Lunch box ideas please :)

[NutritiousAndDelicious]

DS is going into yr1 in September, he had school dinners last year but has asked for packed lunches this year.

So I've brought a lunch box. He's not fussy with anything else but the only sandwiches he will eat are either ham or jam on milk roll so not really healthy!

So I was thinking...

Ham/jam sandwich
Cheese and cuecumber cubes
Pear
Raisins
Tube yogurt thingy
Homemade flapjack/cookie (nut free)
Carton of juice

School policy is to also take a bottle of water for in class/break time.

Does this sound ok? He has a big appetite?

Any more ideas?

That sounds fine to me. Does he like carrot sticks? Hummus?

The jam sandwich might not go down well, and you don't actually need sandwiches.

finger foods such as grapes, cherry tomatoes, cheese cubes.
Pancakes (people on here will think I have an obsession but they can be filled with sweet or savory, rolled up and cut into small pieces)

slice of Spanish omelet, quiche etc.

I only give mine a sandwich about once a week.

They have

Hot pasta in a thermos funtainer
Sushi
Cheese and biscuits
Bread sticks and hummus or chocolate phillidelphia
Cut up vegetables and prawns
Sausage rolls
Samosas
Dahl and roti
vegemite scrolls
Brioche

I realise that makes me sound nuts, but most of it is easier than messing about with sandwiches.

Might be worth just checking the school's policy on yoghurt tubes; ours doesn't allow them. Also if you ever don't get time to make flapjacks/cookies, Fabulous Bakin' Boys' stuff is all nut free; they do flapjacks and muffins of various different sizes/ flavours and they're a Godsend for DS as he's allergic to nuts.

Yogurt tubes (if allowed, DD's school has literally no policy on packed lunches, yay) freeze nicely, either staying as sort of lollies, or defrosting back not yogurt - either way, they stay fresher and help with the other stuff. At that age, I used to cut the tops off DD's and reseal with a klippit as they're a bugger for little hands to open.

She has a jam sandwich once a week maximum, and I always make sure the rest of the lunch is a bit healthier that day!

Non sandwich lunch, she has breadsticks, cheese, sausage, carrot and cucumber, and a sweet thing of some description. I like it too, no sandwiches, though on those days my ire is transferred to peeling carrots.

Could you try introducing wraps as an alternative? Or maybe make sandwiches but cut up into small cubes (& try different toppings) with other finger food?

I do chopped veg (cucumber, carrot, pepper, tomato, spring onion, radish) mix of chopped fruit (so a plum & a nectarine for example will do 2 children/meals), HM piece cake or biscuit. Sometimes we do crackers or cheese biscuits with ham (other meat) cut into squares/circles and the same with cheese to make a hm style lunchables. Mine like mini quiches, cold pizza (save a slice from prev nights tea or we make calzone style pizzas), cold pasta in sauce (again portion a bit off from prev nights tea). They also help make wraps, pitta breads, scones, breadsticks, rolls, cakes etc as they like to eat what they've made. We make cakes in square/rectangular tins - like a tray bake - as fit lunchboxes much better.

I try and vary what they have each day slightly so for example a pack of ham will last so many lunches between 3 (DH and 2 dc) but we might have sandwich one day, wrap the next etc..

Oh and tesco value yoghurt drinks have a re sealable screw top = no mess if top screwed back on or I add a bag and ask dc to put waste in the bag so to keep lunch box clean and prevent leaks...

I batch cook and freeze falafel, pies, muffins, leftovers, soups, pasta, curry, scotch eggs, sausages, salads, pizza, meatballs, potato bread, rosti, chicken legs, cheese.

Mostly after a slight panic I just raid the fridge every morning.

Wrap creamcheese & cucumber and cut into pinwheels, dead easy and kids love the bite size pieces.
Savoury muffins batch cook
Cocktail sausages, cheese cubes, veg sticks
Cheese & tomato toastie/panini
Tuna pasta

Rice balls with fillings such as pieces of baked salmon.

Home made mini pasties or sausage rolls for a change from sarnies. Buttered crackers and cheese, pittas with salad and fishfingers

Savoury cheese and veg muffins - homemade

Savoycabbage, what are those funtainers like? I was thinking it would be great to send dd to school in september with some warm food from home, do they work?

Ummm Sushi?? Lunch boxes are stacked and left in a classroom all day. Even with an ice pack in DD sometimes says the cheese in her sandwich has gone funny. I would not risk sushi (not have I met a child in RL that would eat it )

Wow thank you lots of ideas! now for me to be planned and organised.

Am amazed at people talking about fish fingers and rice balls with salmon. At worse it will go off by lunch and poison your child. At best, your child will be the one with the stinky lunchbox...

You could do nori wraps with cucumber and/or egg

Similar eaten in many bento boxes, Hayley. If they're prepared and kept properly is quite safe.

Peanut butter sandwich, crisps and a penguin with a flask of warm orange squash?

I was given that every day for most of my primary school days

Now here we all are fretting about wraps and veggie sticks for hummus...

Sushi?!?!

How to get your kid targeted in 1 easy step

Well I live in a Surrey village and have never seen/heard of a child with Sushi. My DD has taken in many types of boxes/freezer backs but in the recent hot weather many types of lunch just couldn't cope

Notnow - totally agree

SavoyCabbage thank you for the funtainer recommendation, just ordered one for my DD

Can I ask, does it keep the food boiling piping hot or does it cool to more of a young child friendly warmish temp over the morning? Just wondering if I need to allow pasta etc to cool a bit before putting it in the flask and then angsting about the food hygiene implications of that?!

notnowbernard I had that sort of packed lunch too as a kid but want to provide something a bit yummier for DD!

I have just made sushi for the first time this weekend.

My DC all love it, the ingredients are cheap as chips and it's really easy to make.

Yes they keep it hot hot.

My dc don't get picked on for eating sushi, but I don't live in the uk. Everyone eats it. toddlers, old men, people at work, school children...

When I do move back, I don't think they will stop eating it though. Fight the food racism I will cry.