Mum, I had this at school today!, A sentence repeated in many homes in Spain where children have lunch at school.
Planning dinners that complement the school menu can seem like a difficult feat. Here’s an easy trick for you to pull it off.
- Look at what protein your children have eaten that day and which one they will eat the next day and change it.
- Do the same with carbohydrates.
- Make sure to vary vegetables and their cooking methods; for example if they had boiled vegetables at school, give them a different type of raw vegetable for dinner.
- The best dessert option for your kid is to have a piece of fruit or a natural yoghurt.
Let’s see an example;
MONDAY |
TUESDAY |
|
LUNCH |
Rice with seafood |
Green beans with potatoes |
Chicken with chips |
Battered hake with salad |
|
Tangerine |
Custard |
On Monday night, protein should not come from poultry or fish. So you can choose eggs, beef or rabbit. To complete the dish, you need some carbohydrates that are different from rice and potato, so you can offer them pasta. And finally, to give your kids a perfect dinner, you just need some vegetables. In this example, it should be raw vegetables, so a small salad, a few cherry tomatoes or a mild gazpacho could be the perfect choice.
Therefore, a good dinner option for Monday or Tuesday could be:
MONDAY DINNER |
Spirals with fresh diced tomato, grated carrot and olives |
Mushroom omelette |
|
Natural yoghurt |
|
TUESDAY DINNER |
Three-coloured pasta salad with seeds |
Chicken burger with cherry tomatoes |
|
Pear |