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.

I have a general pattern:

1. A "main" (sandwhich/wrap/pasta)
2. A calcium "thing" - I have a way with words (Yoghurt/cheese/custard pot)
3. Fruit or vegetable
4. A crunchy thing (crackers, breasticks, Crisps)
5. A treat (hm cake, mini choc, biscuit etc)

Other bits I'll add.. Hard boiled egg, raisins, jelly angel delight, cereal bar.

@Bbq1

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.

Half an apple because that's what they want. Sliced up into fingers, just for extra oxidation opportunity. It's not my idea of a lovely lunch. I've offered to put a whole apple in, but it gets rejected as a suggestion every time. Half a bag of crisps because they want crisps, and variety, and a whole bag plus all the other bits they want us too much to eat in the time they get.

Haha. Mine say this too. But I don't listen.

DC get a sandwich, frube, fruit and a drink. Occasionally as a treat eg birthday ir school trip I add a cupcake but not everyday

Ds1 got frittata, chicken leg, pepperami, yoghurt, apple today
Ds2 has a sandwich, chicken leg, cheese, cherry tomatoes, penguin, yoghurt, satsuma
Ds3 has a sandwich, fruit winder, cheese, yoghurt, tomatoes and penguin (but ate the tomatoes before he got there!)

Mine is 7 and gets a sandwich, yoghurt, apple/cucumber /pepper, packet of crisps and a small biscuit /cake.

He is like a whippet though (visible ribs, spine, collar bones etc) , so I'm not worried about the cake. It doesn't always get eaten.

If he wasn't so skinny I'd probably swap the crisps or biscuit for a small piece of cheese or another fruit

My child (4) has cheese sandwiches, pack of skips ( or similar ) little sausage roll, grapes or cucumber, frube type yoghurt, a cheese string and a barney bear most days.

My 6yo DS is an incredibly fussy eater, so difficult to pack a varied lunch. He has:
Ham roll
3 cocktail sausages
A cake bar
Small tub of pretzels
A yoghurt drink
Banana
Smoothie

Sandwich, cherry tomatoes or pepper, crisps and chocolate biscuit.

My dd is a teenager but she went with pasta salad today - with lots of veg and a bit of cheese.

Other days, she might take sandwiches or a wrap, with some salady bits (cherry tomatoes, cucumber etc) and some grapes. Or other kinds of salad sometimes.

They don't need lunchboxes full of crap.

Mine have ham or cheese sandwich, sometimes bread, sometimes a thin, wrap or Pitta depending on what’s in, carrot and cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, salt your own crisps (they leave the salt out), a satsuma, a Lidl froob thing and a mini malt loaf. Sometimes I make cheese and pickle pinwheels out of a sheet of puff pastry which always go down well!

Today mine have cheese and ham sandwiches, carrot sticks with houmous, an apple and a slice of malt loaf.

They sometimes get biscuits, cake, bun or flapjack instead of the malt loaf; I try to put in a different sweet thing, and a different type of fruit each day.
I don't usually put chocolate in, but mainly because of the potential for melting messily.
I would put in two biscuits from a packet, something like custard creams, say.
But if it was a wrapped bar, only one.

They sometimes have hot pasta or stew with rice in a flask instead of the sandwich.

TOP TIP: chop apple and place back together. Secure with an elastic band! Stops the browning.

@bmidreams - great tip!

my son is vegetarian and fussy!

I tried putting veg sticks in his packed lunch but they always come home uneaten so I just gave up in the end.

Usually just a yoghurt, sandwich and crisps, boring I know but fruit and veg go uneaten, as does cheese / mini veggie sausages or anything else I put in :( seems a waste of food!

DD is 8 & usually quite active but she wasn't well last week so her appetite is slightly down compared to normal. (Usually she has a massive appetite & ridiculous amounts of energy.)
At the moment she's getting a half round of sandwich on Wholewheat bread with ham, turkey ham, cheese or jam in. Occasionally leftover roast chicken.
A mini carrot cut into sticks, a couple of cherry tomatoes, & a couple of cucumber slices.
Today & yesterday she had a leftover sausage, cut up. Often she has a mini cheese portion, or a peperami, or a cheese dipper thing. Sometimes she gets a frozen yoghurt tube instead. Always something protein, in addition to the sandwich, especially if it's jam.
A few dried cranberries & a couple of dried apricots, or a handful of grapes if we have any.
Once a week she has a packet of crisps or a chocolate biscuit or cake bar instead of the fruit.
We used to just put water in, but she wasn't drinking enough (& is prone to UTIs), so now it's the dreaded fruit shoots etc. At least she drinks them.

Sometimes I give her a pack of oatcakes & a piece of cheese & some ham or a scrap of smoked salmon from the freezer instead of the sandwich. She always thinks that's brilliant.

Today is ham sandwich on wholemeal. Cherry toms, cucumber and peppers. A satsuma. A babybel cheese and a Madeline cake. Water to drink. She's 13.

Dd has a cheese and ham sandwich, pear, cucumber or sweetcorn and a pack of mini cheddars. On Friday the mini cheddars would be replaced by a malt loaf. Water to drink. I think a chocolate biscuit everyday is a bit too frequent for us, because I know dd's overall diet and I tend to leave unhealthy stuff for the weekends as we're often out and about/with grandparents who like to offer biscuits etc. So I think you need to look at it more holistically.

Mine has a typical for around here lunch box! A sandwich, a yoghurt, a baby bel, some fruit (grapes today) a cake bar or chocolate bar, a packet of crisps and a drink!

Mine have got break snack - satsuma.

Cheese sandwich
Yogurt
Cherry tomatoes and cucumber
Snack a jacks

Y5

We're not allowed any cakes, biscuits or pastry.

Even though the school lunch kinds get cookies.

My DS is in reception.

He has a wholemeal pitta bread or mini wrap, usually with soft cheese or ham, occasionally egg mayonnaise.

And then either carrot sticks and houmous or cucumber slices
Graze Kids cereal bar or a mini soreen loaf
Cheese string or a babybel, or 2-3 quorn cocktail sausages
Quavers or similar crisps

Mine get,
Main
Fruit
Veg
Snack

From what they tell me others get,
Main
Yoghurt
Crisps
Biscuit
Fruit/Veg

DS1 (7 nearly 8):
Wrap with ham or cheese or salami
Three pots of fruit or veg (today tomatoes, carrot sticks, cucumber slices)
Frube
Crisps
Mini cheese (assuming not a cheese sandwich)

I happily pay for him to have fresh milk which he tells me appears at lunchtime.

I’m still mourning his Infants School where they get a hot lunch but there’s no catering and no hall to eat in at the Juniors so I’m stuck with four years of packed lunches!

I normally do a sandwich, a yoghurt, crisps, one chocolate bar or a cake and some fruit.

I used to say either crisps or cake to my DC until this term but at 9 and 11 they have big appetites so I give both. 9yo had today:

Ham sandwich
Cheese string
Melon slices
Apple
Slice of cake
Mini cheddars

11 year old had
Quorn sandwich
Satsuma
Melon
Slice of cake
Hula hoops

The school day is quite long so I would add a sweet treat like a small cake bar, biscuit or a yogurt. You could swap the crisps for a cheese string/baby bell, or pepperoni or small sausage roll/slice of pizza too.