to ask you your "perfect" kids lunchbox food?

[WittiestUsernameEver]

Lots of conversations and discussions about lunchboxes etc, comments about UPF, too much sugar, too many carbs etc.

If you packed a "perfect" lunchbox for a 4 year old - what would you pack? (cold/ambient food)

DD4.5 lunchbox today was:

• Wholemeal roll - unsalted butter, leftover roast chicken, 2-3 spinach leaves
• 1 x slice of mature cheddar cheese - probably about 20g
• 1 x satsuma
• 1" cucumber
• 4 halved cherry plum tomatoes
• 4 sugar snap peas
• Bottle of water

I think that's a good balanced box?

What would you pack?

Not for the op btw but considering i work with children that don’t get fed half the time maybe all food is good tbh. UPF is still better than non at all. It’s all about balance . A little UPF within a balanced diet is ok shop bought bread is not poison ffs.

On some days DD just won't eat anything other than one slice of buttered bread.
She's so picky, nothing can be too cheesy, it's too greasy mum! Or too saucy, too much salad, too crumbly, too soft!
If she eats half a mini wrap filled with a tiny chicken strip and some lettuce that's a win from me. She's 8, we tried school dinners, the pizza was just greasy, the cheese whirl too cheesy, the casserole was flavourless! It's endless the faults she'll find so we switched back to pack lunches with some sliced up fruit.

Oh yeah shop bought bread is fine in occasion but not recommended regularly

Ah fuck my kids are doomed then, sandwiches here are made with Warburtons finest or they simply won’t eat them. Fed is better than not fed.

Oh dear...

We actually do have bees and chickens so do both of these things, although not every morning before school...

😄

Dairylea spread on thin sliced white bread cut into swanky triangles.

Orange Time plastic cup drink with a killer straw.

Mint Viscount biscuit (melted into the shiny wrapper).

Oh no wait - that was me… how am I even still here…

My ds's would lie down dead with hunger by pick up time if I sent that. I send something like:

1 x sandwich/wrap with meat/cheese and salad filling
1 x packet mini breadsticks, hummus and veggie sticks
1 x natural Greek yoghurt with honey
2 x piece of fruit/large fruit salad
1 x flapjack/cake/biscuit
1 x carton of juice or smoothie

Sometimes I put in a piece of cold pizza or mini sausages or something proteiny if they're in a growth spurt. Both boys extremely active and slim to the point of bony.

They would genuinely starve if I sent less 😂

I was just thinking this as I read through. In the 90's I got a wafer thin ham sandwich on white bread and a packet of iced gems or a penguin chocolate bar and that was it. Sometimes crisps too!

Lol at this stealth boast about a healthy lunch 😁

I don't think there's enough fat/energy in there tbh.

Really? There's fat from the butter and the cheese? Do you think it needs more? I might put some yoghurt in then??

She does also gets fat from her other meals full fat milk/yoghurts/fish etc.

Sometimes she puts 4 in! (She makes her roll/sandwich/wrap for her packed lunch whilst I do the other bits)

They greedy cow. 4 entire leaves, I'll ration her ;)

I was also quite happy with a cheese sandwich, a Trio bar and a packet of KP Wickers crisps.

It's a brilliant lunch OP! Ignore the people telling you to add crisps, squash, sugary yogurts, sweet stuff etc - no one needs that crap.

I wish my mum had given me lovely stuff like that! I used to get two slices of wholemeal bread made in to a sandwich with cheese (usually) and a piece of fruit. This was the 70s though but I have never had a sweet tooth and I think it might be because of this.

Balance is to do with nutritional balance surely? Crisps and chocolate are not healthy or nutritional for anyone.

My kids school doesn't allow any crisps, cereal bars, chocolate or anything. They have
Ham/cheese sandwich or roll
Yoghurt pouch
Sugar free jelly
Banana
Apple slices or grapes
Cheese stick (for my eldest)
Raisins
Water

@Itneverrainsinsocal . I have the answer, add cream cheese to the jam sandwich, it’s absoutely delicious and tastes better on brown bread. ( Do a blind taste test )We called them strawberry cheesecake sandwiches, and eventually swapped the jam for sliced fruit. She eats really well now shes 20.

ham/chicken/jam sandwich on wholemeal bread or pitta, cheese string or mini pepperami, yoghurt, fruit or carrots/cucumber and a bag of mini cookies or piece of malt loaf.

If I packed your 'perfect' lunchbox, OP, my DS wouldn't eat a bite of it and it would be fed to the compost heap.

Here, we go for 'good enough' and eaten.

At the moment, that means jam pennies on half and half bread, some cheddar slices, some carrot sticks, an apple and some popcorn. Not the best, but better in my DS's tummy than in the food waste bin.

Oh @TiredHippo , must you be so lax? I start the week before with sourdough crackers made from an ancient Egyptian recipe involving bee sputum and a leek. These are embellished with beetroot slices, herring roe and the face of Morton Harket. I will also include 7 roasted chickpeas and an elk. By the big day itself my home grown globe artichokes will be ready and I send these but only with pieces from the southern hemisphere of the artichoke to address the shameful underrepresention of the global south.

I assume all the people who have posted about the homemade bread only, and no sweets or treats all follow these rules themselves?

Last time I did a packed lunch it was...
ham sandwich
Cucumber batons
Grapes
Frube
Cheese string
Peppers I
Choc chip mini muffin

My dc have allergies but not to nuts but because nuts are banned they can't have anything in their lunchbox apart from fruit and a bit of dust.

Is your lunch box even healthy if you haven’t stealth bragged about it on mumsnet ?

DD(10) usually has:

A wholemeal sandwich - cream cheese/ham/cheese/chicken
Or sometimes she has some cold pesto pasta

Pot of veg - cucumber, peppers, sugar snap peas

Pot of fruit

Sometimes a few mini breadsticks, Ritz crackers etc but not always

A treat like a flapjack, 2 Oreos, Krispie bar

oh god, it gets worse. OP's child aged 4 makes her own packed lunch...

😁