to think this is a perfectly good sized lunch?

I would be happy if my 3 ate that for lunch! It would be plenty for them cos they won't carry ANYTHING! I have got them all kinds of stuff over the years and all they take are crisps! Drives me mad and food gets wasted! :-( (I leave for work before they leave for school, 2x16 year olds, 1x14) They would all eat more and healthier stuff when they were younger and my KS1 class's lunches are generally larger than mine! Rolls are fine frozen. What would they make for themselves? I agree they should make it, not you! Maybe swap the bar for something less sugary cos the yoghurt is too and it would make them more hungry mid afternoon? Good luck!

I would say add some fruit, but the veg under the mash incident conveys that wouldn't go down to well!

Teenage kids boys especially eat tons of tat! I'm a teacher and the number of whole multipacks of biscuits that are consumed everyday astonishes me! It's like some of them go to the supermarket and get the best value biscuits/crisps/sweets/huge bars of chocolate and then they share them all out. So even the students that come to school with the nice sensible sized lunches end up eating far more! I think a lot of parents would be very shocked on discovering what their children actually eat at school.

I can't believe how many of you think that biscuits and crisps are a vital part of lunch. THAT is setting up bad eating habits.

Fwiw my DS is almost 8 and would probably eat a bit more, since we're talking portion sizes. :) Tomorrow I'll send him to day camp with cheese and crackers, cashews, some veggies and dip, some fruit, and maybe something else if I decided to. Otherwise he has a sandwich, fruit, veg or salad, and a cheese stick or something. Very very occasionally crisps or a cookie.

Fenella, I take my hat off to you
You're an absolute star.

I'd add a bit more of...well, whatever they'll eat! :) You have enough battles to fight.

I like Tinkyada gf pasta, for the pp asking for recommendations. I don't know if it's available there though.

Why are you making their school lunch? (their school lunch?)
You really shouldn't do that every da-ay
They need to learn to do their own (do their own)
They need to learn to do their own..(da da dadada da)

Let them do their own (their own)
Oh let them do their own (their own)
Oh let them do their own. (or they'll grow up feckless)

(On Ilkley Moor Baht 'At was an inspired choice of tune!)

Sandwich to Australia please, but no ham.

Which GF pasta do you use? I can't stand the corn based stuff so have to use Orgran rice and vegetable or rice and millet (the best, least likely to go to mush and has some "bite" to it). You can still get it in some health food shops, or online, but the fecking supermarkets all seem to have gone corn-based, the bastards, when I was over there at Easter. Got really cross, I did!
Dove's farm rice penne is nice but it's brown rice, so I don't know if that would cause issues with your boys - mine both ate it without a murmur (7 and 2) but that's not necessarily indicative!

well i think that is a perfectly fine lunch my son who is 16 may add a pack of small crackers he likes the sunbite ones other than that i think its ok and i still make it for him

Don't know if anyone's mentioned it but another small portion of protein could really help fill them up, especially as it burns off slower - cheese, boiled eggs and chicken legs are favourite here. I'm another who'll be nicking the frozen sandwiches idea.. Genius!!

Ooh, ooh, I found tasty gluten free pasta! Miraculous. Not cheap, but nice enough that I'll happily eat it myself rather than cook two separate kinds. I got it from Ocado, but this is it:

www.amazon.co.uk/PACK-Doves-Brown-Penne-BUNDLE/dp/B00V6HO73W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1433803941&sr=8-3&keywords=Doves+farm+gluten+free+organic+pasta#productDetails

I am going to have to experiment and freeze some sandwiches now

The meal sounds fine. Maybe pack him a couple of bits of fruit - apple/tangerine.

What everyone else said. Especially the part about making them do their own sandwiches (with provided ingredients of course).
#controlfreakinkitchenprocurement lol

Fucking hell. Am I the only one that thinks that's a massive lunch for ops kids? Am shocked at the amount some posters kids ate wolfing down.

My teen ds only has one sarnie (he refuses to take any extras except crisps every so often).

at this thread!

OP, am deeply envious that your boys will eat bread (let alone horrible GF bread). My own son (4, ASD) will not touch the stuff unless it's been woven at home homemade and literally just out of the oven, then he deigns to break a bit of crust off. Sandwiches are terra incognita.

I have no idea if that's enough. I am not your boys. DS2 seems to have issues with regulating his appetite or understanding when he's full or not. I do know that my older son (7) who admittedly seems to be on some sort of Godzilla-like growth spurt, would complain that he was starving after that lot.

Brilliant idea, Gabilan. Although in my mind the song, "Why Can't They Make Their Own Lunch" is set to the tune of On Ilkley Moor Baht 'At.

It could work. We need to shoe-horn a Frube in there somewhere. And the pope. The mind boggles.

If I were a bit more creative, I'd turn the thread into a country and western song with Why can't they make their own lunch? as the chorus.

Speck - you may be a nurse but you don't know much about being coeliac if you think bread shouldn't be frozen. Coeliac fresh bread prescriptions arrive in massive batches of 8 loaves. If you didn't freeze it you'd have to eat mouldy bread all month, or chuck it out on day 3 (gf bread also goes stale way faster).

Freezing is fine. Not. An. Issue.

I want a sarnie too. And a frube!