Packed lunches

[TinaTraybake]

Now that the kids are back in school, is anyone struggling to pack lunches? I've got 2 kids in secondary school, 1 year 8 and 1 year 7 who are both taking their own lunches due to covid. I've got 3 DC in primary school who are all taking their own lunches aswell. My youngest is in nursery 2 days a week and spends the rest of the week at his grandparents so he doesn't take a lunch. We are all vegetarian and I just feel like the stuff I pack for them they will just get bored of really quickly and I don't know if they are getting enough variety. My eldest two have been taking veggie wraps and some crisps. My kids in primary have been taking cheese sandwiches or crackers and cheese, fruit and something like crisps or a biscuit. They all take water bottles with them for in the day. Have you got any tips or ideas for things they can take?

Try www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/lunchbox-recipes/amp

My DD has recenly gone veggie........I'm trying to be suppprtive but honestly I preferred it when she ate meat and fish as lunches seemed easier. Currently she likes.... cheese and salad baguette with veggie mayo, or pasta with tomato sauce plus chopped up Linda m sausages and cheese in a food flask, cheese omlette with baked beans in the flask again, houmous with carrot sticks. So fairly limited. And I will watch your thread with interest.

I wouldn't worry too much about variety - me eldest took the same packed lunch for 7 years and only slightly varied the fruit / veg but basically ham sandwich, yogurt, Kit Kat or flap jack, cucumber , apples, grapes or strawberries!! He loved his lunch and was happy with the same thing !!!!!!!

Vegetable samosas

Cold pizza

Quiche

We love the quorn chicken nuggets and I put them in wraps with salad, maybe a bit of cheese too.
Pasta salads, I put tuna in mine, I suppose you do not want to. With tomatoe, peppers, onion if you like it, it will be nice with quorn chicken.
Fritattas with onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, crougettes, in a sandwich or wrap. Or plain omelettes with salad.
Pasties with feta cheese and spinach, or ricotta and spinach. The old cheese and onion. Veggie sausages or soya mince pasties. There are lots of possible variations here!
Soya patties-burguers with all the thinkable additions, and we love brioche rolls with them. That if they do not mind having them cold, I prefer the patty hot but I can eat them cold.
If they like hummous, I do make for myself a kind of deconstructed version for lunch. Cheakpeas, lemon, garlic, chilli flakes and salt to be mixed with roasted veggies (cherry tomatoes, crougettes, peppers, onions). Sometimes I all spinach leaves to it. It has garlic so they may not want this one. I have chewing gum on my desk to deal with the aftermat.

I'll have to try some of these lunches for myself, they sound really nice! I hadn't thought of adding the quorn nuggets to wraps for lunch, I'll have to give that a go. Thank you for all the suggestions

Quorn cocktail sausages or picnic eggs are always welcome by my DC.
We usually do a roll with tofurkey, babybel, yoghurt, chopped tomato and cucumber And something like strawberries and blueberries. Or I make chicken and sweet corn pasta using Linda McCartney pulled chicken. My eldest sometimes likes things like olives, boiled eggs, cold v meatballs like tapas. Or chopped pittas and houmous.

Change the dread around, bagels, wraps, sandwich tins, rolls etc

Chicken (those oomph pieces are nice) curry mayo (essentially just "chicken" marinaded in a few tbsp jarred tikka sauce, then baked in the oven and then micmxed with may once cooled) in a sandwich with salad is always a fave with our dc. They also like bog standard cheese and pickle or a grated cheese salad sarnie with sliced jalapenos for added kick. Other faves are "ham" and mustard or even a blt with fake bacon.

Veggie sausage sandwich.
Cheese and crackers.
Slice of cold pizza.
Veggie quiche.
Egg mayo/egg and cress sandwich.
Veggie samosas.

Anything that's not messy, won't bruise and doesn't need a fork as they no longer have anywhere to properly sit and eat.

Wrap, rolls, packet of bread sticks, packet of pretzels, grapes and those nutella B-ready snacks.

I like the idea of quorn nuggets.

Rice paper wraps!

Mini frittata baked in muffin pans

Mini calzone - I make my dough in the bread machine and then stuff with pizza sauce, mushrooms, spinach and cheese

Pasta salad