Well, I think it's about time we had another packed lunches thread....

[Clary]

...I had to make them today because of the Unison strike and blimey! How do you lot get out of the house in the morning?
It took me an extra 15 mins and I so don't have 15 mins extra before going to work.
Plus I reckon that I spent more than £1 on each one (ham rolls, cherry toms, breadsticks, carrot, orange, grapes, apple juice carton and flapjack). And DS1 said there wasn't enough food.
Now I know why I do school dinners - or rather allow someone else to do them lo.
What's everyone else think?

We normally cook four portions of every dsh (we are only three) and froze the fourth one in halfs, after several days you have a menu to choose from .

I send DS to nursery with 2 portions of different foods, and a little dessert (cake or flap jack), the nursery complements this with fresh fruit.

my dh does them and they dont cost a pound. and if they did it would still be half the price they could buy sausage roll and other shite from teh school canteen.

have three kids so packed lunches necessary becuase i am skint.

8 slices of bread - £2.50 pw

waifer thin ham - £2.00 pw

apples - £ 1.00 pw

choc biccy - £1.25 pw

bag crisp £2.00 pw

water - £f*ck all from tap

total £8.75 for three children per week. thats £2.92 per child, per week.

thats £.59 per day. ( just under)

lets call it an even £9 - include marg and butty bags.

Ds has food allergies and find it easier to just pack his lunch always...
cucumber and tomato goes down well
carrot sticks
grapes and another piece of fruit
as with Chandra, we make extra tea and use a serve of shep pie, fish pie, casserole, meatloaf, etc each lunch
also has rice crackers or wafers with spread
felafel patties

Usually he will get through a serving of main and most if not all of the above. Not sure how much it actually costs us but generally it is stuff that we have anyway, we dont buy extra to cater for lunches as such.

raggedy anna, allergies must make a big difference. Impossible to do school dinners with a milk allergy or similar I guess.
Maybe I went for high-price options (cherry toms, grapes) but I would do if I did it every day too.
Must say I was shocked when in school for a week to see what some of the children (not children of MN-ers of course called lunch - a jam roll they didn't eat, a packet of quavers and a chocolate roll.

Well, I forgot to do ds's today and only rememberd as he was standing in the doorway with dh waiting to go. So, in 30 seconds flat I made a peanut butter sandwich and chucked it in a lunch box with
a satsuma
banana
2 yoghurts
a fruit smoothie

We try to do them the night before usually though!
Other things he sometimes has a cake/organic fruit bar/strawberries/grapes/apples.

We've become so poor (lol) that when I take my 2 year old and 6 month old out we have packed lunches now!! I just do the making extra portions thing, or I bake some bread for yummy home-made peanut butter sandwiches....

the last packed lunch we had (yesterday) was left over ratatouille with sweet potato, carrots, courgette and some salami from the European market (yum!!) and some home-made lumpy looking wholemeal rolls with peanut butter :)

my kids are going get the p*ss taken out of them for turning up at school with weird and wonderful foods... nevermind!

I hate making packed lunches, at one time 5 a day, but although the allergy factor is a big one, even if I could afford to pay for four childrens school dinners I Wouldnt buy them.
They are horrible cheap muck.

We have,
wholemeal bread, with fillings, ham/cheese/tuna/ salad etc
baby bel cheese
yogurt
fruit or dried fruit at end of week
older boys a senior school have a handful of pumpkin seeds.
They have a small sponge cake and one pack of crisps a week ( as they are junk food)

Break fast is a large meal , and packed meals are smaller.
I am very pleased that our school provides fruit for the key stage 2 children, and am happy to pay for it, the fruit is free for key stage 1

Main meals are all home cooked and cause a huge pile of washing up every day, but on friday, I let them have oven chips and pizza. Which is my idea of a break from cooking.

do you all use some kind of cool pack things to stop lunches from getting warm before they're eaten? if so, which ones?

What do you do to stop lunch boxes smelling? I seem to need to buy a new one each term because they always start to smell foul after a while (I always empty and wipe them out as soon as dd gets home).

No original ideas for contents by the way. Sorry!

Sandwiches - cooked meat, pate, humous, egg, tuna, peanut butter.
Crudites and dips - either humous or guacamole.
Yoghurts. Fruit set in jelly (rarely).
Cheese strips/baby bels.
Fruit.
Biscuit/flapjack.
Cherry tomatoes.
Crisps (no more than once per week).
Slice of quiche with salad.
Pasta salad.
Cheese and biscuits.

I put ds' soft padded insulated one in the dishwasher every few weeks - comes out lovely

actually williamsmummy in defence of school lunches, ours certainly aren't horrible cheap muck.
Typically DS1 will eat salad - cherry toms, cucumber, lettuce, kiwi fruit - plus maybe steamed fish, mashed potato and broccoli, followed by yogurt, bowl of fresh fruit, home-made biscuit or pudding such as apple sponge and custard, plus milk or water to drink.
I'm very happy with that. This is just an ordinary state infant school btw.
Not wanting to start a debate about the merits of cooked lunches, each to their own. Just interested as to how people dealt on a daily basis with the extra hassle!

\link{http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2004/sep/lunchbox2\mercy linked this one on another thread the other day}

DS is at secondary school and his school meals are realy good, plus as he is quite good about knowing whats healthy he picks sensibly - well thats what he tells me
Wraps are popuar there, also yesterday he had mashed potato, sausage and yorkshire pudding with vegs
Usually he'd buy a sandwich,
I could make them much cheaper and would be happy to do so BUT, you cannot take packed lunches into the canteen and he wants to lunch with his mates. His meals cost £1.80 per day which has gone up loads since they revamped with healthy menu last year.

did dd1s in about 2 mins this morning
marmite sandwich
chopped up cucumer and carrot
apple
frube
piece of my green and blacks butterscotc chocolate that she doesnt know about

I let dd have school lunches even though she has allergies for the first time this school year. It means her options are less than others but she still manages to eat.

Despite that, we're back to packed lunches next term. I agree Clary - it adds 15 mins to our morning schedule and I never seem to leave enough time for it!

DD1 (6) made her own, and her sisters while I fed the baby this morning(we overslept - I do usually do it for them)
Peanut butter/marmite sandwiches
Box of fruit juice
grapes
yogurt
Any more than that and they miss playtime as they stay in 'til they've finished.

Excuse me for being daft, but do you add something to the marmite sandwiches (apart of marmite?)?

Not willing to start a debate (I really don't know much about marmite other than its made out of yeast, its very salty therefore you need very little), but it seems somewhat less filling and nutritious than a toasty with beans easily found at most schools. Could you enlighten my self about it?, DS is, between many other things, allergic to beans (and toasties unless we bake our own bread) so... looking for other options.

chandra, marmite sandwiches would just be marmite, spread/butter and bread. Personally, mine wouldn't survive on that for lunch - but they are both big eaters and maybe children with tiny appetites will only eat so much.

I'm always surprised that people are allowed peanut butter at school. I think all the schools round here are supposed to be nut free.

That's what I thought, thank you.

My DD has marmite and pb in the same sandwich...tastes alot better than it sounds.

I do know its v salty, but is the only s/wich filling she likes. She does have a very large bowl of porridge before school, so doesn't need a massive lunch 3 hours later.

dd1 has wholemeal bread, butter and, er, marmite

not the most nutritious/filling lunch around but she only has a small appetite

peanut butter now frowned upon at school but she used to have the nice crunchy wholefoody sort on brown bread with lettuce.

toasties and beans not an option as its packed lunch or nothing

Chandra, marmite is a fantastic way of getting vit B12 so I make sure my children eat it almost every day (we are vegetarians). Yes, it is salty but one uses so little of it the good definitely outdoes any bad.

Marmite and cheese is nice too, and a bit more filling than marmite alone if you need that bit extra.