Childrens' Packed Lunches....What Do You Include in Your Dc's?

[35andThriving]

I'm going to be doing a packed lunch for my 7yr old for the first time.
They are starting a new school.

If your dc's take packed lunch, what do you typically include? Just after ideas really.

TIA

I used to do mine either a sandwich, fruit, snack and crisps, or tuna pasta in place of the sandwich.
Some days I would put tomato soup into a little flask.

Could do with ideas too! My dc is an easily distracted eater! Sandwich, mini sausages, rolled ham slice, scotch egg, raisins, dried apricots, cheese pieces, honey and seed snack, plain popcorn, crudités - not all at the same time

When ds was little:

Roll/sandwich wrap or something like a pasta salad
Bowl with cucumber, tomatoes, olives, carrots
Bowl of fruit
Yoghurt
Drink (water or apple juice)
I think they don’t like you to send cake these days!

Oh and they always used to send home the uneaten food (so we could see what he ate). He still leaves half uneated food in his schoolbag/pockets 🙄

The main item... Some form of carb, veg and protein. Carb options such as wraps, pasta, roll, bread. Veg is stuff like cucumber, lettuce, carrot sticks. Protein is is cold meat or cheese.

A 'pudding'... A yogurt ir jelly or mini rice pudding.

Fruit

Biscuit.

They seem ravenous some days at lunch. Youngest daughter doesn't always eat a lot at breakfast. I'm pretty sure mine wouldn't pass the MN lunch box police.

Following for ideas! My DS10 would have ham and cream cheese wrap, mini baby bel, carrot sticks and dried apricot every single day if he could, it does get v samey! Sometimes home made flapjacks. DS13 has school lunches now, but he often used to take chicken pasta in a pot, not too keen on bread unless it's still warm.

Oh yes forgot the must-have yoghurt - always has one of those, frozen in the summer.

Check with your school for banned foods. Neither of mine can take notes, and younger DD can't take ginger (well she can, but then can't sit with one of her BFs... She likes her friends more than gingerbread men, despite them being a favourite)

Sandwich, cheese or yoghurt, veg sticks, fruit, biscuit. Crackers if they are going through a hungry stage.
Fruit juice when we lived so where HOT as a) I froze it and it acted like an ice pack and b) DS2 is bugger for not drinking enough. At 40C not drinking between 8 and 3 isnt clever.

Wrap or sandwich with ham or chicken and salad or tuna sweetcorn Mayo and cucumber, veg sticks/cherry tomatoes, grapes or dried apricots (they wouldn't have any other fruit as it either got bruised or took too long to eat) mini cheddars or crisps (not every day when they were that little - I seem to remember Friday was crisps day) some kind of sweet thing - either a penguin/club bar type thing or something homemade.
Occasionally pasta salad, leftover couscous etc instead of a sandwich.

Oh and cream crackers or oatcakes and some cheese.

Marmite sandwich or wrap
Cheese string (she won't eat babybel which would be my preference)
Strawberries, grapes or raspberries
Yoghurt
Little chocolate bar or cereal bar
Popcorn or crisps

Once a week or so she'll have soup or pasta in a thermos, and then I just put in the fruit and the Yoghurt.

Very plain lunches here. Crackers and cheese. Or ham sandwich. Fruit and yoghurt.
Or wrap or different types of bread/ sandwich. Sometimes a banana sometimes orange or berries.

My 3 year old eat more that his big brother, he has
Main part- sandwich/wrap/tuna pasta
pot of fruit
2 oatcakes
pom bears
Something sweet - yoghurt/pack of mini gingerbread men/oaty cookie/oat bar/bear paws
And he scoffs the lot.

His big brother takes
sandwich/wrap
crisps
Yoghurt or cheese snack
fruit
He eats about half of it, never the fruit but I keep trying (to make it look better). He's just desperate to play rather than spend his time eating.

One of each group:

Sandwich
Wrap
Hummous
Pasta salad
Leftovers
Soup

Fruit / cuc / toms

Cheese
Salami
Olives

Small cake bar
Cookies

Usually turkey or ham salad sandwich/wrap or pasta (pesto or tomato) with crackers, banana or orange, box of raisins and she has a reusable water bottle so don't pack any bottles etc. She's only young so doesn't need anything else yet. Sometimes will do a special theme for Easter etc but that's just because I'm a saddo and have a pintrest addiction 😂

Cheese sandwich, cucumber slices, yoghurt drink every time. Then some of the following, always including at least one fruit: a mini pork pie, satsuma, mini custard pot, grapes and blueberries, Soreen bar (although he has just gone off these), cheese triangle, couple of mini sausages, couple of biscuits, piece of homemade cake/flapjack, mini cheddars, yoghurt, banana, few crackers.

A houmous and tomato sandwich (the only sandwich she will eat)
A couple of cocktail sausages or chicken skewers or sometimes a babybel or cheesestring
Fruit, usually a banana or a pot of berries
Yogurt
Small packet of biscuits
A carton of juice/smoothie

Sandwich (pitta or roll) usually cut into a shape. Yoghurt tube (which I freeze in warmer weather so its an ice pack). Carrot sticks. A banana and another piece of fruit. (I've started cutting apples into slices and putting a bit of peanut butter between like a little butty. If you put citrus juice on then they don't go brown.). Sime crisps or rice cakes and then a treat of some sort, small bag of biscuits or a cake. On Fridays he gets a small piece of wrapped chocolate too.

I'm a proper saddo and theme his dinners though. Tomorrow is St David's day so I'll put a Welsh cake in and the sandwich will be dragon shaped, and a daffodil serviette I have little picks that make faces, tiny animal forks and stuff.

A wrap or sandwich, a yogurt or yogurt drink, a tub of either tomatoes/cucumber, with grapes & apple slices.

Used to have a mini biscuit bag too but school have a new very restrictive lunch policy.

Wrap/sandwich. Mini cheese and some veg. Tube yogurt. Fruit and a treat item (biscuit, crisps, cake bar or mini chedders).

Cheese sandwich or cheese & crackers.
Yoghurt.
Penguin or other small chocolate bar.
Water.
Every day from Reception to Yr6.

Always eaten, no complaints unless I tried to mix things up a bit!

Mine like taking hot food in a vacuum flask - pasta or filled ravioli and sauce, curry mixed with rice, soup with mini pasta shells added.
Sausage and bean casserole mixed with rice or pasta (I cut the sausages into bite sized pieces so easy to eat with just a fork).

On other days I send a sandwich (two slices of bread, filled with ham or cheese, pate, or marmite). Peanut butter not allowed, otherwise they'd choose that.

Either a piece of cheese, a hard boiled egg, or half a mini pork pie, a mini scotch egg or bit of quiche or similar- they might have this at break time or as part of their lunch.

Veg - chopped carrot or celery sticks with dip (hummus or cream cheese, I find other dips are too runny).

Fruit - usually apple, banana or satsuma - this might be eaten at break time.

Something sweet - either a bought bar like a club or a penguin or cereal bar, or a homemade cookie or flapjack or similar.

Thank you, everybody.