lunch box ideas

[fedda]

Hi, I've read the ideas of the lunch boxes and I'd like some advice, please. How can I put cubes of cheese so it will keep fresh. It takes more then 3 hours before the kids unpack their lunch boxes (they go to the school at 8:40 and the lunch break is after 12).All the food we put in the lunch box gets cold and it's not fresh. Be it pasta or rice, salad or ham sandwiches. Bananas get black and apples turn brown even if you sprinkle them with some lemon juice.I'm one of the mums who has to use the lunch box as my child refuses to have his school dinners because his close friends have lunch boxes. Any advice for ideas of what to put in for a fussy eater and how to keep it fresh is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

get some of those little ice blocks maybe?

My DD loves greek salad so the juice from the toms makes it OK

If not try putting the cheese with fruit ... MELON, Pineapple ?

I used to put ice blocks in my son't lunch box but believe it not, kids used his and probably other lunch boxes for playing football and the ice blocks cracked and licked with some awful blue liquid. After several attempts to replace the ice blocks I gave up and I worry about the freshness of his food.

fedda - you can get soft ice packs. Also you could try freezing the carton of juice or water, which will act like an ice block

soft ice packs

cubes of cheese should be fine wrapped in cling film or foil

Thank you. I'll try freezing juice. in my experience cubes of cheese wrapped in foil on cling film get too soft and look off putting. Each time i took them for my smaller child in the playground got in a terrible state in 2 hours.

I shop online once a month and buy blocks of cheese freeze them. Defrosts just fine. You could alsso try cutting the cheese up into little cubes and freezing them - then you could pick out a few to add to the lunchbox each day. I also freeze the juice boxes. In fact I am a fan of freezing foods!

Thank you very much, dizzudo. do you or anyone else have any other suggestions for the food you could put in the lunch box. Did anyone try to freeze cooked pasta and put in in the lunch box. My son goes to the school where nuts and sesamy seeds are not allowed. he doesn't like veg. Apart from cooked carrots adn as for fruit, he only has apples and bananas. Should I freeze cubes of apples? I don't think it's good to freeze bananas but may be I'm wrong. He likes rice but I'm scared to put it in the lunch box because of what people say about rice. i really would like him to have healthy food and fresh food. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheese will be fine. It may not be chilled, but who cares?

Pasta salads are good. Wraps made of flour or corn tortillas and fillings. Roast Chicken legs won't go off in a morning.

I don;t think anything goes off in a morning. I make my kids lunches the night before and leave them in the fridge overnight.

At the risk of souding smug, my kids love salad made of half quinoa (boiled in stock) half puy lentils then whatever else you have around (tomatoes, cheese, nuts if allowed, olives, celery, onions chopped small enough to be invisible, etc). You can make a huge amount and spin it out.

Fedda, I wouldn't freeze plain pasta myself but I do boil up a large quantity, cook and drain it and then put it in a ziplock bag in the 'frig. My girls would rather eat pasta than a sandwich most days so I just ring the changes with what I put in. Some days I will mix it with pesto and cherry tomatoes, or mozerella (which I think is nicer slightly warm)cucumber and tomatoes, or another time, chopped chicken, french dressing, olives and sun dried tomatoes, or whatever's lurking in the frig. Errrm what else, another fave is potato salad (new pots mixed with mayo, gerkin and red onion and served with butchers sausages or chicken drumsticks. I'll have a think. Also fruit salads in one of those great clikit tuppaware boxes, again I think fruit is nicer slightly warm could mix it with yoghurt to stop the fruit looking brown. It's late, I'll have a think about it and see if there is anything else. Oh cous-cous is another one, make it up, store in frig and do the same kind of thing with that too.

and deffo dont freeze bananas, YUK.

Dissudo. I wish my son was eating any of the food you've mentioned apart from pasta. Today I've sent him with plain cous cous. i wish he'd eat it mixed with the veg. but he only eats it plain. i'm desparately searching for ideas but all the things book mention he wouldn't have.

I'm sure you can get little plastic cases' for bananas from ebay and other type places - maybe lakeland... they look a bit like something you would buy in ann sunmmers but they protect the banana from getting bashed and also have little holes in to allow it to breathe?

Thank you very much, i'll try the suggestions and let you know how it all went? Does anyone know if it's safe to put in a plastic container or a cling film a cold ready to eat sausage roll?

Lakeland also do little round biscuit boxes here
Great for putting little stuff in like cheese cubes, carrot sticks, olives etc !

geordie, I have one of those banana case know what you mean about the ann summers look IMO they are useless, the bananana still tends to go black which is what puts my DDs off even if it is ok inside.

Okay, so where do we go from there? Any more suggestions, please?