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)

Mine is 13. I was sick of paying and her only having a cheese panini. She now has a cheese panini from home, cold pizza, ham sandwich, sausage roll or dairylea Iunchable. She buys lunch on a Friday when it is pizza and chips.

It’s 4 meals s week, she doesn’t eat a lot at school. If I packed anything salady or weird to her she wouldn’t eat it. She will take fruit aswell.

I have a very picky eater (Year 4/5). I eventually bought a food Thermos flask and send her with a cooked meal.
Put the kettle on first thing in the morning and heat the flask up for 20 minutes + before putting the hot food in. The cup acts as a bowl. Great for pasta, potato, rice meals and it was baked beans and sliced sausages this morning. Great for leftovers, or I make a few portions of pasta up one evening and reheat during the week (no more than 3 days old though).
It was 16.99 at Argos. You can get a smaller one without the cup for 11.99. I bought that for myself, I can easily eat out of it.
I appreciate that they aren't cheap. But if you can cobble together the price it may save money in the long run?

@sashh I’m in awe - if I sent in cold courgette soup my 10yo would act the same way as if I sent in a cup of cold sick

I’m already the only mum who doesn’t send a full chocolate bar and a full packet of crisps. Apparently.

Omg stop pandering to her, she eats what you make her or goes without. All school meals are acceptable to eat, so why stop her choosing what she wants especially if you know she is eating it? Surely at 12 years old she can choose herself?

I think the difference between a cheese panini and a sandwich is temperature and melted cheese, no? Not the same thing at all, completely different tastes and textures.

I wonder if she's resisting because nobody else takes packed lunches, maybe she sees them as babyish? Not that that's an excuse but just a thought.

@ScarletBitch

It's pretty clear from the OP that she doesn't have the money to keep paying for school meals. It's cheaper to make from home.

And by 12, you're old enough to have some autonomy over what you eat. I wouldn't eat pizza at that age and no one forced me because I would have something else. This girl won't eat sandwiches but will eat wraps... so make wraps. What's the problem with that? It's not pandering. It's allowing an almost teenager some choice over their food.

And you do not to top up, all main meals come within the daily allowance, so you tell her she stays within that as you will not be topping up. I have 3DC, all 3 use Parentpay and eat meals, and I have never topped up the eldest 2 who are at Senior School and the other college. There is a lot of choice within the daily allowance.

Make sausage rolls, not necessarily with sausage, I put in mashed up leftovers, or cheese/fried onion/mashed potato. They are quick and easy to make with a pack of ready rolled puff pastry, and you can freeze them and put them straight from the freezer into lunches.

Similar thing with homemade pizza & whatever toppings she will eat. Either make a whole pizza (or two) and freeze slices or keep spare slices for lunch if you make pizza for dinner. If you haven't made pizza dough before, it's easy enough - here's Delia's recipe: www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/italian/basic-pizza-dough

Would she eat something like savoury muffins or cheese scones? There are various recipes online with different veg added.

Quiche, wraps, bagel sandwich, pasta salad, rice salad, tuna pasta mayo, pasta n tomato sauce, cold roast chicken or just ask her what she wants to eat for lunch.

Not read all of the posts OP, but does she like pasta? I make pasta and put things like ham, cocktail sausages etc for DS. He is younger but I also find he's not starving when he comes out of school.

I also second pizza. We used to be able to use the microwave in the cookery room, although that may have been because the teacher was my form teacher. Does she have access to a microwave at all?

Sorry to keep adding comments but if you are on Benefits at all your DD will be entitled to Free School Meals, saves you wasting money on food for her.

Skyejuly

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

How? I have never found that option?

Get an insulated lunch bag, the meat will definitely be safe in there for four hours. Do wraps or Pitta breads. I’d say soup or pasta salad but see she won’t eat them because cutlery 🙄, teenagers are so awkward.

I was the same in secondary school fwiw OP, it’s a tricky age but thankfully they outgrow it.

Aldi or Lidl do a salmon on croute, it’s about £4
www.aldi.co.uk/cheese-%26-dill-salmon-wellington-/p/051231004365000

But cook it, let it go cold before cutting it and you have 4/5 slices

We have to contact the school finance office to set a daily limit; it's not something you can do as a parent (at least not in our set up, other schools may vary).

My DD has a ham wrap, grapes, yogurt, crisps, in a packed lunch box along with a little frozen cool box thing which keeps her food cool until lunchtime. Never had any issues with food being warm by the time that lunchtime comes around.

For my picky DD I send
Bagels and cream cheese
Or
Yogurt with a side of cereal so she can mix them together at lunch

Buy lots of little tupperware pots then could do a mezze platter - houmous, tzatziki, with crudités and bread sticks, olives, then maybe a slice of ham and cubes of cheese for extra protein? I'd have really liked that as a kid (and now!)

There's loads of simple lunch box pasta and couscous salad recipes on BBC good food.

Do they have access to hot water? Was just wondering if instant noodle type things were an option.

Those of you suggesting flasks, healthy salads, and “platters”....are your kids actually at normal comprehensive schools?? Or did you just not read the OP where she states her daughter doesn’t want stuff that requires cutlery or effort to eat?!

pork pie.

There is absolutely no way my dds would take a flask to secondary school - they might have done in year 7 but after that it would have been uncool and a right faff

They wanted easy quick stuff to eat, with fingers, thus veggie muffins, Wellingtons that could be eaten with fingers etc

Now I’d probably make burritos and wrap in foil to eat, trendy food that is likely to be eaten

I wouldn’t be putting yogurts they’d just fester or she’d thrown them away - so no point

Roll like this

Then instead of cutting in half, wrap in foil so it can be eaten in her hands

Why not write a list of what you prepare and put it on the fridge so you've always got a reminder of what lunches work well. And don't worry about doing the same thing every day - if you find something she likes, is affordable, easy to eat and reasonably healthy then the sky won't fall in if she has it every day.

I have similar problem with my daughter - she just doesn’t eat the school lunches (don’t blame her, they don’t look appetising !) but she doesn’t like sandwiches. She’s 10 so we sometimes send a flask of soup with a bread roll & fruit in / crackers & cheese / as a treat sometimes couple of slices of pizza / tuna spirals / pasta salads.