Welcome to the second post in a new series you will be seeing once a week for the next four weeks thanks to the National Watermelon Promotion Board! If you missed last week’s post on making your own healthy, real food lunchable, you can see it here at “Real Food Series: Lunch Inspiration to Start the School Year Off Right.”
This week’s post is staying with the same criteria as last week, lunchbox ideas that meet all the important criteria:
healthy
hits all the food groups
EASY
the kids will LOVE it
Only, this week’s post is even more awesome for those of us who are trying to get a healthy dinner on the table. Why? This lunch starts with making Grilled Maple Citrus Watermelon Chicken for dinner the night before. Make a little extra and you’ll be able to reinvent the leftovers for lunch. And, this is something the kids will love {and think is super cool} AND you will love in your lunchbox too! Who says brown bagging is just for kids? Packing a lunch for yourself ensures you’ll stick to eating Real Food {no junky fast food} AND you’ll save yourself a bundle of money too.
So, as I said, start by making a big batch of Grilled Maple Citrus Watermelon Chicken. Then, shred up the leftover chicken breasts and place them on mini slider buns. My local Earth Fare {a Whole Foods type store here in the south} offers a whole wheat variety from the deli and you can also find King’s Hawaiian Rolls everywhere and they are perfect for this too. Other alternatives that would work for this recipe are any whole wheat or other dinner roll.
I put some of the glaze, or dipping sauce, in a separate container so that my kiddos can drizzle it over their sandwich just before eating, so the bun wouldn’t get soggy.
Since this sandwich is a great source of carbs and protein, I packed it with some cherry tomatoes from the garden, some organic green grapes, and some yogurt to round out the food groups {in other words: a veggie, a fruit, and a dairy}. Other ideas would be to pair it with a cheese stick, some carrots and dipping sauce, and a banana. You get the idea. Use what you’ve got and what your kids love.
Don’t you love it when you can use up leftovers to get a jump start on lunch for the next day!? I do, and I love it even more when it isn’t exactly the same as dinner the night before. That’s why I love the idea of turning last night’s dinner into a fun sandwich.
Stay tuned for more lunch box ideas, I’ve got one your sure to love next week! And, in the meantime, check out my Lunchbox PINspiration Pinterest Board for more lunch box ideas to start this school year off right!
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. I have been provided with compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post for the National Watermelon Promotion Board. Participation is voluntary and the opinions stated above are entirely my own.
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