The hot dinners vs packed lunches debate - any good books for inspiration?

[ginqueen]

DD and DS and just won a 6 week debate on whether they should have school dinners or packed lunches. Worn down by 6 weeks of 3 full-on kids and widdling puppy I have agreed to spend my evenings trying to get some inspiration for packed lunches and inevitably end up with the old marmite sandwiches again. (Can you hear the crack of tallow against my back?). Have any of you tried the dreaded Annabel Karmel's lunchbox book or any others for inspiration? I don't want to spend all evening roasting chicken drumsticks and chargrilling peppers for the little darlings to leave but feel I might win awards for the dullest lunchboxes in the class. Am so not Alpha Mum!

Ah ginqueen, but what I have found - DS is 5 - is that he secretly likes a dull lunchbox.

I get all hyper and say "Do you want quiche/a home made pie/pasta salad...?" and Ds will ask for a cheese and ham sandwich every time. If I say "There's a cheese and ham sandwich in your lunchbox" he is positively radiant with delight.

One thing that I have found helps is that we sit down and agree what DS likes in his lunchbox. We write that up and pin it on the pin board. I can then put anything at all from that list in his lunchbox and he cannot complain. And he's pretty good. Sometimes he says "maybe we should tak XX of the list for a while". But he never says Yuk and refuses to eat things.

i have a book called lunch boxes by jennifer joyce, quite good
www.laptoplunches.co.uk/Lunch_ideas.html
check out this page
also musnet have a whole page of ideas(whispers)

i mean netmums!!!

We have agreed a list of possible sandwiches, salad or cucumber or marmite. NO PROTEIN, apparently cheese goes all floppy, tuna is sooo last month, ham is dull, dull, dull.

Aspire to being tofu and falafal mum but to no avail!