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 have a sandwich usually cheese or ham, a packet of crisps, a piece of fruit, some cucumber sticks, a yoghurt and a biscuit or mini cookies type thing. They also have a snack (another piece of fruit, babybel cheese or a mini chocolate bar) for break.

A sandwich, a fruit, a vegetable, a cheese or meat snack or egg, then usually one or two snacks from crisps, biscuits, chocolate bar, dried fruit, flapjack, homemade cake of some kind, yoghurt. It's always sandwich, extra dairy/protein, fruit and veg though

My dd doesn't really eat sandwiches or meat fillers, we aren't bread fiends so atm she is getting ricecakes with a side of chopped cucumber, babybell, chopped apple or a peeled carrot, raisins, and a yoghurt drink. Will also put in a pack of breakfast biscuits.

Will put in a slice of banana bread if I have baked it and haven't eaten it before it has gone cold. I have no issue with sneaking a treat in. She had twinkies a couple weeks ago.
Stick a treat in now and again I would say.

Blimey, not helpful, but I am so glad that I don’t have to faff around with a packed lunch every morning! My two love a packed lunch as a ‘treat’ but I think we’d all get fed up having/making them everyday. FairPlay to those of you who do it and keep it interesting!

Mine usually have a sandwich/wrap, piece of fruit/veg, sweet like a penguin bar or rocky and water. Little ones get fruit and milk at morning break.

DS has a mixture of school dinners and packed lunch depending on what's on the dinner menu.

He is 7 and has quite a big appetite. For packed lunch he usually has a ham sandwich, a packet of crisps, carrot and cucumber sticks, a cheese string, a banana, some raspberries and a sugar free fruit jelly.

My DD is year 1 and she always has pretty much the same thing.
A wrap which is ham, cheese, tomato and cucumber.
Some extra veg on the side. Tomato, cucumber and carrot if I have it.
2 fruits eg an apple and some strawberries
A frube
A sweet, like a 2 finger kit kat or some yogurt covered raisins she really likes.

Her lunch seems really big but she almost always eats it all.

I have 2 at secondary, DD is a fussy cow who goes off things within weeks (13) and DS who has severe allergies (12).
They have either a ham and cheese wrap or soft roll, a sausage roll, either a mini roll or I might make a cake and cut it into bars and freeze (usually strawberry and raisin or lemon and vanilla, no icing). DS likes a yoghurt tube, DD doesn't. A bag of crisps and an apple juice. In summer DS prefers no roll but likes a pot with cheese, carrot sticks and raisins. DD would refuse point blank to eat that though.
I know both use the canteen though and have some money on their online account for it so they may get a waffle or a bacon roll, and sometimes DS says not to bother with a full lunchbox and he gets a big slice of pizza.
They eat healthier at home and I would rather they had stuff they will eat at school than be hungry.

DD has two rounds of bread with vegan cheese, veggie meat, jalapeno sauce, lettuce and tomato, a packet of healthy crisps, a small pot of pesto pasta, a banana and grapes. She is still hungry after that and she's as thin as a rake!

Similar age, very fussy with food - a sandwich, a packet of crisps and a biscuit such as a party ring. Our school specifically asks for no chocolate or sweets, but I have and will from time to time put in something slightly different such as a chocolate biscuit as they give them all sorts with their dinners in terms of pudding.

While I would love to send fruit and or veg (and do for my other child) it would just go in the bin every day. They have a couple of portions of fruit and veg at home outside of school hours.

DS is 4 and had some buttered oatcake/cracker things, some broccoli, chopped up apple and blueberries, a square of home made flapjack, half a packet of those bear fruit/veg sweets and some veggie straw crisp things, maybe a third of a packet.

He usually has a variation of those things, sometimes a ham or cheese sandwich instead of crackers. He had leftover chicken yesterday, usually has carrots instead of broccoli etc. I’ve just made some blueberry cupcake sized muffins to alternate with the flapjack this week. He’s gluten intolerant so I like to make sure he’s got something nice like I assume other children have.

I'd say a healthy packed lunch should have some carbs (bread, roll, pasta, rice etc), some protein (ham, chicken etc), some dairy (cheese, yogurt etc), and some fruit & veg. Obviously suitable alternatives if veggie or have allergies etc.

So a typical lunch box for my 7 yo would look like this:
Ham roll, chunk of cheese, carrot & cucumber sticks, and an apple.

They probably don't need as much as you think! It sounds obviously but a 5 yo needs less food than a 10 yo who needs less food than an adult... I think sometimes people forget about portion sizes, especially as these days, some lunch boxes can be massive!!

Also, I don't know why some people get sucked into buying pre-packaged 'lunchable' items. Eg. why put in a Cheese String or Babybel which cost ££s (and is heavily processed) when a chunk of cheddar off a value block costs pennies? Same with raisins, why buy the mini boxes when you can put in a handful from a big bag into a little tupperware pot? Better on your pocket as well as the environment.

Chorizo sandwiches, cherry tomatoes, satsuma, Frube, a few tortilla chips.

Today mine’s got a mini-wrap (no filling), tomatoes and cucumber: these are the same every day. She also has Greek yoghurt, crisps and a Lotus biscuit today.

But other days she might have from a selection of peas in the pod, sweet corn, popcorn, small sausage roll, cold sausage, egg white, fruit, YoYo bar, Chocolate biscuit, cereal bar.

Today was typical - ham wrap, cheese portion, grapes, apple, yoghurt and a Kit Kat (or sometimes a home made cookie) and a smoothie. He takes one of them out for break. He's 10.

@Whatthebloodyell I'm in Ireland where there is no such thing as school dinners do packed lunches are the only option 👍

Today DS1 (5) has ham and cheese sandwich on granary. Strawberries. Carrot sticks. Half a pack of chip sticks, and a chocolate biscuit. Also a yogurt, and sone Apple juice.

DC2 (3) had ham sandwich on granary. Cucumber, carrot, pepper, strawbs. Few wotsits, chocolate biscuit, apple juice.

Other things they have regularly are crackers, cheese/ham/pepperami/cocktail sausages. Ds2 likes breadsticks and houmous with veg sticks. He also likes wraps.

They normally have:

Sandwich/crackers/wrap
Few crisps some times.
Fruit and veg.

Yogurt, but not always

Flapjack, brownie, small cake, biscuit etc (ds1 school packed lunch cones with cake and crisps!)

Ds2 has a yumbox , and ds1 has a Tupperware type box with 4 compartments in, which makes life easy for putting berries, veg, crisps etc in.

Mine has school lunches that never include pudding or treat and for break time will also take crackers, baby tomatoes, baby bell peppers, baby cucumbers, carrots, parmesan, dried mango, apple, berries, grapes, sometimes cocktail sausages/chorizo/diced bacon.

Today DS (17) has a Scotch egg (no it isn't homemade), some mini sausages, two satsumas, a yoghurt and some crisps.

Generally he has rice or pasta with chicken, fruit, yoghurt and usually a small cake ...Mr Kiplings etc.

Realise I am a crap mother for including crisps or cake on most days but I'm human .

DS is autistic so I am grateful he eats ...being a teenager he is at the "beige and processed" stage which I hope he will outgrow. He used to be much better.

Too much stress about packed lunches imho. If your child eats and isn't hungry after lunch then they've eaten well and will be able to concentrate in the afternoon.

ds16 - marmite and cheese wrap plus crisps. Same thing every day for the past 15 years. What I wouldn't give to chop up a carrot for him!

DS13 - tomato, carrot sticks, slice of cheese, cake bar and crisps (does not eat sandwiches or anything "heavy" at school.)

My 9 year old has chicken or tuna sandwich, cucumber or tomatoes, or maybe grapes or strawberries. (2 of those) A yoghurt or maybe chunks of cheese. Sometimes he has wotsits or a cereal bar.

He has got a wrap today with chicken, mayo, cucumber and grated cheese.

Our school don’t allow crisps or chocolate or biscuits so today it was:

Ham sandwich
Carrot and celery sticks
Yoghurt
Banana
Blueberries

I need to find something else to add but he can’t have cheese so it makes it a bit difficult