Jax Hamilton is livening up the kids’ school lunches with her creative genius and a lick of Best Foods Mayo.
As a mother of two and successful businesswoman who ventured into the world of ‘foodie-dom’, Jax knows the stresses of preparing a variety of healthy school lunches that kids would want to eat every day.
“I used to work a corporate job while raising two kids so I know just how hard it can be to find the time and inspiration to make the kids lunches – and get them to actually eat it all! My own experience and love of food has made me especially passionate about inspiring others in the kitchen and making it fun and exciting,” Jax says.
Preparing school lunches can be a real chore for many parents – “using creative but simple and out of the box recipes is a great way to get your kids involved and keep your kids excited about their food.” says Jax.
Read on for Jax’s top tricks and tips for school lunchboxes:
Rainbow Day
Encourage your kids to pick a day and colour and create their lunch based around that colour. If the colour is green: cucumber sushi with avocado filling, green jelly, grapes, boiled egg cooked in water with green colouring. Keep it fun and exciting!
Reason for Season
Discover what’s in season and what will work in a lunchbox. During the warmer months, try sweetcorn. Experiment with herb flavours in pestos and dressings. During spring try grilled asparagus wrapped in bacon. In summer pop in berries and cherries.
Carb Remix
Shake up the classic bread and chippies combo swapping the chips with pretzels, corn chips, or falafels. Get creative and swap out bread for rice paper wraps, egg or rice noodles, or dumpling skins.
Mystery Lunch Box
Try out a themed lunch: sandwiches are cut to look like animals, favourite cartoon characters, minions. Think outside the (lunch)box and incorporate some of your kids’ favourite things.
Superhero box – try a super sammie or a super smoothie a.k.a Batman fuel.
Harry Potter box – a carrot wand, frog shaped sandwiches!
Brain Boggler
Hide a brain boggler in the box – find a letter that’s in ‘Pie’ but not in ‘pen’. Why did the student eat his homework? Because his teacher said it was ‘a piece of cake!”
Cool Kid Box
Take a thin wash up sponge and soak in water and lemon juice then squeeze out excess liquid. Seal the sponge in a bag and throw into the freezer. The next day, lay at the bottom of the lunchbox to keep lunch cool during hot days. When box comes home, remove from bag and use to wipe clean. No icky chemicals and fresh and natural (lemon is naturally anti-bacterial). Refresh the sponge by popping it through the dishwasher. Each child can have their own colour.
Jarred Lunches
In a small mason jar, begin with dressing. Layer with carbs, protein, salad and a crunchy topping – just shake, pop the top and good to go.
Minty Fresh Kiss
Once a week, use an old toothbrush and some toothpaste to clean along the seals and lunchbox handles. Abrasive, minty, fresh – safe and no stinky, sticky lunchbox!
Leftovers
Double up your dinner, like a fab meatloaf. Slice and pop into lunchboxes in the morning or freeze for when you need to whip up a lunch in a hurry.
#BeKind
Pop an extra (something yummy) in the lunchbox and encourage your child to give it to someone less fortunate, to make a new friend, or cheer up someone who’s sad that day. Because being kind is cool.
