What’s REALLY in Your Kid’s Lunchbox?

One of the things I fretted about when Little Monkey started JK back in September was prepping her lunches and snacks. When the Toronto Star featured us along side some pretty famous Canadians, many wondered how long I’d be able to send the list of items I had featured until the box came home untouched. Well, now that we’re 7 months into the whole parenting a Junior Kindergartner thing, I figured it’s time for a status update!

Disclosure : This post is in partnership with  iögo, but as always, opinions are totally mine! 

At the start of our journey we said we’d be sending broccoli, raisins, yogurt, cucumbers, rice cakes and granola bars. I never set high expectations of sending food cut up in cute little shapes and designs, because I KNEW I wouldn’t have time for that. Glad I didn’t!

Here’s a picture of Little Monkey’s lunchbox today. Yes  today!

I try my best to incorporate some fruits and veggies but I’ve come to learn that there’s a balance needed. She still loves her Broccoli with salad dressing (forget the salad dressing and it comes back home!) and cucumbers are always a hit. She now wants to peel her own fruits so the orange usually makes it in. With all the crazy stories floating around about rice cakes, I decided to stop buying that and now save it for road trips versus every day enjoyment. I did get a request to include string cheese DAILY and despite knowing that it really isn’t cheese (not the way I like to enjoy my fine cheese anyway!) I gave in. I had to. She also asks for a treat every day and so I do oblige.

Mind you there’s plenty of days when the food comes back home semi-eaten but she’s fairly good and finishing it at home on those days. She’s still not a big eater, has her favourites and she’s definitely not a fan of sandwiches so we struggle on the protein front. When it came to the yogurt, I was a bit hesitant on how well insulated her bag was but I was informed it was still cold when she had it for her snack. So, I continue to send it every day and she continues to gobble it up.

Our family has been fans of the iögo brand when it comes to yogurt and because the hubs and the kids go through a carton of yoghurt every couple of days, I was pretty stoked to discover the big format iögo pouches at our supermarket one day. Just out of the blue there they were, iögo Original in 975g Goodness Sealed pounches! iögo has always promised natural ingredients and their yogurt features  fresh milk and real fruit. In addition there’s no gelatin, artificial colours or flavours in their line up.

What I love about the new iögo pouches isn’t just the fact that they’re bigger than the 650 g packs we used to buy, but that I don’t need to spend time digging for a spoon to pour it into the lunch box container each night! Seriously, it’s usually well past 11 p.m. by the time I make the lunch and every second saved is a win in my books. The pouches make it so easy to just pour and they’re reclosable, making is ever so convenient for lazy parents like me.

Most grocery stores now carry the pouches and for us in downtown Toronto, Metro, Longos, Sobeys and Loblaws, all have it on-shelf. They are available in three ranges : iögo Original (975g) (Vanilla & Strawberry), iögo Probio (875g) ( Vanilla & Strawberry with 25% less sugar than the original recipe) and the iögo Greek (750g) ( Vanilla 2% & Plain 0%).

So the yogurt goes to school but I do not mix in any fruits as it gets all too messy. Also strawberry and vanilla are her favourite flavours and I get no complaints when I send the  iögo Original. Though I do have half a mind to puree carrot into the Greek yogurt (to cut down on the sugar a smidge) to see if she notices!  If you have other suggestions for proteins, I’m all ears because eggs, chicken sandwiches and hummus have all failed at school.

Tell me, what’s in your kid’s lunch box these days?