Packed lunch holy grails

[LaRevolution]

Have recently started doing these for my kids (7 and 10) more consistently, as school meals are getting pricier and no longer fill them up anyway.

I usually have ham/cheese/roast chicken/tuna so can normally easily make barm cakes/wraps, and always include either chopped fruit in a tub or e.g. satsuma and apple. Sometimes I add a yoghurt or Babybel for more protein, and maybe a choc bar or cereal bar occasionally (nut-free school though), but what's good for bulking it out a bit? I sometimes do hummus and carrot sticks but it's usually extra savoury stuff I struggle with. I've offered cold omelettes but that's not been well received...if we have pasta leftovers such as pesto salad then I send that in but I don't want to be boiling pasta just for that. Sometimes I send a boiled egg but they complain about the smell...am I missing a trick here?! What else works well?

In winter I can do the two of them hot soup or pasta and send it in food flasks but I just feel like they need a bit more bulk at the moment. I sent a mixed salad today (tabbouleh/potato salad/random fridge veggie leftovers plus pot of dressing) today so will see how that went down. Maybe I just start sending two filled barms?!

I sometimes send in some cereal like cheerios

One of mine takes pasta in a food flask every day with a piece of fruit, a piece of cheese and a biscuit. Doesn’t like change or choice.

The other takes a sandwich or pasta, a piece of fruit, a sweet something, a yogurt, some carrot or pepper sticks with a dip of some kind. She likes to have lots of things to pick on. They both eat everything.

Mine are dull but for the endlessly hungry one this seems enough for the school day:
Wrap or breadcake with tuna/egg/salami/cheese

A small sistema tub of fruit (apple/grapes or kiwi) usually filled with a single fruit

A tub of veg (4-5 a day so cucumber, mange tout, carrot, radish and celery usually)

A large quash bottle

Something as a treat so a chocolate bar oe crisps unless I've baked something

I should say if we have pasta the night before they might have pasta salad instead of the wrap so that's roughly once a month. School dinners fill the youngest but it never seems like enough veg so now they both have a pack up

I love these threads (genuinely) as they show, whatever Instagram might have you think, packed lunches have not evolved in 30 years.

This is all really useful, thanks all - lots of suggestions that might work. Sometimes you just need someone to stand in front of you with a sign with massive letters telling you what might seem obvious to others 😁

I'm going to make up some savoury pastries for the freezer and also restock it with banana/courgette bread as that's quite filling. Will also try to get them to embrace tuna pasta - I wish they liked that filled pasta that someone else mentioned upthread but I have to say it doesn't do it for me either so I won't force it!

So true! Although fewer Wagon Wheels around nowadays I think. Also meat paste 😁

I don't want to reduce your choice of available food but pesto isn't nut free. Pesto in jars usually contains cashew nuts. I only know this as ds2 is allergic nuts, peanuts etc.

That's a very good point, thank you. I make my own but often use cashew nuts instead of pine nuts as it's obvs cheaper! I might try it with sunflower seeds.

This. They don't need a massive lunch. We adults usually just get a sandwich a spied of fruit, not 10 items.

I do sandwich/wrap, fruit, cucumber or cherry tomatoes and cake bar.

Speak for yourself...

Hahahahah true.

Was just coming to add that pesto isn’t but free but I see someone has already mentioned it!
DS has never in his life eaten a school dinner, he’s now at seniors and takes a packed lunch still. Today he’s put in it: ham roll, mini cucumber (just eat it whole), banana, Kit Kat and a thing of ritz crackers.
Every day is something different but he doesn’t always eat it at lunch because he prefers to play football.
He says he eats something at break, most at lunch and if there’s anything left he eats it on the way home. He’s got money on his lunch account if he fancies a cake or even a whole meal there but so far he hasn’t.

I think you might just have to assume that I know my kids and their requirements/appetites/calorie usage/general health better than you 😃 but thanks!

Mine get :
Chicken pitta/wrap/cob with perinaise and lettuce (I did used to do ham but am trying to cut down on it)
Cucumber & pepper for Y9, cucumber and satsuma for Y5
Crisps
Choc bar (or cookie, usually groovy bar type biscuit)
Y9 gets fridge raiders as an extra, nothing else for Y5

That's it! I did put boiled eggs in, but they complain of smell

Sometimes they get leftover pasta etc instead of sandwich but usually it's the same as the above. Every day

Soreen

@LaRevolution Ha ha, I've just seen your post about wagon wheels! Mine LOVE a wagon wheel! (Cartwheel by Aldi 😉)

Sorry just saw you try to steer away from soreen due to being processed food.

Sausage rolls, crisps, breakfast waffles, scones, dunkers, cocktail sausages, veggie sticks, second piece of fruit

Mine has only just started having packed lunches and is very fussy! So I'm struggling and sadly most of the really good ideas on here my DC wouldn't eat.
Mine has a ham sandwich, crisps, some fruit and 2 biscuits normally. Won't eat dairy or I'd put that in too. Isn't eating everything so I'm hoping its enough.

My DS (13) has requested Burritos 🌯.
That's chicken, plenty of rice, cheese, chirozo kidney beans and peppers!

(Google freezer burrito! They are suitable for batch cooking, however they are a bit of a pain to make!)

We are currently on day 3 and they are going down well. I also think (time will tell) that the after school binge has been less urgent! 🤣

I never added 'treats' ... my DS had two ham rolls and a banana every day of his school career.

😂

My boys (who are now late teens/20s and tall and muscular) were STICK THIN at primary. Honestly all the fruit and carrot sticks in the world would not have filled them up and i used to argue that they needed more calories to our particularly strict dinner ladies. So they would have bananas, full fat yoghurt, loads of those cocktail sausages, sausage rolls or party-eggs (like mini scotch eggs), pepperamis (the full size ones), shop-bought pasta salad, 2 x Kipling cakes, sometimes a whole jam donut!

But mainly they had 2 x rolls / sandwhiches as one wasn't enough. They wanted to get out and play football or whatever really quickly, so whatever contained the most calories they could quickly eat was the key.

They were still stick think until puberty however.