I am in Australia and have been told to put my daughter on a preservative, colouring and flavour free diet?

Question

Does anyone know of what products i can actually give her? She is at school so they need to be handy items. She is not to have anything red (even naturally occurring). I am at a loss as to how to be able to provide a decent lunchbox for her. Any help would be greatly appreciated especially the names of any products available in Australia which dont contain any of the above.

Answer 1

Chicken salad sandwiches,  a pear, cheese sticks, boiled eggs, celery sticks, grapes, mandarins, raisins.... anything that is natural! not that hard!  

Answer 2

Oof, it's tough.  My mother and I can fortunately have some of that, but we're having to go as natural as possible to avoid diet issues as well.

Green apples, carrot sticks, green or white grapes, and dried fruit make good snacking foods.  So do cheese and crackers.  Oh, and nuts are great.  Just double-check the label for the nasty stuff.  

I love fresh made tortilla chips.  They're delicious enough that I don't feel deprived, which is nice when we have so many diet restrictions.

Drinks shouldn't be a problem as there are preservative free juices and milks out there, and water is always an option.

For the main course, I can think of a few "easy" natural items:

1.  Make a big old pot of homemade soup, be it split pea or chicken noodle.  You can package these into freezable Tupperware and freeze individual portions, as soup recovers beautifully from being frozen.  If she has a microwave at school, pop one in when you pack the lunch.  If not, set several in the fridge for the week so they thaw before she gets them.

2.  Sandwiches with fresh, preservative-free bakery bread yeild many options:  egg salad sandwich, tuna sandwich, chicken sandwich, veggie sandwich, PBJ (with a natural peanut butter and a jelly of an appropriate color, of course)

3.  Salads are great and keep well in a lunch box.  Just be sure to include protein in the form of poultry, fish, beef, nuts, or eggs so she isn't hungry again right away.

4.  In the states we have some pricey but preservative-free convenience foods.  Annie's brand comes to mind.  Check your local grocery and health food stores to see if they have convenient items for those days you run out of prep items or just don't have time!

5.  Many of the items you cook for dinner can be repackaged into tomorrow's lunch.  I make a taco-salad out of last night's taco leftovers, with spinach (my alternative to lettuce, which is fine for her to have), cheese, beans, and ground beef.  You can also break some of the preservative-free, fresh-fried tortilla chips into the salad to make it more taco-y.  A stir-fry becomes tomorrow's nutritious lunch as well, and her spaghetti can be made alongside everyone else's, then covered with a pesto sauce instead of tomato sauce.  (Most alfredo sauces will have preservatives, I'm afraid.)

Good luck!  The good news is that once you find these healthy options for your daughter, she'll have better nutrition than most of us!