A return to school and kindergarten means the daily dilemma – what to pack for lunches? Often, I find myself scrambling through the fridge and pantry each night to find something that my little one will enjoy, yet is still healthy and nutritious.
My number one tip is to keep it simple. Even if you’re using the same core ingredients each day, try to be creative about how you use these ingredients to keep it interesting for your child.
One of my favourite ways to do this is making rice paper rolls – they’re super quick and easy, and a fun way to incorporate fresh fruit and veg into your little one’s lunch box.
Rice Paper Rolls
- 1 x 150g rice paper spring roll wrappers
- 1 x packet vermicelli noodles (prepared as per packet instructions)
- 2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 Lebanese cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1 red capsicum, thinly sliced
- 2 peaches, stone removed, thinly sliced
- 1 x punnet strawberries
- 1 x punnet raspberries
- 1 x punnet blueberries
Dip one rice paper sheet in a large bowl or plate of warm water (do not soak)! Place the wet roll on a clean benchtop.
Spread a small portion of each chosen filling (fruit or veg) on one end of rice paper. Fold the bottom
edge over the filling to enclose. Fold in both sides and roll away to make one rice paper roll.
Repeat with remaining ingredients. Serve and enjoy.
Tip: use cooked and sliced poached chicken or pork and cooked prawns to add protein and to create a more complete meal for the family. We also love to add fresh herbs from the garden to add more flavour and colour!
About the author
A beautiful visual content creator, Amie is also an Author of two children’s recipe books, Baby Pip Eats & Little Pip Eats, and also holds a B.Sc. in Food Science and Nutrition. Amie has over 15 years of experience as a food technologist for some of the world’s largest consumer goods companies and has also worked as a freelance food stylist and recipe writer for magazines, including the Australian Women’s Weekly, Gourmet Traveller and Good Taste
A career highlight for Amie was having the ability to use her varied talents internationally, working as a Food consultant in the USA with food retailers; WholeFoods, Trader Joes and Giant Eagle. On large scale labelling system implementation in accordance with the FDA and USDA regulation nutrition updates for 2020.
More recently, Amie has been involved in managing multiple small and large corporate food projects with more of an ethical purpose, including; Patagonia Provisions range, Cobram Estate, and a small Indigenous food based social enterprise start up.
Amie continues to use her Instagram feed as a means to inspire families to plate up healthy, economical and simple seasonal fare that everyone can enjoy.
