Kidney-friendly lunchbox ideas

Pack-Up Ideas

Lunch is an important meal for everyone.  This leaflet aims to give you ideas for renal friendly packed lunches for your child to enjoy.  The suggestions can be used for school lunches, picnics, holidays and days out.

Savoury ideas

Sandwiches can be made to be more appealing by simply changing the bread.  There are lots of different types and shapes of bread and most types can be frozen ready for use.  These include:
- Pitta bread
- Tortilla wraps
- Savoury muffins
- Mini baguettes/French sticks
- Ciabatta
- Bagels
- Croissants
- Teacakes
- Crispbread
- Garlic bread (unsalted butter)
- Rice cakes
- Crumpets

You could try making your own bread and reduce or cut out the salt in the recipe.  Make it into different shapes such as knots.  Also try sprinkling on a small amount of sesame seeds to add a little flavour.                             Note - Wholemeal bread is higher in phosphate therefore it is best to alternate with white bread.

Savoury snacks

Foods to avoid:
- Potato crisps
- Nuts
- Cheesestrings

Foods allowed:
- Walkers Sunbites
- Goodies corn snacks
- Doritos lightly salted or other brand of lightly salted tortilla chips
- Homemade popcorn (unsalted)
- Philadelphia Dunkers

Kidney-friendly fruit and vegetables to include in lunchboxes

- Cucumber
- Green pepper
- Celery
- Spring onion
- Apple
- Pear
- Clementine/Satsuma
- Plum
- Grapes (10)
- Cherries (10)
- Tinned fruit (discard the juices)

Fluid

It is a good idea to include a drink with lunch, eg fruit squash, fruit shoot-type drink (check fruit juice content is less than 7%) or water

Snack swaps!

The following gives you ideas for snacks to avoid and kidney-friendly snacks to have instead

Foods to avoid
- Chocolate biscuits
- Fig rolls
Try instead
- Jammy Dodgers
- Custard creams
- Shortcake
- Pink wafers

Foods to avoid
- Chocolate bar
Try instead
- Rice Krispie marshmallow square

Foods to avoid
Liquorice Allsorts
Try instead
- Marshmallows
- Iced Gems
- Boiled sweets

Foods to avoid
- Chocolate cake
- Fruit cake
Try instead
- Jam Swiss roll
- Victoria sponge cake
- Iced doughnuts/fingers

Foods to avoid
- Tinned salmon
Try instead
- Tinned tuna (in spring water)

Foods to avoid
- Hard cheese, eg cheddar
- Processed cheese, eg Dairylea
Try instead
- Cottage cheese
- Philadelphia
- Boursin
- Boiled egg (within restriction)

Foods to avoid
- Corned beef
- Haslet
- Spam
Try instead
- Sliced roast meat/chicken (check salt content)

Foods to avoid
- Pickle
Try instead
- Reduced salt mayonnaise

Foods to avoid
-          Sliced tomato
Try instead
-          Sliced cucumber
-          Avocado
-          Hummus
-          Spring onion
-          Cress

Suggested recipes

Crunchy chicken wraps

Ingredients
-          100g reduced-salt mayonnaise
-          4 large (8”) flour tortillas
-          1 stalk celery, diced
-          1 medium carrot, diced
-          ½ medium green pepper, diced
-          230g cooked chicken

Method
1.       Spread 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise over each tortilla
2.       In a separate bowl combine the diced vegetables
3.       Place ¼ cup of vegetables and ¼ of chicken on ¼ of each tortilla
4.       Fold the outside of the tortillas inwards and roll up like a burrito
5.       Wrap each tortilla in foil to help keep shape

Low salt and easy macaroni and cheese

Ingredients
-          330g pasta
-          2-3 cups boiling water
-          30g grated cheddar cheese
-          30g soft cheese (eg Philadelphia)
-          1 teaspoon margarine or salt-free butter
-          ¼ teaspoon dried mustard

Method
1.       Boil water, add pasta and cook until tender
2.       Drain
3.       While still very hot stir in butter, soft cheese and mustard and then sprinkle with cheddar cheese

Chicken Fusilli Salad

Dressing ingredients
-          110ml olive oil
-          50ml vinegar
-          ½ teaspoon white pepper
-          ¼ teaspoon dried basil
-          1 teaspoon sugar

Salad ingredients
-          90g fusilli pasta (any pasta shape will work) cooked
-          230g cold cooked chicken, diced
-          70g frozen peas, boiled and drained
-          75g chopped green pepper
-          100g sliced courgette
-          1 medium carrot, sliced thinly
-          100g shredded lettuce

Method
1.       Put dressing ingredients in jar with lid and shake to blend ingredients.  Chill for at least 2 hours.  Shake again before mixing with salad
2.       Mix together pasta, chicken, peas, courgette, green pepper and carrot in large bowl
3.       Add dressing and toss well.  Divide lettuce onto 4 plates and top with salad mixture

Tortilla beef rollups

Ingredients
-          2 flour tortilla, 6” size
-          2 tablespoons Philadelphia
-          140g roast beef, cooked
-          ⅓ red onion, chopped
-          ¼ green pepper, cut in strips
-          8 cucumber slices
-          2 lettuce leaves

Method
1.       Spread the Philadelphia over tortillas
2.       Divide ingredients in half to make 2 tortillas.  Layer each tortilla with roast beef, red onion, pepper strips, cucumber and lettuce.
3.       Roll up
4.       Slice each tortilla into 4 pieces or serve whole

Chicken and pineapple wraps

Ingredients
-          280g chicken, cooked and diced
-          100g pineapple, drained
-          100g reduced-salt mayonnaise or salad dressing
-          ½ green pepper, chopped
-          ⅓ medium carrot, shredded
-          ½ teaspoon pepper
-          4 pieces flatbread or 6” flour tortillas

Method
1.       Combine all ingredients in a bowl
2.       Refrigerate until chilled
3.       Serve chicken salad wrapped in flatbread or a flour tortilla

Sandwich alternatives

Crackers with Philadelphia cream cheese
Try having crackers (low salt variety if possible) with cream cheese for a change.  You can top the cream cheese with thin slices of cucumber or ham.  Try a selection of crackers, crispbreads and unsalted rice cakes for variety.

Dippers
Try cutting some pitta breads into wedges, spread with a little olive oil and bake in a pre-heated oven at 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 for about 10 minutes or until the wedges are golden brown.  Pack up 2 little tubs of any of these for dipping in the wedges:
-          Cream cheese
-          Sour cream
-          Hummus

As well as pitta dippers, try cucumber sticks for dipping.