We were recently asked to partner with Choices Markets & Jelly Marketing to create a fun back-to-school video. I brought the kids in store to their Abbotsford location and they picked out some of their favourite things for their school lunches. Below are ten of their favourite items from Choices Markets that work perfectly for lunch.
Watch the full video here:
10 Lunch Items from Choices Markets
- Annie’s Homegrown Cheddar Bunnies: These cheesy, baked crackers are a household favourite. They’re the perfect snack option for recess, lunch, or even after school. These come in both original cheddar and white cheddar. Annie’s makes a lot of bunny cracker options, so if you’re not a big fan of cheesy snacks, you can always go for Honey Bunny Grahams, Chocolate Bunny Grahams, or even Bunny Snickerdoodles.
- Produce: The kids love apples and bananas, and it’s our rule to always have at least one fruit in their lunch. According to Canada’s Food Guide, half of the food we eat should be fruits and vegetables (#goals), whole foods make it easy to avoid extra salt and sugar in our diets.
- Patience Fruit & Co. Dried Fruit Snacks: Patience uses a lot of different fruits to make delicious grab and go snacks. There are classic dried fruit options and dried fruit with added apple juice for a sweeter taste. Patience also makes a Fruit Blend (different dried berries mixed together) and even some chocolate, chia seed, and dried fruit snacks — but I save those ones for me. You can get them in single size servings and a few bigger sizes that are perfect for sharing, so you don’t have to pick just one.
- KIJU Organic Juice Boxes: Choices Market sells five different KIJU juice blends: Apple Juice, Grape Apple Juice, Mango Orange Juice, Pomegranate Cherry Juice, and Lemonade. The best part? There’s no added sugar.
- IÖGO nanö Yogurt Drinks and Yogurt Tubes: Yogurt is always a great option for school lunches because it’s a great source of protein and dairy, plus it is full of probiotics, which are great for helping to keep the kids healthy when we’re hit with all the back-to-school stomach viruses. IÖGO makes all of their yogurt with whole milk and fresh fruit; their nanö line is marketed towards kids and is made in smaller sizes that are perfect for sending in the kids’ lunches. IÖGO is a Canadian company, buying their products supports Canadian dairy farmers. Everybody wins!
- Deli Meat: My kids recently just started eating deli meat in their lunches. Before that it was either honey or jam, ha! Now I feel like we are always running low on sandwich meat.
- Silver Hills Bakery Loaves: Silver Hills Bakery is a family-owned bakery that is local to Abbotsford. They use sprouted grains to make delicious and nutritious bread, bagels, buns, and tortillas. We recently saw a health specialist that recommended cutting back on grains, but if we insisted to go with Silver Hills products.
- Wendel’s True Foods Cookies: These cookies hit the sweet spot! This is another company that’s local — these cookies are made in Langley, BC, and they are DELICIOUS. These are a great option for vegans and for celiacs, because they’re dairy-free and wheat-free; they’re made with fair trade chocolate chips, too. These little guys are a guilt-free treat for school lunches (or an after school treat). Yum.
- Laughing Cow & Mini Babybel Cheese Snacks: What’s a lunch without cheese? Both Laughing Cow and Babybel make snack-sized cheese that are perfect for school. dxco9Laughing Cow has cheese wedges and cheese dippers, and Mini Babybel has a ton of different small cheese wheels. We buy these all year round, because they’re the perfect size for on-the-go!
- Love Child Organics Owlies: These cute little crackers are made with spelt instead of wheat, and cane juice instead of sugar. They come in two flavours: sweet potato and ginger, and raspberry vanilla. Owlies are a great option for a recess snack because they’re healthy and pretty filling. The raspberry vanilla are the kids personal favourite.
A Few of My Personal Choices Markets’ Favourites
Of course, I couldn’t leave Choices without picking up a few of my favourite products, too. Don’t forget to treat yourself to a little something when you’re back-to-school shopping! Here are a few of my go-to items from Choices Market that keep me feeling good:
- WithinUs Matcha Misto + TruMarine Collagen: Drinking this matcha misto gives me that extra boost, plus the added collagen helps my skin, hair, and nails feel healthier. You just mix it with hot water and you are good to go. I recently learned you can mix in their coconut creamer and it’s even better!
- MegaFood Vitamins: MegaFood is my go-to vitamin brand. They have a wide range of vitamins and are known for being “fresh from farm to tablet.” I mainly take their women’s daily multi-vitamin, vitamin C, and their B 12 (both the ginger and cranberry are awesome).
- Healthy Hooch Kombucha: If you’re not familiar with kombucha, it’s a fermented drink that’s really high in probiotics. Healthy Hooch is another local brand on this list — it was founded right here in Abbotsford. My favourite flavour of this kombucha is the lemon ginger.
Back to school meal is the most important for our kids because kids do lots of activity in school and that took all their energy. To make them full charge again food helps a lot that why lunch must be very healthy, nutrients rich and tasty for every kid.