Food flask ideas

[Geordiebabe85]

Dd (4) is very fussy and has a milk allergy. I've just bought her a food flask for packed lunches but need ideas for it.
Do chicken nuggets, fish fingers and crispy potatoes work in them? Or does it need to be "wet" like beans or spaghetti hoops?

I haven’t tried putting fish fingers etc in but I imagine they would go soggy, even with paper towels put in. My daughter tends to have pasta or noodles.

DDs favourite is spaghetti hoops, she has a mini wrap on the side which she dunks in the sauce.

Other things that have been successful:

• bread and butter so she can make a hot sandwich, then in the flask - sausages, chicken nuggets, fish fingers or (and I hate these things but she loves them) frankfurters.
• leftover lasagna, pasta bake, mac n cheese, casserole

Top tip. Fill the flask with boiling water and put the lid on, leave it for 10 mins or so to pre-heat the flask, before emptying and adding the piping hot food. It makes the flask more effective and keeps the food warm longer.

I make DDs about 7am, her lunch time is 1pm and it's still hot.

Mash potatoes work as do freshly boiled new potatoes and other veg, just chop them up small enough to get in and out of the flask. We do curries, stews, pasta, rice, noodles in ours.

My dd has noodles and pasta mostly. And dal. She's 18 (years ) and has had her lunch in a thermos all of the way through school.

My top tip is a zip lock bag of wooden forks in their school bag.

I used to put crumbed, chicken drumsticks or thighs in mine. They stayed warm, but the crumbs weren't as crispy.
Give it a trial on a weekend and see how it goes with fish fingers etc.

Hotdogs work well in a food flask! But generally, if there is air in the flask it will not work as well. Liquids fill up the space and therefore keep food warmer.

Dd has either chicken noodle soup or minestrone in hers.

Thank you everyone. Some fab ideas and I'll do some experimenting.

My DD used to have fishfingers, mash and beans/spaghetti hoops in hers.

Soup also went down well.

How did you stop the fish fingers going soggy?

I didn't, she never complained!

It's mostly pasta here. Ds1 likes that quick cook tortellini stuff with a bit of sauce.

We've done hot sausage rolls before too, and pigs in blankets at Christmas time.