How to get out of the Lunchbox Rut – Easy, Healthy and Fun Recipes

Putting your kid’s lunchbox together can be boring. It involves ticking off a mundane checklist as you quickly fling items in: sandwich – check, fruit or vegetables – check and maybe a biscuit – oh go on then!

A low point was reached the other day. One leftover burger bun from a BBQ the night before covered in a layer of hummus, three slices of cheese and a banana. It was quick and easy but not exactly inspiring. I looked at the mound of beige and yellow inside my son’s Cars lunchbox and as Lightning McQueen grinned away at me I decided to try harder.

My self-imposed mission was to come up with some inspiring ideas that would create a fun lunchbox. The other requirements were that the ingredients had to be included in our weekly food budget, be healthy and could be combined using a quick and simple method.

After some Internet surfing I came across lots of images of really funky kids bento lunchboxes. This is one of my favorite websites: www.justbento.com. It has creative and fun recipes and provides lots of helpful tips. The problem with bento boxes is that while they look awesome they also appear to be expensive, fiddly and time consuming. Just Bento provides options for beginners. Bento box number 74 is not Japanese but it takes just five minutes to assemble and demonstrates some artistic ideas.

The Japanese theme appealed to me so I did some further research and decided to give two sushi style recipes ago. One is from My Recipes and is for coconut frushi and the other is from Domestic Charm and is for a sushi sandwich. These recipes are not traditional but provide an inventive fusion. The coconut frushi is a nigiri style sushi but with coconut milk and not vinegar. Fruit is then placed on top rather than raw fish. The sushi sandwich is just a sandwich presented like sushi but because you can see the contents it is much more visually pleasing.

We had some friends coming over for morning tea so I decided to try the two recipes out to see if they would work well in a lunchbox.

Making use of ingredients we already had would help keep within the weekly budget so I only bought sushi rice (Sun Rice, $3.04 from Pak n Save). I substituted some items in the recipe with what was in the pantry and fridge. My ingredients list was:

Ingredients for coconut frushi

1 ¼ cups of water

1 cup of uncooked sushi rice

¼ cup of white sugar

¼ cup of coconut cream

A dash of salt

Coconut oil

Canned blueberries

Plain natural yogurt

Honey

Combining the rice, sugar, coconut
cream and salt

I followed the My Recipes recipe, which is:

1. Bring water and rice to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until water is almost absorbed. Remove from heat; let stand, covered, 15 minutes.

2. Place rice in a large bowl. Add sugar, coconut cream, and salt, stirring gently until well combined. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes.

3. Lightly coat hands with cooking spray. Divide rice mixture into 20 equal portions, shaping each into a ball (about 1 rounded tablespoon each). Lightly press each rice ball into an oval between palms; place ovals on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Top each of 10 ovals with 1 orange section, and press gently to adhere. Top each of the remaining 10 ovals with 2 raspberries. Cover and chill frushi until ready to serve. Serve with yogurt for dipping.

I stuck to part one and two just as described. Part three is where I made some changes. I didn’t have cooking spray but found that a very small blob of coconut oil (I am sure olive oil would be just as good) rubbed into my hands worked just fine. Making the rice into balls was tricky so I squashed the rice straight into shape in the palm of my clenched fist. The more you squeeze the better they stick. Putting them onto a non-stick baking tray worked well. I used honey to stick the blueberries onto the rice. Honey can also be added to plain natural yogurt to make the dipping sauce.

Ingredients for sushi sandwiches

This time I used the Domestic Charm recipe as a guide as I had different ingredients available. They were:

2 slices of wholemeal bread

4 slices of shaved ham

Two tsp of crème fraiche

All purpose seasoning

8 thin slices of cucumber

To start with I chopped the crusts off the two slices of bread and spread on crème fraiche. I then sprinkled on the all purpose seasoning and placed two pieces of ham onto each slice of bread. Make sure you leave a little bit of space on one edge as this helps the sandwich stick together. I placed four thin slices of cucumber at the other end of the slice of bread and tightly rolled the slices up. I then cut each roll into four pieces so that I had eight in total.

Crème fraiche and all purpose seasoning

I was pleased with the outcome of both but although the coconut frushi was easy to make it did take a while to complete. However, if you want to make them for a lunchbox one morning you could do other tasks during simmering and standing times. The sushi sandwiches were very quick and easy and they are a great alternative to the regular sandwich.

Give the sushi sandwiches a go, they are quick, easy, affordable and look great in a lunchbox. You could try lots of different fillings and create some fantastic colour. If y

ou come up with an awesome combination let us all know.

Michelle Kemp is the Author of Two Weeks to Sleep: A Sensible Guide for First Time Parents and soon to be released Little Book of Routines: A Practical Guide for Mums and Dads.

Michelle is married to James and a proud Mum to their son Max. The three of them love spending time together and experiencing new adventures as a family, whether that's just hanging out at the local park or travelling to new and exciting places. Michelle is passionate about helping families build key foundations in their lives. These foundations are quality sleep, a nutrient rich diet and plenty of movement. Michelle believes that these foundations go a long way towards supporting a full and happy family life.

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