Vegetarian packed lunch ideas for schools

[treeeeemendous]

Just thinking about the probability of dc needing packed lunches when schools return. DS is fine

Need vegetarian ideas for dd with limited dairy and no nuts (school rule). Too much dairy/rich food tends to make her feel ill, so quiche is out, although some cheeses she can tolerate more than others. Apparently a flask of any sort would be embarrassing

Cous cous salad
Pasta salad
houmous and veg sticks and strips of pitta
Veggie picnic eggs (quorn brand I think)
Falafel wraps or on their own with veg sticks and a dip of your choosing.

Homus bread sticks & veggies?
Rye bread, butter and an egg with carrots / tomatoes?
Tabuleh / couscous?
...
These are my own lunch joys, they are filling but don't give you that "stuffed" feeling.

Spinach and red pepper muffins - although they usually have cheese in

If flasks are uncool (who knew?!) then does it have to be sandwiches? I was going to say cous cous with roasted veg but not sure it would be nice at room temp (either kept hot or cold is nice though). Or polenta cooked, cooled in a tin then cut into strips and fried. I'd usually do a warm tomato sauce with that though (and put Parmesan through the polenta but you can leave that out/use different cheese). Hummus with veg sticks and pita strips? Lentil salad? Most things are going to want to be kept hot or cold though, is a fancy Chilly food flask fashionable?!

I made nice carrot and courgette muffins recently but they had egg and sour cream in, might be a vegan version if you google. They are good because you can make 12 or 24 in a batch and freeze them.

Homemade veggie burgers
Mushroom rolls in puff pastry
Falafel and salad in pitta bread

When mine took packed lunches I made ‘pasties’ with left over veg casserole in toasted sandwiches! Eventually they asked for jam, peanut butter and chocolate spread so they could swap with their friends!

Frittata muffins (less dairy than quiche)
Sesame snaps www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/Product/sesame-snaps-x4-pack
Boiled eggs
Lentil rice cakes www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/kallo-protein-packed-lentil-cakes-100g either on their own or spread with dairy free cream cheese
Cubes of vegan cheese
Slices of vegan pizza
Quorn cocktail sausages
Linda McCartney sausage rolls

Mine usually have cold pasta, a wrap with salad, cheese and quorn chicken bits, quorn ham salad sandwiches, marmite sandwiches, sometimes they take the sausage rolls but not often. Cut up sausages, quorn egg balls that sort of thing.

My 3 DC are vegetarian & don't take flasks.

They have things like:

Crackers with cheese or marmite.
Sandwiches with egg mayo, marmite, cheese, quorn fillet sliced with salad.
Cold sausage rolls (tesco mini plant based range are lovely hot or cold)
Cold pizza
Brioche rolls
Flapjacks
Cubes of cheese
Hard boiled egg
Carrot/cucumber sticks
Melon slices
Greek yogurt with blueberries & honey
Frubes
Crisps
Couple of oreos

Tabouleh
Falafel, hummus and salad wraps
Pasta salad

When it’s colder I would make some rice and something like veggie meatballs (quorn meatballs are coming back) or a mild curry/chilli and pop it into a wide necked thermos. I try (when I was in the office anyway) to make a little extra dinner and heat it up the next morning and use my thermos. That and soup (lentil is my favourite) and sandwich/oatcakes and cheese. The thermos does keep it nice and hot - I even burned my tongue on some tomato soup! Wraps can be nice (not a big fan unless it’s got loads of black beans and tomatoes in it).

Chipped up fruit salad or bowl of berries.

Sorry - saw the flask is embarrassing but can you see if you can find one she would like? Not sure of her age but a cartoon character of colour/pattern?

Can she tolerate soft goats cheese? I find that people who can’t manage ‘normal’ cheese get on ok with this.

Mini pitas with falafel, humous and salad
mini humous pots with veggie sticks to dip in and bread roll on the side

Thermos flask with pasta pomodoro in and a tiny pot of grated cheddar for her to add as much as she wants.

Thermos of soup with crusty bread roll

Vegetarian rice in a thermos with a bean sauce

Veggie sausage pasta salad with sweet corn, peppers, onions, thinly sliced cumberland sausage.

@SerenityNowwwww she is 15 hence the flask being embarrassing! However once it's winter she may change her mind.

Will show her all these suggestions as she will be making most of the lunches herself I hope. But it's nice to have ideas of things we wouldn't think of.

I will try her with goats cheese again, I'm not sure it's one she's eaten much of. It all seems a bit hit and miss. When she was a baby she was lactose intolerant but has never been keen on much dairy anyway. She literally stopped drinking milk and soon as she started eating food,

Cheddar and mozzarella seem to be the cheeses that affects her most. We've been trying again in small amounts over the summer. She had a babybel today which hasn't affected her at all. Halloumi is fine in small amounts. Cream cheese is also ok. She uses the violife cheese on top of pasta but it's rubbish at melting.

I think a soft goat might be ok - we had a problem with cheese here and stomach issues and soft goat (the spreadable type) is fine.

You can get lots of trendy office worker type flasks these days - like all those fancy metal water bottles. I’m sure she can find something she likes (and get something hot to eat at lunchtime on a cold day)

Banana and honey on granary bread is been nice.