It’s easy to get sidetracked, and lose sight of your lunch-packing goals, once you have your delicious and nutritious entrée in the bag. Complete your brown bag lunch by adding two of the following sides. Based on your kids’ preferences, choose two sides below to include in lunches.
- Flatbread Crisps: my favorite
- Chopped or whole seasonal fruit
- Carrot and celery sticks
- 100 Calorie Packs or Portioned baggies of your favorite snack (ie: pretzels, low-fat chips or cookies)
- Pudding
- Low fat Popcorn
- Graham Crackers
- Yogurt
- Granola Bars
- Apple sauce
At lunch time, when I’m in the mood to crunch, I get my edge on ! When eating a sandwich or wrap, there’s nothing I want more than edgeon Baked Flatbreat Crisps. They are my absolute favorite side, and they are full of fiber and have 50-60% less fat than potato chips! Check out the flavors: Four Cheese, Sea Salt and Garlic Herb.
Let’s be Flatout SMART Tip: I am the first to gravitate towards the 100 Calorie Pack section of the grocery store snack aisle. As someone who is a proponent of portion control (and who can easily polish off a pack of chips in one sitting), I often rely on pre-packaged portioned out snacks to keep me in check. While I do appreciate the notion of portion control, my wallet certainly does not. 100 Calorie Packs are often expensive, and you don’t always get a lot of product per dollar. It is sometimes much more economically efficient to purchase the snack, read the label, do the math, and portion it out on your own instead of always opting for the 100 Calorie Pack version. This isn’t always the case, but it is something to be wary of. Unless I have a coupon or they are discounted, I try to shy away from these products. You would be shocked how far a box of baggies and a bag of your favorite snack would get you! Make sure to read the nutrition label carefully.
