High-Energy Foods To Fuel The School Year

The prospect of the kids going back to school is one that you and they probably aren’t looking forward to. Prising them out of bed on dark mornings, persuading them that a sniffle is not a full-blown cold that warrants a sick day and making sure they’ve got all their kit when the warm days of summer are so far off is enough to make you pull the duvet back over your head.

If you’ve any hope of getting them all the way through to the summer holidays with as much motivation as you’re pretending to have yourself, then you need to feed them right. This means high-energy foods that will keep their brains working at top capacity. And there’s no let up, we’re talking breakfast, packed lunch, dinner and snacks, so here goes:

It’s so easy to just hand the kids a box of cereal and let them fend for themselves at breakfast, but taking the time to go a little further could have huge benefits. Porridge packed with slow release energy and a spoonful of peanut butter will fuel them for the whole morning, but we know a number of kids that just won’t eat this.

Get them excited about breakfast again with a nice colourful alternative that has become a hit with foodies everywhere. If avocado on toast is good enough for the hipsters, it’ll be a hit with your little ones. Substitute the poached egg with a dippy egg and add some cheese, just like My Fussy Eater does for her brood.

Every modern parent knows that lunch boxes get pretty well scrutinised these days. That’s not just by the kids themselves, but also by the school staff to make sure they’re healthy enough. This makes it double tough to know what to put inside. You want it to be nutritious, but it’s no good if they don’t eat it.

Kids love wraps, which means you can hide all sorts of healthy goodies inside to fuel them through the afternoon. You might not be able to get away with all the beans and pulses that A Mummy Too squeezes into hers, but you can start with a few of the ingredients, hidden behind some cheese and build on it.

Despite having a reputation for being brain food, it can be difficult to get kids to eat fish.If you’ve found it a tough sell in the past, then try putting it into tacos like Hungry Happy Healthy. As well as the salmon, you can add loads of delicious fresh ingredients to jazz up the tortillas. To help convince the kids, go DIY style and put dishes of toppings on the table, so they can help themselves and choose the bits they like.

If you know it’s going to be a hard pass on the salmon, then go for crispy battered white fish instead, Kitchen Sanctuary style. You can cook the fish in your ActiFry to make sure you keep the healthy nature of the dish.

Getting the kids to eat dessert tends to be easy enough, but if you’re sneaking in healthy ingredients, they may be on to you. Luckily, this banana and date loaf from Hijacked by Twins tastes so much like toffee, the children won’t notice. They’ll be back for another slice before you know it.

If you think that muffins have to be sweet then think again. They can be savoury, like these by Healthy Little Foodies, which are the perfect vehicle for putting lots of energy-boosting veggies inside. Kids like the handheld nature of muffins and you can make up whole batches ready for those ‘I’m hungry’ moments when meals are still quite far off.