What do you put in packed lunches?

[elliejjtiny]

Dc are 7 and 9. Normally have school dinners but since school have been charging £2.40 for a sandwich, fruit and crisps we have moved to packed lunches.

Today dc have a cheese sandwich, cut up carrots, Apple and crisps. Similar to the lunches the school are doing. My 9 year old says "everyone" in his class has at least one chocolate biscuit as well as crisps and some of them have 2 chocolate biscuits. I expect he is exaggerating but I just wanted to check I wasn't being mean by not giving him a chocolate biscuit in his lunchbox. I'm going to make some flapjack later so he can have some of that in his lunch tomorrow.

Mine are 6 and 9 and I put similar although usually a yoghurt or smoothie as well and only crisps sometimes. Cake or similar occasionally if we have any.
I've also bought my older one a thermos short flask and have sent hot pasta a few times, which they like.
My older one takes a snack in too usually a nature valley bar or similar but my younger one still has school fruit and milk.

Sandwich, cucumber chunks, pepper slices, cheese or yoghurt, half a pack of crisps, half an apple, another type of fruit, biscuit (but not necessarily chocolate) and a drink. 9 and 11. They are both known to eat a lot.

Mine always had a little treat eg penguin, 2 finger kitkat though if I was feeling all earth mother I would make flapjacks, apple muffins etc. Never got crisps mind you.

Ds1 has a ham or chicken sandwich, grapes, babybel and a small treat, this week it's raisin cupcakes, last week it was malt loaf.

Ds2 likes tuna pasta, sugars nap peas and carrots, babybel and he tends to have flapjack as his treat.

I do put a treat in because the school dinners always have a pud of some kind.

My two today got a salami sandwich, cucumber sticks, carrots, cut grapes, strawberries, watermelon, a yoghurt and the naughty unhealthy bit was a mini pack of Maryland cookies but that's because our school allows it.

Today mine (8 & 5 yo) have half a cheese sandwich each. A tub of sweetcorn, olives and chopped cucumber and a tub of chopped fruit.

Yesterday they had chickpeas with olives, tomato and peppers, raspberrys and a handful of choc chips.

Some days pasta with salad.

Some days yoghurt. Only one sweet thing per day here.

I try to do something different each day as we are only on packed lunch due to DD2 being Coeliac.

Most children do have chocolate biscuits in my experience.

Why put in half an apple? How does it not turn yellow by lunch? Half a bag of crisps seems a bit pointless too as that would amount to about 6 crisps. Why not a whole apple and no crisps.

Crisps are seen as terrible on mn but a bag once or twice a week is not a cardinal sin nor is a biscuit. It's great if your child is into cut up fruit and veg but some are not despite being offered it. My ds was always a light eater at lunch, still is so mostly just had a sandwich and maybe a biscuit. I used to put more in his lunchbox when he was younger but I realised he just couldn't eat it.

Mine doesn't like sandwiches (9) so has a salad with some meat, normally roast chicken or salami, and then bread sticks or oat cakes as the carb, and some fruit. We're not actually anal about food at all and if she liked cheese sandwiches she could have them but this is her choice! The school has recently started being strict on break time snacks, no cereal bars allowed, I want her to have more than a piece of fruit mid morning so we've started making oat and raisin cookies to take in - again, I'm not some sort of earth mother who makes loads of food from scratch but these are easy to make and you can swap a lot of the sugar for honey and dates instead

Seeded bread with either tuna, chicken, ham, cheese plus either peppers or lettuce, a piece of fruit, a small pack of unsalted nuts and a nakd bar. That's for me and my teenagers.

I've moved to sending my 9 year old in with a hot food flask.

Today is chicken curry and rice, and mince pie for pudding
Tomorrow is lasagne (leftover from last night), tub of cucumber and cherry tomatoes and piece of rocky road

I batch made cakes and biscuits for pudding

My dcs school friends don’t have to have any fruit or vegetables in their lunch boxes. The get to go to bed much later too. Apparently 10:30 is early for their friends - 10 year olds.

We have wraps or sandwiches, pasta of some sort. Little mini cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes from Lidl. Fruit and sometimes cheese and crackers or a sausage roll.

Mine is 4. Has cheese, ham and cucumber sandwich, banana or apple, yogurt, pack of crisps and a Freddo.
Doesn’t eat much though, only a couple of crisps get eaten, same with chocolate will take a bite and that’s it.

TBH I’m that mum when it comes to packed lunches. Today DS has pepper and haloumi kebabs, some yogurt marinated spicy chicken, strips of pita, houmous, tzaziki, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes and then some chopped up peaches and blueberries.

Tomorrow is puff pastry pizza swirls with a roasted veg salad with tahini dressing, some cubes of cheese, and some melon.

I don’t give him chocolate and crisps but it’s mostly because he’s really prone to hanger so I tend to make sure he has quite substantial things even for snack/treat, so he might have something like a piece of banana bread or a homemade cookie?

He is 9 years old and he has asked for a chocolate biscuit alongside an otherwise healthy lunchbox. A single chocolate biscuit. Just give the poor kid one, it’s not crack cocaine.
Why the angst over a biscuit?!

Oh and I should add the only reason he eats like a page out of the river cottage cookbook is because I currently work from home so I cook on my lunch break for me and DH and then that’s DS’s packed lunch the next day!

There's some strange psychology that makes you do a sandwich and five snacks. At home we would never have that. It's weird. But I do it myself. E.g Sandwich, oat cookie, carrot sticks, strawberries, mini chedders.

Mine always have a healthy sandwich, yogurt, and fruit They get a little treat in their packed lunch but its always a biscuit/snack bar never a actual bar of chocolate. Also 'crisps' would be flavoured rice cakes/baked crackers etc rather than a bag of Wotsits. School are quite strict about this actually

Ham or cheese sandwich

Yogurt

Fruit or chopped veg.

9year old.

I usually put in two pieces of fruit, raisins , a selection of chopped veg with hummus, a wrap/sandwich or crackers with cheese, a yogurt and a homemade flapjack or small muffin.

My DC's school does not allow any crisps, chocolate or juice.

I always used to do crisps one day with fruit/yogurt, veg & sandwich and the next day a chocolate bar with fruit/yogurt, veg & sandwich. Never crisps & chocolate on the same day.

DC today got a cheese sandwich, baby toms and peppers, a small handful of unsweetened dried mango, moo yogurt pouch, packet of Pom bears and a pack of 2 lotus biscuits which he really likes.
Sometimes he finishes all and sometimes not but its there.

The rules are the sandwich and veg get eaten first.

Daughter has ham sandwiches, ready salted crisps and a single finger twix, she also takes fruit and water for snack time.

@ShellsandSand

Today mine (8 & 5 yo) have half a cheese sandwich each. A tub of sweetcorn, olives and chopped cucumber and a tub of chopped fruit.

Yesterday they had chickpeas with olives, tomato and peppers, raspberrys and a handful of choc chips.

Some days pasta with salad.

Some days yoghurt. Only one sweet thing per day here.

I try to do something different each day as we are only on packed lunch due to DD2 being Coeliac.

Is your 8 year old not starving with half a cheese sandwich as the main bit of the lunch? The rest seems to be just light fillers.