Lunch boxes: a daily essential, and a daily trial. Not just the assembling of, but the what to put in them, what’s in the fridge, do we have any bread, actually where is your lunch box? routine. And, then there’s the packaging. Off the shelf supermarket lunch-box snacks are often laden with soft plastics making our kids lunch boxes major contributors to single use plastic waste.

There are some great initiatives to slash the single use output of kids lunch boxes, like our local schools nude food days. That’s where everything in their lunch box has to be package free, with classes receiving points and kudos for a full house of package free lunchboxes.

To create a single use plastic package free lunch box habit though takes planning. Yep, we know, something else to add to the list. But, this @plasticfreejuly we’re committed and inspired to make the change!

To spur on our enthusiasm we’re trying simple recipes - like this healthy and easy option from Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar, Kids Cookbook (bluebird books for life, @booksbybluebird). And, trying to get the kids on board with the buying and making to help bolster their sense of environmental responsibility.

Buying the ingredients from a bulk food store cuts the single use plastic packaging back at source too. For this recipe we bought what we could from our local @scoopwholefoods. Also a great place to get the littlies weighing and measuring as an added bonus.

Outside of the baking, we’re trying other food prep hacks to bring down the packaging - like buying fruit from our local food market @bondifarmersmarket and, when we can’t avoid a pre-packaged product like chips, buying large bags and dropping a few into single serve reusable containers each day. Thanks for the yogurt tip too @green.and.simple - buy large pots of yogurt, add a few spoons to reusable containers with a little honey each day for another lunch box treat.

We’d love to hear your plastic free lunch box ideas. Any favourite tricks or recipes?

Good luck with the muffins. Let us know how you get on.

Abi and Claire

xx

Fluffy Raspberry Muffins

From I Quit Sugar, Kids Cookbook with Sarah Wilson

Makes 12

Prep time 10 minutes

Cooking time 30 minutes

2 cups (250g) gluten-free flour, sifted

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (250g) unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk to make recipe nut free)

125g butter, melted

2 eggs, whisked

⅓ cup (75ml) rice malt syrup

1½ cups (180g) frozen or fresh raspberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (gas 4). Line a muffin or cupcake tray with 12 paper cases.
2. Combine the sifted flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Pour in the milk, butter, eggs, and rice malt syrup.Mix until a batter forms, Gently stir through the raspberries.
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared paper cases, and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the muffins are well risen and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the centre.
4. Remove from the tray and allow to cool on a wire rack before serving.

For more information visit

plasticfreejuly.org

www.bluebirdbooksforlife.com

www.scoopwholefoods.com.au

http://bondimarkets.com.au/farmers/

https://greenandsimple.co/

To shop our range of recycled foldable totes visit https://theother-bag.com/