
On my Facebook page I decided to do a month long series of logging my kid’s lunch box accompanied by a recipe in brief. It was very well received, much more than what I had expected. Taking that cue, I took this as a subject for my Sunday DNA monthly column,
Here, I am sharing the same for those who missed it in the papers. I shall be happy to answer your queries in the comment section.

Whether it is for adults, or kids, the lunchbox presents many dilemmas. What to pack, how much time to spend on preparing it, what will taste good a few hours after packing, what can be made ahead – these are the top questions about packing a proper lunchbox.
A packed lunch should be a portable, less-elaborate version of a lunch you would have at home and by that I mean, well balanced, hygienic and tasty.
Carbohydrates form the base of any meal. One can choose from wholegrain bread, rotis, pita bread, cooked unpolished rice, broken wheat, semolina, pasta, potato etc. Younger kids can do with white sandwich bread as too much fibre can fill them up quickly before they can consume the required calories.
Wholegrain sandwiches, stuffed pita bread, fried rice with vegetables or chicken, broken wheat patties, semolina upma, pasta tossed with vegetables or in a salad, boiled potato or potato patties are some of the ways to build the carbohydrate component.
The box needs to have a protein component too. You could choose from chicken, eggs, beans, lentils, cheese, tofu, paneer, yogurt and nuts. Shredded lean chicken can be a part of wraps, sandwiches or pasta.
A whole boiled egg, sliced in half and sprinkled with a pinch of salt and pepper makes the perfect addition to a kid’s lunchbox, and the eggs can be boiled the previous night.
Cooked beans like chickpeas, black-eyed peas, dried peas, rajma can be mashed and added to vegetable patties or made into hummus for sandwiches. Cheese cubes by themselves or in sandwiches are a most popular protein option for kids.
Tofu or paneer can be added to dry vegetable curries that can be used to stuff rotis to make a roll.
Yogurt can be set in one of the smaller boxes and put in the fridge overnight to be carried in the lunchbox. This makes a good accompaniment to rice and broken wheat based dishes, if the commute is not too long and the workplace / school has a refrigerator.
Nuts are a great snacking option, rich in a variety of vital nutrients – add this to your kid’s muffins or cookies and to your salad. Taking it in the lunch box is the best way to eat nuts while exercising portion control. Nut butters are good for spreading in sandwiches.
Since both adults and kids need to get five to nine servings of vegetables and fruit, it is important that the lunchbox has a couple of servings from this group.
Whatever food is going into the lunchbox, make sure it is fortified with some vegetables (other than potatoes, which are starch component) – for example, green beans and peas in rice, cucumber and carrot sticks with hummus, red bell pepper and zucchini in pasta.
Add some pomegranate pearls to raita or curd-rice, grated apples and pears in muffins, sliced banana in peanut butter sandwich
Once in a while, surprise your kid with a homemade goodie like a cookie or any other treat
Some sample lunchboxes:
· Egg Salad Sandwich and watermelon cubes
· Broken wheat vegetable pulao with plain yogurt or raita
· Pita bread stuffed with shredded chicken with salad and apple
· Buttermilk semolina upma with peas and almonds
· Pasta with spinach and cheese or paneer and orange
· Vegetable idlis with tomato-onion chutney and a boiled egg

Recipe for Baby Pesarattu with spinach
1\. Soak 1 cup of whole green moong overnight.
2\. Drain the soaked moong and grind it with a cup of washed and cleaned raw spinach leaves, a small piece of ginger and ½ tsp of salt. This does not require to be fermented. Pesarattu can be made immediately after the batter is ready.
3\. On a lightly greased non-stick tava, spoon out tablespoon full of batter with a little space in between the pesarattu, add a few drops of ghee or oil along the sides and flip when one side is cooked.
4\. You can sprinkle sesame seeds on one side while the other is cooking.
5\. Cook the other side similarly and serve with chutney or ketchup.
6\. If this dish is for adults, you could add a couple of green chillies while grinding the batter.
[originally published in the Sunday DNA – September 23, 2012]
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(c) Nandita Iyer 2006-2015
Can i say, I dont have a kid and lunch boxes to plan, but this sounds interesting even for my daily lunchbox! Thanks for this..such a great idea.
Thank you, Revati. Glad you liked it.
My son is saying after seeing the pic in ur post “Aunty ko bata deejiye humare school mein pasta allowed nahin hai ” 🙂 Quite a nice idea to do a series on lunchboxes for school going children. Pics are mouth watering too.
I love Pesarattu and have soaked Moong for making a batch right this minute!! Thank you for sharing your content. Thought you’d be interested in a similar space. Do check out culture and cooking blog Aalayam – http://aalayaminspiration.blogspot.com/. Do check out a picture from our blog!
Used the idea to good effect yesterday! Pesarattu was already in the weekend plan, and there was spinach in the fridge, so the two came together. Thanks. 🙂 The bright green color was lovely, and it felt virtuous to get some greens in. I made regular sized pesarattu.
So sweet of you to come visit my blog, Manish ji, even though you are *that* keen on cooking. I’m curious as to why pasta is not allowed in your son’s school. This was a very popular series on my FB page, apparently everyone is at a loss for ideas on what to pack for the kids.
Glad you liked it ET, it’s easily adaptable for adults, if you add a few chillies / onions to the batter. And yes, spinach does give it a lovely green.
Hello Supriya and Deepa, Thank you for visiting my blog. I will bookmark your blog 🙂
Hi..where can I get kids lunch box recipes?