I’m on News 4 Jacksonville’s River City Live with tips on how to build a balanced lunch box by checking your food groups: grains, protein, dairy, fruits and veggies!
For fruit and veggies, we have the Brainiac Foods fruit snacks and fruit & veggie applesauce pouches. These fruit snacks come in cute brain shapes that kids will love and contain key nutrients to support brain health including omega-3 fats and choline plus are free of artificial colors and flavors, and are a good source of Vitamin C. And their applesauce snacks now have fruits and veggies plus brain nutrients omega-3 fats and choline. You can find them at Walmart and Publix.
For fruit, I also like the Uncle Matt’s Organic Juice Boxes which are the perfect better-for-you juice boxes because they are organic with no added sugar plus have added vitamin C, D and zinc. They come in a variety of flavors including Superfruit Punch, Lemonade and Strawberry Lemonade in shelf-stable 8-packs at Whole Foods and the Fresh Market. I also love their new ready-to-sip organic brewed black teas which come in brewed unsweet tea, brewed sweet tea and half and half black tea lemonade at Sprouts and the fresh market.
For protein and grains, I like to make sandwiches, mini pizzas or pasta with the Good Planet Foods dairy-free Olive Oil Cheese Shreds and Slices because they melt perfectly and are made with olive oil so they offer healthy unsaturated fats and little to no saturated fat. Olive oil is a cornerstone food in the Mediterranean which support brain and heart health. Find them at Whole Foods and Sprouts.
For dairy, I like the Chobani Greek yogurt drinks because they made with real fruit and local milk with 10 grams of satisfying protein and the Chobani flips because they are rich in protein and you get creamy yogurt and crunchy mix-ins in fun flavors. For busy parents the Chobani Complete lactose-free yogurt drinks are a good option because they have 20 grams of complete protein, 3 grams of fiber and 0 added sugar. And the La Colombe Ready to Drink draft lattes which feature more froth and less sugar than typical ready to drink coffee beverages and are made with high quality ingredients like farm fresh milk and beans roasted and brewed by La Colombe.
