Baby's packed lunch - Inspiration please!

[superbabysmummy]

Sadly I have returned to work recently, this means I pack my gorgeous DD off the the childminder and my Mum's during the week. I send her with lunch and dinner, she has breakie at home.

I pack her something lovely and organic for dinner, usually from the Plum or Ella's kitchen range with a nice pudding however I am struggling with packed lunches, I need to offer her more of a balance than I have been doing and whilst she thinks 2 main meanls and puddings a day is fab, I want to get into the habbit of lunch and dinner.

She is a great eater and will give anything a go, my ideal would be to send her with dinner (spag bol etc), pudding (rice pudding for example), some sandwiches, a fruit pouch and petit filous. Some biscotti and carrot sticks as snacks. This however seems pretty boring day in/day out.

Does anyone have any interesting ideas as to what else I can pack for her? I can't really expect my Childminder to cook beans on toast/omlet etc on a daily basis.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Doesn't your childminder provide the food then super? If not, is she ok at warming things up?

There are the usual like Spanish Omelette, tuna pasta salad, savoury muffin. There are some great recipes here and some good recipes on MN, packed lunch recipes and baby and weaning recipes

Petit filous is quite sugary too, does your mum or cm clean her teeth after?

[superbabysmummy]

She doesn't have any teeth yet...

CM is fine to heat up food we supply, just doesn't provide!

Thanks for info :-)

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Teeth or not she should be able to manage most things

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Ah see what you mean about the teeth. I blame the

Its still pretty sugary though and some people do gently brush their gums before the teeth arrive.

[superbabysmummy]

LOL! Have another glass, it'll make things clearer again! Thank you for links

[Thurlow]

A subject close to my heart, we do packed lunches for the CM too and sometimes I struggle for ideas!

DD has either had something to be warmed up - so spag bol, chilli, pasta and veg, and now she's a bit older she has stir fried chicken, couscous and veg. When she didn't have teeth I used to swear by lentil stew, which is just a mix of veg like swede, carrots, onion, parsnips with lentils, you can blend this easily and she loved it. She has yoghurt and fruit as well, and then gets her teeth cleaned after lunch.

She also has sandwiches with a big side portion of veg to make it seem healthier.

[gwenniebee]

We do sandwiches (crusts cut off) rolled out with a rolling pin so that the fillings don't just squidge out... hommous, grated cheese, mackerel mashed up with cream cheese etc.

Roasted veg to eat with sarnies or snack on? There are also lots of different fruit crisp snacks and things that you can buy.

[niffernaffer]

Falafels, mini bread sticks/ Pitta strips and hummous to dip into, pizza portions, carrot/ cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes. Tiny cream cheese/ Marmite/ ham/ egg/ tuna sandwiches, Cheese cubes, fruit, dried fruit?