Packed lunch ideas please

[LuluBee]

Hi everyone,

So Alex starts school this week and I'm looking for inspiration for packed lunches. His school have quite a strict healthy eating policy - no chocolate, sweets or what they call 'fake fruit' - fruit flakes etc.

So what do you give your child for packed lunches?

Thanks

 

[LaDY]

Hiya...my son has school lunches but i have done a packed lunch for holiday club...this included sandwich (cream cheese an cucumber, his favourite)...some bread sticks, a piece of fruit (freshe or dried)...yogurt...a box of raisens with the occasional treat...and a bottle of water xx

 

[Tinylo]

Ds1 was in reception last year and I packed for him one of each from the lists below:
S/whiches, pitta, roll, crackers
Crisps, rice cakes,
Yogurt, frube, smoothie (homemade)
Mini sausages, sausage roll , cheese cubes or flapjack, (hm) banana bread (hm) or a biscuit bar.
He gets fruit as a mid morning snack from school (and he hates most fruit and veg so putting it in he wouldn't eat it anyway, then end up hungry). I sneak healthy ingredients in to his hm lunch ideas.
He gets 4 things to eat, and nothing too messy or that takes ages to eat, as all they really want to do is get out and play!

 

[JackieB]

I've been packing lunches for 8 years so I've gotten it pretty down pat!

My oldest is in 7th and youngest in 2nd and we pack every day but Fridays....

So....Meat and Cheese roll ups, hard boiled eggs, cut up veggies, cubed cheese and cherry tomato kabobs (anything on a toothpick they will eat) cut fruit in a small Tupperware instead of a baggie bc it wont get smashed. Good Old chunky Natural peanut butter on whole wheat (Add a dab of Honey sweetens it up), and I also send left overs in a thermos

Hope this helps!

 

[Rachel_C]

LO isn't at school yet but I've made plenty of packed lunches in my time!

A small tupperware box with a salad always goes down well, a nice mix of sweet and savoury e.g. cucumber, apple, cheese, tomato, lettuce, carrot.

Cold pasta salad is nice (plain pasta, grated cheese, grated carrot, cucumber, lettuce, mayo), or couscous or rice salad.

If I send veg or cheese sticks, I also send a little pot of dip - just something simple like natural yoghurt with a little mint sauce mixed in, or soft cheese and mayo mixed.

My kids love little bags of dry cereal like Weetabix minis or filled shredded wheat, although it can make them a bit thirsty. They do well in place of sweets or crisps though.

 

[mummy_ellie09]

Huge thanks to the OP for this thread! I've been trying to think of new things for J's lunch. Will continue to stalk

 

[fantastica]

Great idea for a thread!

I'm starting to struggle with this after only a week in! He wont eat sandwiches so have been making several different pasta things, but running out of ideas. He won't really eat cheese unless it's grated and we're veggies. What have others been putting in?

 

[Abigailly]

I make packed lunches for Niamh and the kids I take to school every morning and tend to mix it up quite a bit (mainly because my best friend doesn't have time to make nice packed lunch because of work and studying so feel like I need to give them that in put!)

Wraps
Kebabs (chicken, veg on a stick, cook them that morning and wrap in foil. Usually still warm by lunch)
Bread sticks and dips, like guacamole, salsa
Sandwiches
Soup
Home made scotch eggs and potato salad
Lettuce tacos
Pasta/rice salad
Pasta (in a thermos will stay warm)
Cous cous
crackers (like home made lunchables)

Snacks were always harder (and still are for Niamh). We always do a piece of fruit, a yoghurt and something. Rice cakes with peanut butter on them, dry cereal, avocado, boiled egg etc

I make a meal plan each week for the packed lunches so things like pasta salads I make the night before.

 

[JASMAK]

Our school is peanut and nut free, as well as kiwi fruit free, due to allergies.

So, my kids get:
whole wheat bread and meat and/or cheese sandwhich.
A milk
Fruit and sometimes a veggie too
Yogurt or cheese
One cracker OR granola bar (nut free) OR homemade cookie

 

[Vickie]

For Hannah's lunches I send eggs (quiches/scrambled/hard boiled), chicken wraps, pumpkin pancakes with cream cheese frosting (sweetened with honey and cocoa powder), pita pizzas, cheese/cracker/lunch meat (she won't eat a sandwich but will eat it this way ), & leftovers

Those would be her main lunch and I always include 1-2 items of fruit and usually a cheese string or yogurt.

I also sometimes send in pretzels, goldfish crackers, homemade pumpkin donuts, granola bars, muffins

 

[magicwhisper]

friut and veg cut up? as a ta i notice they will eat it cut upbut if you just give them the fruit not as much

yogurt
cheese strings

everyone else has great ideas