To not be looking forward to doing lunch boxes again from the 8th

[HaroldandGeorge]

I hate doing school lunch boxes. Once the kids are back to school, I’ll be doing 3 lots of packed lunches every day again. My DH is pretty easy to cater for as he will have a soup flask or porridge pot (add hot water) most days. But it’s my 2 Dc I struggle with. I want to have a variety of go-to quick lunches, especially ones you can prepare the day before. Would premade cold toasties work? They love cheese toasties...

I find the monotony of buttering sandwiches grinds me down. So, hit me with your quick and easy alternatives to ham/cheese sandwiches.

Ugh me too. I find pack lunch so boring.

Would they have stuff like cold pasta salad? You could make enough to do a couple of lunches a week.

Sausage rolls? Not super healthy I know but at least they are ready made.

I feel the same and only have one to make!

I do make two sets of sandwiches so I only have to do it every other day. And I put all the dried stuff in two boxes, so I'm only prepping Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Cold pizza works well with some veg sticks to balance it out and stop the dinner ladies nagging them.

I don't mind making the lunches but I'm dreading DD8 coming home every day in fits of 'hangry' tears because she was too busy chatting to eat the damn food! So wasteful, even her favourites get left , she's so easily distracted!

@scaredsadandstuck I would love to put sausage rolls and pizza slices in for dd, but her school is a bit ott regarding ‘healthy lunchboxes’. Could possibly do it on a Friday maybe... as for hot dinners it is pizza on a Friday every week (in normal times).

@dividedwefall I love the idea of prepping for two days,but I always worry about the bread being mouldy after a day of being made.

I know how you feel. It won't be much different for me though as I've basically been making the same kind of lunch every day whilst they've been homeschooling. It is very monotonous though.

I have heard of people freezing a weeks worth of sandwiches and just putting a frozen sandwich in the box every morning. It should be defrosted ready to eat at lunchtime.

@DayBath Would you use home made pizza or shop bought?

What ages are the DC?
They should be at least helping out with their own lunches, if they are old enough.
Why is it all falling to you?

Do a deconstructed sandwich - a bread roll with a little container of cheese, boiled egg, pot of hummus, cooked chicken, tuna mayo etc to have with it.

How old are your kids?

Perhaps they (snd your husband 😳) could make their own sandwich? It’s a basic life skill you would be teaching them

@Lindy2 Yes, I’ve thought about doing that, wrapping them in kitchen roll so it absorbs the moisture. Not much room in my freezer though for 15 lots of sandwiches a week lol.

How about those mini tortilla wraps? Takes the buttering stage away I guess. Stick on some pre-grated cheese and a bit of ham.

We do easy pizza which is basically pita bread with cheese and healthy toppings under the grill for a few mins. Sliced up cold the kids love it!

Wraps! Less laborious than sandwiches - cheese and ham, bbq chicken, falafels etc. Those tiktok ones where you fill 4 corners go down well with DS. Also shop bought Spanish tortilla - easy to slice. Big batch of tuna pasta to last a few days? I'm afraid I made DS move to school dinners as it drove me mad but as I'm now WFH for the foreseeable I'm expecting him to ask to change back.

How old are the kids? Can't your husband do it if you really hate it that much?

[quote HaroldandGeorge]@DayBath Would you use home made pizza or shop bought?[/quote]
Both works fine. We find the basic own brand pizza to be lower fat which helps, high fat ones can be a bit grim when cold. DD likes Tesco frozen cheese deep pan, one of those can produce 3 or 4 lunches. Sometimes we make them with wraps or pittas too and cut them up after cooling.

As my kids are 7 and 14, I am probably not classed as SAHM but a housewife. Therefore, my job is to take care of majority of household tasks which includes lunches. Our way of life wouldn’t suit everyone but it works for us. My kids could do their lunches, but the nurturer in me wishes to make their mornings as stress free as possible. Once the kids are at school, the day is my own and I can do the chores at my own pace. So although I hate doing lunchboxes, I am happy to do them for my family. Hence why I’m trying to find painless ways of doing them as quick as possible! Any other suggestions about lunches gratefully received.

I’d rather do packed lunches than homeschool.

Also, it’s okay for them to have exactly the same every day.

Here, it’s ham sandwich, bit of fruit, lump of salad veg, raisins, biscuit.

Would using Mayo instead of butter help?

DD makes them here because I hate it too.

Depending on their ages would they take wraps and home made burgers?
Every other weekend I cook some marinated chicken strips and freeze them , also do the same with home made burgers then on a monday it's chicken wraps with salad and Friday I do the burgers with grated cheese and sauces of their choice. In between would be cheese and pickle sandwich, baked pastries from the freezer (cheese/ chicken) and a salad/ tuna/egg sandwich.
I also keep some cheesey flatbread in freezer then spread with pizza topping and cheese some days with loads of mixed fruit.
I agree that packed lunches is the one thing I dread because you have to be prepared otherwise they get bored with just sandwiches every day.

I've ordered the school packed lunch for the first 2 weeks (no hot meal options due to bubbles, but caterer will provide sandwich, 'crisps' that aren't really crisps, fruit and a flapjack). Dd loves them because they come with 'crisps' and a proper pudding that probably isn't sugary but she thinks it is. It's expensive for what it is, but I can't be bothered. After that, we do half the week packed lunches from home and half school packed lunch. I do a mini pizza (cook in the am) with raw veg, fruit, cheese or yogurt and sometimes a biscuit or two, most of it stuff I can just put in the box without much chopping or prep.

Homemade sausage rolls - low fat puff pastry, low fat sausages, thumb-sized chunk each of carrot, apple, courgette. Cut the sausage skins off and put the meat in a bowl, grate in the apple/carrot/courgette and mix it all together. Unroll the pastry and cut it in half lengthways so you have two strips. Halve the meat and put a half onto the edge of each strip, shape it into a sausage shape then roll it up. Cut into pieces, score the top of each and bake for about 20-30 minutes. They keep all week in the fridge and school can't complain because they're low fat and contain vegetables.

I buy packs of vegetable sushi from Aldi. Pack of sushi, piece of fruit, that's lunch done.

Packs of ready-cooked chicken are good. Some chicken pieces, a mini-wrap, some slices of cucumber and tomato, little bit of grated cheese, and they can assemble it themselves at lunch time.

I've never done it but one of my friends has five DC and swears by it as a time saver - you can freeze sandwiches. She makes all of their sandwiches for the week on Sunday, wraps them in clingfilm, and freezes them then each morning just puts a frozen sandwich, some fruit, etc in their packed lunch box. The sandwich is defrosted and ready to eat by lunchtime.

Ugh I'm feeling exactly the same. I have gotten into a habit of baking and batch cooking on Mondays so I'm going to try and do the same for lunches too.

Some ideas that I'm going to try out:

Tortilla in frying pan, top with spring onion, ham and grated cheese, tortilla on top. Dry fry, cut into quarters.

Pinwheel thingies - puff pastry, top with pizza sauce, cheese, salami, basil, roll it up, slice into smaller rolls and bake. Freeze half.

Fruit salad - make a big one on Monday - pack into tubs for the next three days (for the last two they'll get whatever is at the bottom of the fridge).

Sweetcorn fritters - easy to cook and freeze, then add chicken pieces.

Cheese and courgette muffins. Bake and freeze until you need it.

All with crisps. It's all got to be with crisps though or it's not lunch apparently...

And by 'mini pizza', I mean it's made by Tesco and comes out of the freezer, 8 minutes in oven and done. I'm not making pizza at 7am on a Monday morning!

@DayBath I’ve never thought to keep cooked pizza that was previously frozen. I didn’t think you could!! Life changing!!

I do packups for 3 DC and DH. It is very monotonous. My least favourite bit is all the little plastic Tupperware pots that need washing after. I do the washing up and they always turn over in the dishwasher, never dry properly and are fiddly to put away.
I haven't really got any good tips, sorry. Once a week I do sausage rolls instead of sandwiches for ease.

Wraps or pitta with cheese/ham/tuna/turkey/chicken.

Pasta salad (make enough for 2 days) with cucumber, tomatoes, peppers or peas and sweetcorn with either tuna Mayo, ham and cheese, chicken and bacon.

Pitta cut into fingers with veg sticks, cheese cubes, dips.

Bagel with cream cheese and ham.

Sausage roll or cheese and bacon turnover (I make these and freeze them then cook the night before when I have the oven on).

Sometimes I just chop up a load of whatever I’ve got. Bread and butter, ham, boiled eggs, carrots, salad etc.

Last week DS had tomato and sausage pasta for dinner so made extra for his lunchbox, also do the same with salmon pasta.

I love making packed lunches oh and I always make the night before and serve with some fruit, a yoghurt, a mini pack of biscuits and something like rice cakes or tortilla chips (this feeds him for snack too).