The "Krone" Lower Austria column

The little messenger arranges the school snack

(Bild: Krone kreativ/Daniela Gaigg/canva)

What we have in the snack boxes and how we bring variety into the healthy school snack. As a columnist, "Die kleine Botin" aka Daniela Gaigg writes about topics relating to life with the family. These include sustainability in everyday life, self-care and food for thought for parents.

School life has us back in its grip! After just a few weeks, it's like the daily greeting from the groundhog and tired spirits creep into the kitchen in the morning. Our breakfasts are rather spartan, but the snack boxes are packed colorfully.

Since Year 2 at elementary school, the children have largely chosen what they want to eat during the day, which means that very little comes back and we don't throw a lot of food in the organic waste. We have agreed on a basic selection of bread, flatbreads, spreads and fresh fruit and vegetables and adapt this seasonally. At the moment, flatbread rolled with hummus and fresh carrot, red bell pepper and cucumber sticks are very popular. Grapes, pomegranate seeds, orange slices or half an apple make the range perfect for the big break in the morning.

If we have more time on Sundays, we also bake muesli bars or roll energy balls - to sweeten them up. Almonds or walnut kernels to nibble on or, now in the fall, a small piece of gingerbread - variety is just as important to us as balance. So that it doesn't get boring, I come up with something new from time to time, like the "apple donuts" recently: cut the cored apple into slices, stick them together with nut butter, drizzle lemon juice on top and a few sprinkles as a topping - done!