Anyone else totally burnt out on packed lunches?

[SouthernRev]

I’ve only just started term and I already can’t face doing another packed lunch. I try to make them healthy-ish but I’m bored of the same ideas and they often come back untouched. Anyone cracked this? Or is everyone secretly winging it?

I do the flask thing too and it's no bother. I often double up on dinners or make a pot of soup and then freeze a few portions in smaller tupperwares then do as @FancyBiscuitsLevel described with heating the flask in the morning. Grab something from the freezer, a few minutes in the microwave while we have breakfast and that's lunch sorted. I keep a selection of yoghurt, mini cheese and fruit to add. Padded out with anything from home made cheese scones also from the freezer to a packet of crisps or Jaffa cakes for variety. That all sounds like peak Mumsnet but it really is very easy.

He has borderline arfid. There isn't a hot food I could put in a flask he would eat.

He does like a jacket potato but only if it has lots of butter on it, and the school only have margarine. He won't eat cheese or any of the other toppings.

He will eat apple, but only if it's cut up. Or a peeled carrot, but he has to be encouraged while he's eating it. He won't even eat most junk foods. Most biscuits he wouldn't eat. He's not a fan of chocolate.

It's really really hard.

I made 3 ham and lettuce sandwiches on Monday night and that does ds1(14) for 3 days with a school meal on Friday. I very it to chicken or cheese or different bread but very samey. Takes a squeezy protein yoghurt as well. Mine are happy having the same thing and seem to think my made ahead sandwiches are fine.

I feel this. I have a son with ASD who isn’t keen on sandwiches or wraps which is tricky. He will have crackers with hummus, he also likes pizza pinwheels I make from puff pastry which I count as a ‘main item’ other than that it’s mainly UPF foods that he will eat 😭

Cold pizza? Crosta mollica are a good brand with no upf if that's a worry.
Soup in a thermos?
One of mine likes tuna pasta in thermos.
Sausage rolls? My husband makes them with shop bought pastry and mince meat and sage stuffing. All three of mine like them.
Scotch eggs?

We’re not allowed to admit that on mn though. If you started a thread saying that was what you packed for your child, we’d already be on page 26 of how your child should be removed by ss. Realistically mine get a ham sandwich, babybel, sausage roll, yogurt, crisps and an Apple or tangerine. Most get ate, maybe not the fruit. But at least they get fed. But it’s ‘processed shit’ and child abuse according to mn, but better than the pizza, chips and chocolate pudding they get from the school. And before the people bleating in that ‘BUT THE SCHOOLS MAKE THEM HEALTHY, ITS NOT EVEN CHOCOLATE IN THE PUDDING, ITS BEETROOT AND NO SUGAR’!! Sorry but dh worked for chartwells for many years, he made your child’s school dinners, and they’re full of crap 😂😂

Like this. The op naming normal foods that we all eat, but feeling like she has to name certain pizza brands without certain chemicals, or sausage rolls but clearly homemade with special pastry and herbs. I grew up on a jam sandwich, packet of quavers and a wagon wheel. Guess whose generation is healthier now?

As a full time working mum, school dinners are absolutely essential. I’d like to say if I was a SAHM this would be different. But it definitely wouldn’t. So regardless of your work circumstances, if you can afford it, pay for school dinners.

Mine have this one, which is more the proportions of a bowl when opened: https://amzn.eu/d/3dKWl9F . It’s not huge but holds more than enough for my 8 year old.

We are lucky in that school dinners are currently free up to year 6 and also they can choose on the day if they have packed lunch or school dinners. So mine usually choose 3 school lunches they want for that week and then I make 2 packed lunches with something from each of the following:

1. Wrap/sandwich/pittas.
2. Cucumber/carrots/peppers/tomatoes
3. Berries/tinned pineapple/frozen mango
4. Cake/biscuit
5. Cheese straw or biscuit/plain crisps/hard boiled egg/baby bel.

Oh please 🤣. Some people do care about the crap in their food. Me included.

You eat your quavers and scroll on past my post. I can choose to eat food without crap in them. my kids don't like sandwiches. They like pizza so I was pleased to find one that tastes lovely and has no added crap.

Special pastry?! Shop pastry. As in I'm not making my own! Because it's quick. And wow. A herb is controversial now??! 🤣🤣

You are lucky to have school dinners as an option. In Australia we just have a tuckshop when you can buy outrageously overpriced hot food. It cost me $20 sometimes for one child for morning tea and lunch.

thankfully now, when I want a break from packing lunches and they are abit older I just drop them to the supermarket and they can spend $10 there and then walk to school.

Flask with cheesy pasta or noddles..turkey wraps..berries
Pom bears. Small chocolate or cake.

What's a lunch pail? Is it a new thing?

We do the same and alternate packed lunches and school dinners but only because he has different friends he sits with on those days and was missing his school dinner buddy.
I did start off doing 5 packed lunches a week but it was killer and he started being fussy with them (put loads of effort in), now he's more interested.

I quite enjoy doing packed lunches, but it definitely helps that my kids aren't fussy eaters. Sometimes they get leftovers from dinner in some capacity (chicken sandwich from leftover roasted chicken, for instance). Other times I just make a big portion of roasted chicken breasts, chicken kebabs, pesto to toss leftover pasta in, etc.

I eat exactly the same lunch every day. Makes life easier! It's very healthy and tasty and tbh what more do you need, I also have exactly the same breakfast. Go mad and have a different supper though 😂

I actually enjoy making my son's packed lunch! I always add a surprise and he excitedly tells me what it was each day (he's only 4). It was some of his Easter chocolate today.

I'm sure it's nice but the thought of hot food, other than soup, in a flask, makes my stomach turn a bit. Sloppy wet pasta in a metal tube?! I know this is totally a me thing but I can't get past it!

But you said they don’t eat whatever the healthier option you put in is so is a school dinner better than them being underfed?

Definitely a better option. Either swap to hot dinners or make the packed lunches more tempting. It doesn’t have to be this hard.
i wouldn’t have eaten a very healthy lunch as a kid either

My DS has mostly school dinners but the ones I know he will not eat, I let him have a packed lunch. I say let him because his packed lunches are so bad🤦‍♀️he has a butter sandwich (he only likes that or Nutella but obviously can’t have Nutella), a choc chip cake, popcorn and some mini choc fingers. He will not eat yoghurts, fruit, cheese, raw veg. He eats a good amount of veg at home for tea so I don’t worry too much but I do wonder what the school think of his packed lunches😂

Oh I feel your pain. So glad it’s not just me. Boring thankless task.

i tell my two kids that they can have 2 packed lunches a week. However I also do a packed tea for them the one night a week that my mum picks them up and takes them to an activity, because they are back late and there isn’t time to cook. So 6 packed lunches a week. It’s coming up to summer aka picnic season too so I’ll soon be doing more for the weekends too. Kill me. I need to do 2 for tomorrow but it’ll have to wait till the morning now.

I’ve even bought an extra lunch box so I can do 2 at once if they have packed lunch 2 days in a row.

Why do you do it? I never ever found have sustained it personally. Is there a specific reason??

I hate making the lunch so much. I never used to eat my lunch at school, I used to get meatpaste sandwiches every day and it was made with no regard to whether I actually wanted to eat it or not. I usually had to make it myself as well.
As a result, I try and vary my child's lunch and make sure it is something they will like and eat. I feel like the little bit of effort shows I care. But I am so tired of doing it every day.