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?!

We had a bento style box as mine was more of a grazer.

Wrap/watburton thins with whatever filling, or occasionally pasta salad
Carrot and cucumber stick with 'mummy's magic sauce' mayo and ketchup mixed 🤣
Sweetcorn
Berries with few magic stars mixed in
Yoghurt or jelly
Crisps - I used to buy like a share pack to do her the whole week then she'd get what was left over the weekend
Pancakes, flapjack, cereal bar, squares bar, yoghurt covered fruit flakes, breadsticks, chocolate rice cakes, mini biscuit packs, pepperami, cheese stick, winders, raisins, mini muffins - she'd chose 2 and 1 would be her morning snack along with fruit.

Searching 'mini' on an online food shop is quite good get kiddie snack ideas.

Scotch pancakes are a good idea actually, thanks for that 👍

My eldest has just come home from school and told me they weren't too keen on the tabbouleh bit of the salad and the bread on the sandwich was stale (apologies, your majesty...)...still ate every last bit of it though 😁

My kids are younger but I pack;

1 X sandwich (cheese, hummus, jam or cream cheese)
2 X fruit (one of which is sometimes dried like raisins or dried apricots or dates)
Cucumber and tomatoes
Crackers (mini cheddars, breadsticks, cheese savouries etc)
Depending on what was in the sandwich I'll add some cheese cubes (cut from the block) or a hard boiled egg.

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

They’re still growing, and are out of the house from 8.30 til 4, and don’t have access to food other than what I send with them. We adults can easily pick something up if we’re feeling hungry - they can’t. Some kids eat better if they can graze, lots of reasons to give lots of bits rather than a sandwich and a piece of fruit.

Of course each parent knows their child best, but - from the evidence of this thread - school packed lunches have changed dramatically since my day. The extra fruit and veg is excellent, but otherwise, so much choice, variation, quantity...

Throughout secondary school I had a sandwich (2 slices from a large loaf), mostly cheese - my choice - or sometimes (v. sophisticated!!!! ironic) pate from a little gold-coloured tin. Plus a plain chocolate Golf biscuit (anyone remember those? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_(biscuit) ) and an apple. My schoolmates had very similar. Looking back at photos, we were indeed all quite slim but it did not impair our academic performance; we got to Oxbridge and other top universities or went on to other interesting and worthwhile further/higher ed opportunities.

I am NOT, NOT, NOT saying this to criticise. My comment is simply provoked by the poster who joked about waggon wheels being an unchanging constant in packed lunches. Yes, they were indeed around in my day, but I did not like them.

A related point - please, does anyone know when it became the rule to serve crisps with a sandwich? When I was young, this simply did not happen. I still don't like it today. Carbs on top of carbs....

To my mind, a good mature cheddar cheese sandwich - perhaps with a bit of finely chopped spring onion plus maybe chopped watercress on brown/seeded etc bread still takes a lot of beating.

Dont move to France.
Kids there have a 3 course meal at the canteen (starter, main course and dessert).

My son just asked for a packed lunch for the first time and I've no idea what the rules are!

@LifeInTheUK
True - but (a) the food is mostly pretty healthy - 'proper' ingredients and lots of fresh fruit and veg (b) French portions are typically quite small (c) culturally, lunch - at school or wherever in France - plays a very different part in culture than school lunches do in the UK.

Maybe he's a Mumsnet reader 😂

My schoolmates had very similar. Looking back at photos, we were indeed all quite slim but it did not impair our academic performance; we got to Oxbridge and other top universities or went on to other interesting and worthwhile further/higher ed opportunities.

I don’t understand, why would being quite slim impair your academic performance? Both my two are slim, my DS is underweight and needs the calorie intake from what he will eat because he’s quite restricted in what he eats. As long as kids remain at a healthy weight I think it’s reasonable to provide a lunch they will enjoy - I eat what I like at lunch so why not provide them with things they enjoy.

I too was raised on a packed lunch of sandwich and a biscuit, I never liked the sandwich but ate it out of necessity because it’s what my parents could afford to provide. I have no doubt they’d have been more creative if they had the funds.

ham wrap, mini cheddars, sausages/sausage roll and cereal bar with a bottle of water. Everyday for 10 years. DS2 is now in yr 9 and still has the same give or take.

DS1 is at college so makes his own lunches, scrambled egg or pasta and pesto mostly

name interesting point about crisps, I must admit I love crisps with a sandwich but it was never the 'norm' when I was a teenager in the 70s. I can still clearly remember being invited to an informal lunch and there were crisps (a shared dish) on the table ... I thought it was the height of sophistication .

Crisps are definitely better on the sandwich...
carbs on top of carbs is great!

Toasted fruit bread, pasta, cheese and onion rolls, cold pizza with cucumber and carrot sticks, cheese twists, sfc wraps with lettuce and mayo, bagel thins, salami, burritos.

Oh mum Marmite can you please make my lunch?!
I know what I'm shopping for tomorrow - thank you 😁

Gosh, some of these packed lunches sound like gourmet picnics! I am jealous. I remember people having things like banana or tomato sauce sandwiches when I was at school - or pots of cold baked beans.

I used to love cheese and pickle sandwiches, and occasionally, instead of an apple, my mother would give me a slice of melon - that was a special treat.

Last nights leftovers in a wrap
A piece of fruit

Mine take flask in usually as I hate making sandwiches and they got so fed up with eating them. The flasks are great as let things cold too, warm yogurt is nasty

Chilli & rice
Pasta bolognaise
Mild creamy chicken curry
Soups with a roll
Pasta salads
Yogurt & granola (they put the granola into flask with yogurt at lunch so it doesn't go soggy)
Chicken / beef stew with dumplings
Stir fry & noodles
Sausage & mash
Macaroni cheese
Fajitas but with rice instead of wrap
Basically anything I'm cooking!

Also a fruit / vegetable sticks / small muffin or cake
I'll do a roll / sandwich/ wrap maybe once a week

You don't have to boil pasta on a morning, just boil the kettle, which you are probably doing, pour over some pasta n a bowl - leave room for expansion, and leave for 10 mins.

I find eggs that have been peeled don't smell as much, I even have a Japanese egg mould.

Cous cus is easy and you can add lots to it, chopped peppers, onion, left over meat, peas.

Cheese straws are easy to make, more of a snack though. One pre rolled puff pastry sheet - put on a baking sheet, 'butter' with dijon mustard, sprinkle with parmesan and score with a knife.

Bake for 15 mins, cool and break into straws.

Easy 'fillers' are finger foods, cherry tomatoes, grapes, cheese cubes, mini meatballs, veg sticks. Sainsbury's do salted chickpeas similar texture to nuts but OK for school.

I don't have kids, I just love a packed lunch.

DS likes mini sausage rolls or mini scotch eggs.

Cheese and crackers/cheese and vegetable sticks might be another good savory thing.

We tend to alternate between ham sandwiches and hot pasta in a flask.

I doubt their lunch includes crisps and other junk that seems to be deemed to be essential in a British packed lunch.

It is very balanced: usually something like crudités for the starter, protein and veg for the main (plus bread) and a dairy course (yoghurt/cheese) plus dessert. The downside is they have a really long lunch break (12-2 I think!) and finish school much later.

I don't see that as a downside. It's better than gobbling down junk in half an hour then going to 'after school club'.

As cashew nuts aren't actually nuts, but the dried stem of a cashew fruit, do they still need to be avoided if a school is nut free?

France has the 8th highest McDonald's per capita in the World and the highest in Europe so... they're not against 'junk'