To ask what I can do for packed lunches for kid who 'doesn't like sandwiches'

[YesSheCan]

Self-employed and haven't had work for almost four months due to family upheaval/several home moves so absolutely skint, surviving on loans from my dad when he can afford.

Have decided need to do packed lunches for DD12 as constantly having to top up ParentPay and can't afford. Object to paying over the odds for crap, low nutrition school food (DD usually gets muffin, cookie, cheesy panini or pizza, bottled drink even though should take her water bottle and refill at school).

I could do healthier packed lunch for cheaper. But she 'won't eat sandwiches', hates veggie food, in past has left most of lunch that requires any effort to eat, ie cutlery, as she's more bothered about hanging out with friends at break than eating lunch.

I'd do chicken wrap or something similarly quick and easy to eat but it would be hanging around in her school bag until lunchtime which isn't really safe for meat.

Could say 'tough shit, it's sandwiches or nothing' but I'd be chucking them away at the end of the day. Aside from hating food waste, I can't afford to be throwing food away.

Wish schools still did sit-down, cooked meals. Ours were a bit gross but we'd be so hungry by lunchtime, we'd eat it. I hate the ParentPay system as you have no control over what your kid is buying, they don't know the price of what they're buying and it's a minimum top-up of £10 each time. And the food available is crap despite Jamie Oliver's big school food crusade several years ago.

Anyone had similar problem? How do you get around issue of not being able to refrigerate food until lunchtime? Is it ok to give DD food she probably won't eat and make her go hungry until evening meal?
(I know it's ok to provide her with nutritious food and her lookout if she's too picky to eat it but I just need some reassurance that I'm not a shit, neglectful parent)

She's plenty old enough to organise her own lunch! Give her a budget (£10 is probably about right) and have her work out a weekly lunch plan for herself. She can look on Tesco direct or similar to find out how much products cost. Show her one of those pie chart things of the proportions of a healthy diet, maybe print it out so she has it to refer to. She can be in charge of picking up the things she needs when you go to the supermarket together. You could maybe get her a pack of coloured spot stickers that she can stick on 'her' food in the fridge so other family members know not to take it. Insist she takes at least 2 5-a-days for each lunch but otherwise leave her to it!

I put Capri sun in DDs lunch. Works like a cool pack after being in fridge. In the summer I freeze them.

And they double as a drink as well as a cool pack 😀

You're overthinking op! A chicken wrap will be absolutely fine although mine take a coolblock in their lunch bag.

Today they have humous, cucumber, carrots, breadsticks, cheese and a yogurt.

Pasta salad goes down well, or pasta in a flask with dolmio stir in sauce.

Does she realise though that a cheese panini IS a vegetarian sandwich?!

You can also used frozen drink or yoghurt to keep lunch cool.

Would she have soup or pasta out of a portable flask thingy. You can get wide necked ones for food rather than drinks in Tesco for a tenner.

Today DD11 has a salad comprising left over egg noodles, bean sprouts, strips of cucumber, red pepper spring onion, dressed with lemon juice, soya sauce, sesame oil dressing. She was very excited about lunch.

Jamie Oliver's pizza dough recipe is fab and you can freeze the raw dough. Mini Pizza or calzone.

Agree chicken, tuna etc fine until lunch.

At 12 she won't want a cool bag: they all just have a plastic box in their school bag, but that doesn't mean you can't add a coolsheet if you are worried.
wrap, muffin, drink, (pretty much what she's having now!)
salad box and fork (with cous cous or pasta not rice).
pasta and tomato sauce with chicken or tuna.
my 14YO makes her own veggie sushi and it's 'in' at the moment and at that age everything seems to go in fads.
Ask her what her friends eat? She might feel awkward about standing out but with a 'cool' lunch may mean more of her friends opt for the packed lunch option and she'll be less self conscious. Resist the urge for a 'lovely healthy' lunch like she might have enjoyed in primary. Senior school is not like that (generally).

We also use a food thermos (Ikea does one quite cheap) for pasta, leftover paella etc for dcs lunches.

Won't she qualify for free school meals?

You are not working so she would be eligible for free meals?

Get a flask? My DD loves soup for lunch, or even noodles I make with veg and a tomato-ey spicy (mildly) sauce.

I never had sandwiches in high school - just Ryvita with Marmite (do not judge, it remains one of my favourite snacks to this day), plus crisps, fruit, biscuit sort of thing

OP, would you be eligible for free school meals if you're struggling so much? The threshold is around £16k - I couldn't have managed to provide my DC with lunch otherwise. There's no shame in it, and because of the mainly contactless payment systems at schools now, no one else has to know. In fact, schools positively encourage you to apply for it, because they get extra funding.

She's 12. Point her at the cupboards and tell her to make her own lunch (give her details of food not to take or that such-and-such has to last all week).

My DC often don't eat lunch as their lunch break is short and sometimes they choose to do other things. It's not the end of the world if they choose not to.

Incidentally - is she not eligible for FSM? If she is and it's like DC's school, you just get a specific amount of money to spend each day (so she can't "overspend")

Vegetable muffins with cheese, easy to eat and quick
Falafels in pitta bread

Our school have said they can put a cap on school meal budgets if people ask. Might be worth asking and seeing if you are entitled to free school meals too. The prices should be given. Our school also charges by item so if you say have a roast with no Yorkshire they take 50p off.

50p for a Yorkshire? [shocked]

even. Sorry, OP, nothing useful to add, but the savoury muffins and quiches sound like good ideas!

Flask with beans / hot pasta / soup / dahl

Overnight oats and berries

Salad with ham / chicken / cheese

Oatcakes and cheese in tubs

Bagel / bread roll / croissant

@Crazyladee I love your mini quiche idea! I'm pinching that one for my lunches

If you have no income, have you applied for free school meals? She should get an allowance each day to buy lunch & school WILL offer a hot meal - she jut needs to eat it!

Mine use parent pay. You can set a daily limit!

Cold pizza every time. DS1 and DS2 love it. Admittedly they don't have packed lunches every day for school, but they'll happily have it every day through the holidays.
I've noticed they also inspire envy among their friends when they have it for school trips too.
And def a cheap option!

a lot of stuff (not fruit or salad) can be packed in a lunch box and frozen.

Take it out in the moring and it will be thawed but cold and fresh by mid-day

This is also handy if you want to make a week's worth at a time.

Otherwise, a frozen bottle of juice or something will act like an ice block, and it won't matter if it gets lost.

Mine is starting high school in Sept. He will have will have a sandwich or wrap with his choice of fruit. Job done. Cooked meal every evening.

My mum used to make me pizza on french bread, super easy and cheap, taste good cold and will keep well in the fridge for a good few days. I think she just used to mix some oil with garlic and herbs to flavour the bread, then add tomato puree, mozzarella and stick in the oven for a few minutes. She will probably be opposed to the idea of having a packed lunch in the first place though rather than not liking what you put in it!

Pancakes are fine cold and used like a wrap with cheese or chicken in it - cheap to make and can be frozen.

Wraps, tubs with cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks etc (maybe with hummus).

I make courgette soup, in the summer I serve it chilled.

If you are worried about the temperature you could freeze her water bottle and put that in the bag.

Scotch eggs are fairly easy to make (I bake them), hard boiled eggs, pasta and fruit.

Mix bacon, egg and grated cheese in a pan and bake in muffin trays for a savory muffin.