretty straight forward – 'make learning NEW, EXCITING, and REWARDING.'"

Now, how do you do this when you are reading the same book over and over?

1) Pick a theme for the day (numbers, colors, shapes). At the end of each page, stop and talk about the pictures on the page in the context of your theme. How many trucks are there? Can you find the red truck?

2) Try different voices for different characters. My boys think this is hilarious and it keeps them thinking.

3) After your child seems to have a book memorized, insert the wrong word into the story and see if they catch it. When possible use the opposite word to start helping them learn opposites.

Let's get our kids addicted to learning by making it new, exciting and rewarding.

Gallo, Carmine (2014-03-04). Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds (p. 117). St. Martin's Press. Kindle Edition.